Multichannel Marketing: Bricks and mortar stores are opening spaces in their stores to make community online in a bid to drive business in store. 
A recent WSJ story titled, “Can Shopping Be Fun Again” covered the phenomenon. Kimberly Grabel, Saks’s senior vice president of marketing was quoted, “Many of our customers already feel that Saks is a home away from home.” That’s why she says Saks is adding “community rooms” that allow customers to host private birthday parties and book clubs for free.
Excuse me; Saks customers already feel Saks is their home away from home? In what universe? Book clubs meeting at Saks? Doubt it.
Are there other brands that are doing it right? Yep…
Lululemon sells all manner of clothing for yoga enthusiasts. They move out the racks and hold open classes throughout the week. A great fit (no pun intended) for their target customer and their products.
Topshop does a great job for their target market of teenagers with their novel idea of a photo booth at in-store events that uploads photos to their Facebook page – brilliant.
But events don’t sell merch–nor does CMO speak–salespeople do.
Can brands leverage an online community and develop one in-store? Let’s see…
H&M has 8200 Facebook fans. Are they fans because of the online community or because H&M is the leader in fast-forward fashion they have allegedly copycatted from the designers’ runways and delivered at a price point?
How about the guy who buys the Prada sunglasses for $400. Does he really want to be part of an online community he can talk about his sunglass experience? Or does he (or she) buy them to show others how cool they are to those who can’t afford them? My guess is the later.
Can in-store events help improve a customer’s experience? Of course, take B&H Photo in NYC.
B&H has an event space where they teach about how to use cameras, use images digitally – the works. This is a great fit. It helps customers better use the niche products the retailer carries.
Barnes & Noble and Borders host book clubs and have author readings – a natural fit.
But is there a need for retailers to use social media to create online communities and then hope to get them to meet at their stores?
As far as it goes, that sounds fine. But…
Don’t confuse doing something with doing the right thing to build sales. Anyone can put on a party with free food and “hang out,” like Anne Wintour’s idea last year for Fashion’s Night Out. The real thing missing from all of these “image” events is how exactly does it grow sales?
I think it’s a distraction. Look…
How many businesses do you want to manage?
I remember coffee house owners telling me they couldn’t wait to offer “free music” at night. Sounded great until they realized that they, the owner had to listen to all the demo CDs, review the fliers, make sure it was all setup and everything ran smoothly. And then what did they have to do when the performer swore or told off-color jokes?
Events can be a way to build interest but it has to start with employees. Explaining to them why are you doing it, showing how can they participate, asking for their ideas to make it better and sharing your goals for the event all help.
In a cross-channel world it is easy to see how building community online should compliment and build your community in-store. But is that really even possible given limited resources?
How many more salespeople could you put on your team for the money you’ve invested in the event? Or how much more training could you give them to help sell your entire store, not just what your existing employees got with their 25% off employee discount last month?
That’s what is missing in retail right now – the laser focus on selling more on the floor. Much of what is getting ink and pixels right now seems to be a distraction.
What do you think about all the emphasis on in-store events?
It was a story out of some reality show which I initially dismissed…and then found all the links to the story… I now call it the Paris Hiltonization of retail…
