Most retail marketing executives seem to know the secrets of the retail business. But brick-and-mortar retailers are increasingly handicapped by the one-click convenience, price transparency, and endless service offered by Amazon and similar online retailers. But the future is not entirely hopeless. Brick-and-mortar retailers like Sephora , Zara and Nike are bucking this trend. So are top e-commerce stores like apparel brands Bonobos and Everlane , and eyewear brand Warby Parker .
These brands are relentlessly prioritizing customer insights and investing in technology to deliver a seamless customer experience Industry Email List across channels (from offline to online). Ahead of the retail industry's busiest season of the year, a study by customer analytics firm Custora has revealed some surprising insights into the factors driving retail growth. The survey was conducted among more than 40 retailers of its clients to see which criteria correlated most with clear year-over-year revenue growth. “New Customer Acquisition” and “Average Order Frequency”Clearly, high-growth brands are investing heavily in “acquisition of new customers.”
This is a surefire way to increase revenue. However, it can also be said that it is actually relatively inefficient. In fact, a 1% increase in the number of new customers acquired would have a 3x greater impact on growth if the same 1% increase in order frequency did. Also, increasing the "order frequency" is overwhelmingly cheaper in terms of cost. So if the average customer makes a purchase once every 180 days, shortening that period to 178 days would increase sales by almost 3%. This is a pretty cool find, and savvy retailers are already taking notice. They are further investing in strategies such as welcome series, hybrid subscription models and channel-to-device personalization to increase brand engagement and product discovery. All of these are for shortening the interval time between purchases.