By Eric Nykamp CEO of Raange, Inc., Guest Columnist

Let’s Talk! Email Me @: Contact_Me@raange.com; Text Me @: (514) 613-3324 with Keyword ‘BOOST’

Sometimes I wonder if retailers truly care about sales.

I see resources and creative energy focused on testing and optimizing online channels with personalized experiences, digital loyalty programs, and predictive algorithms.

Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar suffers from the effects of marketing malaise. Meetings act out like scenes in Groundhog Day, as the same ideas become recycled meeting after meeting after meeting, until you want to scream.

It is painfully obvious. Retailers are using in-store campaigns from the 80s: scratch and win, flash sales, the list goes on and on.

No wonder the Canadian retail sector is five years behind and losing to our counterparts in the U.S. We preach innovation, but are terrible at executing it across all channels - online AND offline.

Here’s a statistic for you:

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report found that US E-commerce sales accounted for 8.5% of total Retail sales in Q1 2017. More than 90% of people still conduct their retail shopping in-store!

Of course, online is a huge channel with projected annualized growth rates of 14.5% year over year.

The future of retail will be a convergence of channels both online and offline. I’ve seen retailers try to bridge this gap, but retailers have a tendency to follow the hype like (expensive) iPad stations, social media walls, and an app for everything. It may look great, but what’s your ROI?

Sales should be #1. Everyone in the company is measured against it, so why aren’t your marketing and technology service providers?

Demand a sales BOOST from your vendors.

At my company, Raange, we look at in-store traffic similarly to your online traffic. You have thousands of people that walk in or past your storefront everyday; focus on creating a frictionless process to better convert this traffic and optimize this sales channel - incentivize the sale.

We found that creating mobile access points coordinated with instant incentives can create awesome results! - Our clients have seen double-digit sales increases.

Listening to all the new hype is fine, but hype is only words without proof. As my grandfather would say, “talk is cheap; money buys the beer!”

Eric Nykamp is CEO of Raange, Inc., Founder at Mamoth-Group, TAARGA, RAANGE and Mamoth-Labs! Internet Strategist, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Investor, Husband, Father, Insomniac.

My goal is to elevate traditional brick & mortar retailers to quickly and easily transition to the latest marketing concepts and communication channels, so as to rebuild trusted dialogue with past, present, and future customers.

More ideas & rants found here: Retail Innovation News

Email Me at: Contact_Me@raange.com

Text Me at: (514) 613-3324 with Keyword ‘BOOST’