As a car enthusiast who enjoys everything car related and lives in Chicago, spring time is always one of my favorite seasons. Over the last couple of weekends it has finally been warm enough for me to get out and do a thorough spring cleaning of our family cars. In preparation for this, I knew I had to pick up some supplies, so I visited a couple sites online to see what was new for the season, plus read some user feedback to determine which brands would work best for the vehicles we have. After seeing all the great products available, I had the sudden urge to get started, so instead of waiting the 1-2 weeks for delivery, I decided to stop by my local auto supply store to pick up the necessities.
Once in the store, I couldn’t help but marvel and admire at how in-store and online experiences have merged over the last decade. Once in the store, I was greeted by a cheerful sales person asking how they could help me. Just as I would navigate on a website, I was able to tell the sales clerk that I needed soap, wax and tire cleaner and they brought me to each respected aisle where I was presented with maybe eight or ten different brands of each. After picking up the soap and on my way to the wax, I walked by the soft-cloth washing mitts and realized my one from last season was probably in a frozen ball in my garage, so I picked one up and moved on. Before I even reached the wax aisle, I realized that through the power of merchandising, I wouldn’t need to make a second trip. I realize most websites do utilize some form of merchandising, whether it is complementary products or similar products, but some still do not. The ones that we talk to that don’t offer it usually say that it’s either too hard to set up or too intrusive to the shopper. To the first part, I would respond, it’s no harder then physically putting the appropriate items on a shelf just like a brick and mortar store, period. To the second part, look no further than my new soft-cloth washing mitt, not only was I glad that I noticed it, but I was even thankful that the store and put it there for me to purchase!
Now on to the wax, I thought. Walking down the aisle and seeing the eleven different brands it became clear that I should have done more research before I came in. There were different brands, different compositions for different car paints, and different application methods. Realizing I was over my head, I quickly pulled aside the friendly clerk from earlier. He asked me what kind of cars I was looking to wax and the color of each. Once he had this information he was able to direct me to a specific canister and followed it up with a testimonial of a recent customer that had purchased it, used it on the same car and loved the result. Sold, I said!
When I had finished cleaning and waxing the cars, I decided the next thing I had to do was log on to the site’s I had previously been viewing and add some customer feedback of my own, knowing now how much they can help. I shared as much as I could, knowing that someone else was probably going through the same experience I had a few hours earlier.
Having been in the technology sector for the past decade and a half the blurring of the in-store vs. online experiences has been very exciting. When eCommerce first started, it was very elementary and the products being sold were very standard, but through time and technology, I can have exactly the same experience from the comfort of my home as I would if I physically walked through those automatically opening doors.
