From Offline to Online, The New Customer Experience with Bodypack Vending Machine
The word ‘shopping’ gets people excited every time it is being mentioned. From the simplest, going to the warung or minimart for a light snack, to going to the shopping centres to browse for new clothes––shopping cannot be separated from our daily life. With the advancing technology, online shopping then also becomes a habit to support busy lifestyles or to reach more customers who are short on access to the malls. Offline and online shopping can sometimes complement each other, which makes things even easier. O2O or Online to Offline indicates a way to connect the physical and online world, which mostly works for ecommerce and retail. This system prompts the customer to order online, then to pick up the product at the selected store of their choice. We all agree that this is the term of omnichannel marketing. But here’s an idea, what if we reverse the O2O system? Instead of from online to offline, we do offline to online? Well, it may sound absurd at first, but if you are keen to know more about this, keep the information unfold as you scroll down and read this article.
Advancing with O2O and omnichannel marketing
This O2O system is a new retail concept in the business model. In the retail ecosystem, consumers can now browse products online before making the final purchase in offline stores. Omnichannel marketing is largely mentioned in our previous posts, you can also read more on them on our blog. To make it simple, an omnichannel is a shopping experience that combines shopping experiences on all devices and channels. Customers can read reviews while browsing for products they have been eyeing on. The O2O and omnichannel marketing leads to customer satisfaction thanks to a better shopping experience, and it is useful when the price is not the only variable of choice.
According to Kognifi, there are several benefits from this marketing scheme, such as:
Better prices than a direct purchase just like any online purchase.
Access to more information about products and the company.
Shorter time spent.
Availability of collection.
Impact of O2O and omnichannel marketing on online and offline business
Integrating these marketing schemes can have impacts that you can get as business owners. Some of the impacts are:
Helps build a reputable brand. With O2O marketing you can have continuous visibility and storytelling that can establish a connectivity between the audience and your business, which boost the trust and reputation of your brand.
Retains customers. The objective is customer satisfaction by catering to their needs, so they can return to your brand later.
More information and communication. Who doesn’t like better information on product stocks and a fast response two-way communication, right?
Reduce costs in the rental of physical stores. While it is not necessary, busy shopping streets and malls will attract more customers. But we have a way for this, so you have to keep reading.
Also, this type of marketing puts the customer as the centre of their strategy, which leads us to customer experience in business.
Customer experience in business
Today, customers hold the power, not the sellers. With a lot of choices out there, either from window shopping from offline stores, to endless information on the internet; customers can choose and make purchases on their own. We all have those times when we want to buy something, we look for information online, comparing prices between stores, and even go as far as going to the offline store to know how it looks and feels in real life (deep down we’re just mums finding the best price, aren’t we?). This is why a great experience provided by the business owners can be the start for these customers to repurchase which also increases the brand awareness. Also known as CX, customer experience is the result of every interaction a customer has with your business. Starting from navigating from the social media or website to talking to customer service and receiving the products they brought.
Before getting to the good example of customer experience, we will tell you what is the example of bad customer experience. Take an example of a membership point system at a beauty store. By adding points as they shop will surely be a nice experience, with several rewards that can be redeemed with the said points. Girl A made a purchase and she should receive around 2000 points. The clerk mentioned that it may take up to three days for the points to be updated. But after two weeks, no points are updated. Here’s where it gets exciting. Girl A went back to the store to ask why this happened. The store only advised her to send an email, which is something that Girl A definitely can do while at home. It surely is not just about the membership points by now, it is that Girl A can just choose not to shop there ever again with the bad experience she received.
So the better experience customers have, the more repeat custom and positive reviews you'll receive, while simultaneously reducing the friction of customer complaints and returns. A good customer experience is indeed important. According to Esteban Kolsky from thinkJar Research, 55% of consumers will pay more for a guaranteed good experience. On a side note, Girl A is based on a real event (just kidding, but are we, though?).
One of the impacts of O2O marketing is that it reduces the rental cost of physical stores. What’s the smallest offline presence you can get without a store? A vending machine.
Bodypack lifestyle
We will take a lifestyle brand as an example for this. Bodypack, a local brand from Bandung, is mostly known for their reliable backpacks that has been around since 1996. These days, to keep up with the latest trends, not only backpacks, they also sell products like hats, laptop cases, wallets, t-shirts and jackets. So it definitely can be put under the lifestyle brand with these products. Knowing that most people prefer to shop online, they open a Go-store that is accessible within an app. It is more efficient and customers can just shop without going out. The only downside is they cannot see the product’s dimensions or the size or even how the fabric feels like.
Some customers still want to visit the offline store prior to buying online. Bodypack saw this as an opportunity to make the best customer experience with a vending machine with Smartven. In 2021, they launched their first vending machine for smaller items, complete with the 22 inches LED touchscreen and cashless payment option. By placing the machine inside Bandung Indah Plaza, a shopping mall in Bandung, customers can get easy access to Bodypack products.
Remember the O2O strategy? Instead of online to offline, Bodypack adopted the offline to online method. The Go-store that has been around is integrated with the vending machine. It is useful for bigger products that don’t fit inside the vending machine, like backpacks and jackets. Here’s how it works. Customers can go to the vending machine to browse products from the Go-store catalogue. The product they choose will show a QR code, if scanned via smartphones can directly link to the Go-store. From there, they can finalise their purchase and fill in the shipping information. Depending on the delivery days, they will get their products right at their address. This will benefit the customers during their trips to Bandung but they don't want to pack a lot of stuff into their luggages, so they have the product delivered to their home address directly. It also will come in handy for people who already know what they want to buy, but it is out of stock in the offline store.
Get integrated
Integration of an online store and a physical store is the first step towards O2O and omnichannel marketing to achieve the technological unification of the different sales channels. If you are interested in following what Bodypack has done with their O2O system, or if you have any ideas with vending machines, you can click the button below to schedule your consultation with the Smartven team. You can also check our website and Instagram page for more information on Smartven. Stay healthy and see you soon!
