It’s time for retailers to start preparing for the holiday season, and this year, the work should really pay off. Indeed, eMarketer projects that physical retailers will walk away with 80.2% of total sales (approximately $1.086 trillion).
How can you capitalize on in-store visits? eMarketer’s Sky Canaves stresses that “this highlights just how important it is for retailers to prioritize the in-store experience, customer service and differentiating what they can offer seasonally.”
Walkbase’s advanced sensor technology empowers you to provide a differentiated customer experience around each of these three areas. Let’s explore how we can help you achieve these three strategic goals this holiday season.
Maximize In-Store Retail Media With Personalized Ads
Promotions, deals and lower-cost items are always important during the holiday season, but analyst Zak Stambor (eMarketer, “3 holiday shopping trends”) thinks the shorter time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year will cause even more pressure on discounted purchases. The challenge is making sure that the right customer sees the right ad impression at the right time.
Leverage Walkbase’s real-time in-store behavioral data to optimize retail media and deliver hyper-relevant advertising to achieve:
– Real-Time Personalization: Walkbase tracks shopper behavior in real time, allowing you to deliver targeted ads based on individual preferences and past purchase history. Knowing which aisles customers have visited and which products they focus on helps you serve relevant ads that resonate and inspire action.
– Valuable Metrics: Track ad impressions and video plays across every screen in your store to demonstrate clear value to advertisers. The trove of retail analytics data collected will allow you to charge higher CPM rates, maximizing your revenue potential.
– Engagement That Converts: With personalized, behavior-driven ads, you can engage customers at the perfect moment, guiding them toward purchases and strengthening their loyalty to your brand.
Prepping your store with Walkbase’s sensor technology allows you to offer tailored deals while capturing valuable in-store behavioral data.
Optimize Staffing Levels
Effective staffing is crucial to delivering great service, especially during peak holiday shopping hours. With real-time insights, you’ll know precisely when to increase staff on the sales floor or at checkout, ensuring customers receive prompt assistance during busy periods. This allows for better service during peak hours, reducing wait times and improving overall satisfaction.
Walkbase Occupancy reports the number of people in your store with 99% accuracy, allowing you to adjust staffing levels based on real-time data. Walkbase’s heat maps also provide a visual representation of the busiest areas in your store throughout the day.
These insights enable you to strategically allocate employees, opening additional checkout areas or moving them from less crowded sections to high-traffic zones where they’re needed most.
By optimizing both service and efficiency, Walkbase helps ensure that the right staff are in the right places at the right times. This leads to faster checkouts, happier customers and ultimately, increased sales. Walkbase’s retail analytics makes it easier to streamline these processes.
Make Better Use of High-Value End Caps and Displays
Are your best products placed where they’ll have the most impact? Walkbase helps you determine the most effective locations for your high-value displays and end caps with actionable retail analytics.
– Data-Driven Valuation of Ad Space: Walkbase tracks the movement of shopping carts and baskets, offering insight into the flow of traffic through your store. Combine this data with point-of-sale transactions to understand which displays drive sales and which need adjustment.
– Maximize High-Traffic Areas: Place high-margin or seasonal products in the most frequently visited areas to capture more sales. Walkbase helps you make data-driven decisions to ensure your most valuable real estate is working to its full potential.
– Enhance Product Discovery: Make it easier for customers to find the products they’re looking for by placing them in the right locations. With Walkbase’s advanced sensor technology, your displays will be optimized for both visibility and sales conversion.
Walkbase ensures your store layout is designed for maximum impact, guiding customers to key products in less time. This improves their customer experience and increases conversions.
Connecting the Customer Journey From Online to In-Store
Today’s customers expect a seamless experience across online and offline channels, and Walkbase bridges that gap by combining in-store behavioral data with online insights for a full view of customer behavior.
Walkbase provides a unified customer journey by linking online browsing with in-store activities. For instance, a customer clicks on an online ad for a television and then shows up in your store. Our sensor technology can show whether they visited the TV aisle, along with other pathing and engagement details. We can then link this data to purchases (if they buy). Or, if they don’t buy, we can help you use that intent data to follow up with additional personalization and promotions.
By connecting online and offline interactions, Walkbase sets the foundation for you to become a customer-centric retailer and offer a differentiated customer experience. That foundation will help capture the tremendous potential of this coming holiday season, while supporting consistent growth in 2025.
About the Author
Ben Reynolds leads the Walkbase business, an analytics and AI platform, for STRATACACHE. He is a proven marketing and technology executive having previously held executive positions at Sara Lee, PRN (largest in-store media provider), Hooklogic (first sponsored ads outside of Amazon, now part of Criteo), and Maxpoint (digital marketer leveraging a proprietary identity graph now part of Vericast).
