Assignment: Discovery
Multichannel Marketing is the wave of the future in business. Many retailers have turned to a multichannel model whereby they utilize more than one channel to promote their products, but more importantly, multiple channels customers can utilize to get product information and conduct transactions.
Select two multichannel merchants that interest you (see list of examples at the bottom of page 2) and mystery shop each merchant through their various channels to find answers to the following questions.
Q1. Describe any evidence can you find of the merchant’s other channels on:
• Catalogs
• Mailings
• Retail Store
• Print Ads
• Broadcast Ads
• Email Ads
• Other
Q2. Does the merchant facilitate cross-channel shopping – catalog shop on the website, website shop in the retail store, etc.?
Q3. Describe any type of codes or numbers that the merchant is using and/or prompting you to provide during shopping or checkout. How are those codes supporting cross-channel operations and tracking?
Q4. Does the merchant allow cross-channel shipping and/or returns?
Q5. Does the merchant encourage you to register or establish an account? What does having an account do for you and how is the account tracked and utilized in the various channels?
Q6. Can you request a catalog online? At the retail store? Over the phone? Through the mail?
Q7. Does the website provide any special tools such as registries, wish lists, shopping lists, real-time inventory checks, live chats, etc. that provide cross-channel support?
Q8. Did you observe anything else that you found interesting?
Once you have responded to the above questions, compare and contrast the two merchants.
• How are they similar?
• Which do you think has more effective tools and processes in place to enable cross-channel shopping and customer service?
• Which do you think has more effective tools and processes in place to enable cross-channel tracking and measurement?
• List the top 5 recommendations you have for each of them in terms of specific things they could do to improve both cross-channel shopping/service and tracking/measurement.
Examples of Multichannel Merchants:
- Coldwater Creek
- JCPenney
- Bose
- Omaha Steaks
- Office Depot
- Gap
- Eddie Bauer
- Pottery Barn
- Pottery Barn Kids
- Willams Sonoma
- Crate and Barrel
- Brookstone
- Sharper Image
- Ulta
- Best Buy
- Sam’s Club
- Target
- Coach
- Tiffany
- Harry & David
- Current
- PetSmart
- Oriental Trading Company
- Barnes & Noble