Endless Aisles In Fashion- Blurring The Line Between In-Store And Online Shopping
So, the itinerary has been chalked out for that va-va-voom hiking adventure you are going to take in the boondocks next weekend. Is there anything lacking in your heavy-duty hiking gear? You guessed it right. Maybe you need a pair of good hiking-friendly shoes. Now, would you like to buy the shoes from an e-store or pick it up at a big-box outlet? That’s a fine how-do-you-do. In the first instance, you may be tempted to go online. But believe me, if you land at the nearest brick-and-mortar, you will experience the orbit-shifting concept that is fading away the generally perceived dissimilarities between online and offline like never before. This new wave lashing the fashion retailing shores has been christened as “endless aisle”.
In its bare minimum avatar, endless aisle is about making use of specially designed in-store kiosks and other intuitive arrangements by the customers to order items that are currently out-of-stock in the shop. It is looking beyond the stock that is available in tangible form in the store at a given point of time and thereby forging an unceasing strong link between customer demand and inventory. Consumers enjoy the convenience of e-shopping without compromising on the traditional “touch and feel” factor. Real-time visibility across the brand empowers the end-users to immerse in the shopping mode on their own terms. Akin to the maxim, the early bird catches the worm; fashion retailers who have adopted the endless aisle in good time are swelling the company coffers with élan.
The likes of Urban Outfitters, J.C. Penney, Bon-Ton, and Anthropologie are all giving their best shot at adopting endless aisle. Bon-Ton has introduced a unique technology at its outlets where customers can track their favorite shoes with the help of NFC (Near Field Communication) supported smartphones. Shoppers can just tap an NFC-enabled smartphone on the sole of a shoe and know if it is in stock, and if not, they can find the nearest store that stocks it or order via their phone. Urban Outfitters is providing customers the opportunity to pay by debit card or credit card in-store through Apple mobile devices. Retailers are allowing customers to try on the digital versions of touchable items and conclude the purchase just by scanning the respective QR codes.
What makes endless aisle click? A raft of benefits comes with the strategy.
- Fashion retailers can downsize the unnecessary floor area of the store. This kind of trimming helps beef-up sales per square foot. This is especially advantageous when the market is in the doldrums. In fact during the economic downturn in 2008, retailers have learnt the hard way to trim the store size.
- As conversion rate gets bolstered due to the enhanced shopping ambience of the store, customer fidelity continues to move northward.
- In-store revenue bleeding as a result of showrooming can be effectively counteracted by the implementation of endless aisle.
- Dependence on warehouses to stack-up products is reduced to a large extent. Retailers are increasingly entering into tie-ups with manufacturers to ship items directly to consumers from manufacturers end. Also, with the advent of endless aisle retailers are saved from the pain of displaying large products physically at the store. This helps in discontinuation of products that have very low inventory turnover ratio.
Endless aisles are here to stay. Make use of analytics and technology to display only the fastest moving items, while offering the not-so-popular merchandise through kiosks, tablets, or computers so that customers can try and buy at the same time. Are you ready to offer endless product assortment to your customers?
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