"There was a time when traditional retail
was all about stocking products customers might have wanted, letting everybody
know through oldschool massmarket advertising what was in store, and when
prospective customers visited, making it as easy as possible for them to buy” (Sosa, 2015).
Today,
more and more people use online shopping to get their shopping done. Due to
technology and globalization, we get access to most stores online. There is no
need to go to the shops anymore and look for new clothes.
Consumers go online with their smartphones, tablets or computers and start browsing
through lots of websites/online stores until they find what they were looking
for and get it delivered to their homes. However, that describes only the
process of searching for products/services and buying it, but the customers
stay online even after purchasing the desired goods.
Since the internet and being connected is so easy and convenient, a lot of customers use the internet to evaluate their purchase decision, for example on social
media channels. A lot of people tend to upload photos and videos of their
purchases and describe their shopping experiences (Zhang et al., 2017, p.25).
Hence, online reviews have a huge impact on our purchasing decisions (Sosa,
2015).
However,
the technological development did not only bring up the chance for online
shopping, but also the opportunity to stay in contact with our friends and
family although they are not in the shop with us. Especially smartphones allow
us to send pictures and videos whenever we want. Consequently, when a customer
goes to a fashion retailer without their friends, they will try clothes on and
takes pictures of it to send it to a friend to ask for opinions.
That
leads us to a ‘connected consumer’ – even though the customer comes to the shop by
himself/herself, they will not decide without the opinion of
friends/family or without checking the product online for a better price (Sosa,
2015).
How
about you though? Have you done it like this, send pictures to a friend first
before you bought the new dress/ jumper or checked the product online for a
better price? To be honest, I do it quite often, especially when I'm not 100%
convinced by the product or when it comes to technology. But isn’t that crazy?
Are we not able to make our own decisions anymore because of technology?
Stay tuned!
Reference
List:
Roques,
G. (2017): What does having 'connected customers' really mean for business?.
Availabe at:
https://www.mycustomer.com/service/channels/what-does-having-connected-customers-really-mean-for-your-business (Accessed 08.10.2019)
Sosa, E.
(2015): ‘The Rise of the Connected Consumer and What it means for the Retail
Industry’ The Huffington Post
Zhang,
Y., Trusov, M., Stephen, A. and Jamal, Z. (2017): ‘Online Shopping and Social
Media: Friends or Foes?’, Journal of Marketing, EBSCOhost [online]. (Accessed:
07.10.2019)
