How RetailTune Is Helping Retailers Respond to Consumers' New Needs

The purchase journey is becoming increasingly digital, but the physical store will never disappear from people's radar. Especially, and above all, because of the human factor, as Claudio Agazzi points out, founder of RetailTune, a startup founded in 2018 and specializing in drive to store and local digital marketing, with the goal of connecting all the digital touchpoints of points of sale and increasing the flow of people toward them. A crucial task even in this pandemic-stricken 2020, so much so that RetailTune closed its first funding round in July and, to support ongoing projects, is expanding its team, which now numbers 30 people. "In 2020 we will double our 2019 results, and frankly we can only be happy about that. Of course, we expect a lot from 2021," explains Agazzi.

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At what point in the purchase journey — increasingly multichannel and difficult to decipher — does RetailTune's work come in?

The user journey has changed a great deal since it became the subject of study by various marketing schools of thought; we've gone from Single Channel to Multi Channel to Cross Channel, and now, today, we talk about Omnichannel. A journey that will keep evolving over time and adapting to consumer behavior.

What hasn't changed, though, is the underlying essence. The user is curious, seeks information, and asks us questions. It doesn't matter whether this phase happens online or offline. What the user expects is just one thing: fast, clear, and personalized answers.

Today, in the Hyperconnected Era, the user begins their purchase journey online, with the research phase into the brand and its products. We make sure that at this stage — where it's the user searching for the company, not the other way around — they receive all the information they need to go to the store: opening hours, available services, phone number, active promotions, correct addresses, and descriptions. All in one place, a click away.

In these months of the 'new normal,' a large part of the purchase journey and product discovery have shifted online. How is this phenomenon changing people's relationship with physical stores?

Actually, the product discovery phase mostly took place online even before the health emergency. What changed during the shutdown was the impossibility of going to try on, feel, and touch those products offline. People still want to have contact with stores, they want to express their needs, they want to be advised and "pampered" by sales staff. They still want to experience something human inside stores.

How have your clients' requests changed in recent months, and how is RetailTune adapting its offering?

The emergency marked the arrival of new consumer needs, which in turn created new challenges for retailers. Tools like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and phone calls became the new customer service channels, to the point of turning into genuine sales channels. We got ahead of it to give our clients something to hold on to.

As soon as the lockdown period began, we developed new features to address the consequences of the health emergency.

The first is the RetailTune Booking service, which lets users book an in-store appointment given the pressing need to manage entrances at points of sale in compliance with current regulations, and lets the store manager handle these bookings all in one place.

The second is RetailTune E-Store, an aggregator that collects orders from users across multiple digital touchpoints — the most famous and likely being WhatsApp, but also Facebook Messenger, traditional phone calls, on-site chat, and email. This tool lets the store manager load the order received directly onto the platform, from which they can manage the purchase process with the customer easily, quickly, and securely, handling the exchange of information, approval, and payment, where applicable, by electronic means.

These innovations made it possible, on one hand, to find solutions to address the emergency, and on the other, to offer Loyalty&Care services specifically designed for customer assistance.

What insights have you gathered about user behavior since the start of the pandemic?

User behavior was fairly predictable. Google Trends shows us that "near me" searches decreased during the shutdown period, while "Open Now" searches increased. From Google My Business listings we saw that views and searches dropped, but on the other hand calls increased, showing users' interest in checking whether stores were open or not.

Subsequently, starting in June we saw a gradual return to "normality." There was a strong desire to return to stores, always with a watchful eye on sanitation and safety rules, but people were keen to see their favorite store again.

One of the phenomena that emerged is the rediscovered local dimension of shopping. How can brands seize this opportunity?

This phenomenon should prompt some reflection for big brands. We have an enormous advantage over e-commerce: the relational advantage, or the so-called "H factor." This comes down to the sales staff's ability to build a personal relationship with the customer, based on interaction. This relational advantage is nothing but a return to our roots, to the past, to how things used to be done years ago. People trust people; they need a point of reference to trust and engage with, and this is what offline must know how to leverage in the best possible way.

Is there a particularly interesting case study for the way the platform has been used?

A long-standing client with whom we've had the chance to experiment and innovate in Drive to Store is the fashion brand Pinko, which we've been working with since 2017. An evolving project that has allowed us to apply our know-how in Local Digital Marketing and develop the brand's local awareness.

Among the many activities carried out over the years are the creation of the Store Locator, centralized management of Google My Business listings, the creation of Facebook Local Pages, the integration of a product-page widget that shows the nearest store based on the user's location, and integration with in-store stock that allows showing the products available at the nearest store.

This coordinated, unified work across these channels has allowed us to rank the brand at the top of search engines for local searches users perform, such as "Brand + city," showing all the brand's touchpoints on the first page. An important milestone aimed at reaching all users who show interest in the brand and encouraging them to visit the nearest point of sale through Drive to Store CTAs.

Among the upcoming activities planned in the timeline, Pinko has joined our Loyalty&Care program, which involves creating a dedicated store page with an appealing design and a UX/UI aimed at fostering immediate dialogue between the user and the point of sale. A single place to buy, book a product, and speak with in-store support staff, leveraging the technology of modern Booking and E-store tools.