m1nd-set highlights importance of engaged staff in driving sales growth
m!nd-set looks into the key role of engaging staff in driving sales growth
Travel retail agency m1nd-set has released its July 2024 m1nd-ful report, entitled ‘The Power of People: how engaged staff drive sales growth’.
The agency looks at the impact sales staff in the duty free stores have on the purchase decision and, most importantly, how engaged staff can be a significant catalyst for sales growth. It considers both the interaction levels between staff and shoppers and the impact of the interaction, with a focus on the divergence by region as well as across the key categories where shoppers interact with the sales associates. m1nd-ful also analyzes the expectations among shoppers concerning the role technology should have on the interaction and how this could and should evolve in the global travel retail sector.
Before analyzing the staff engagement and impact levels in travel retail, m1nd-set looks generally at the principles and key benefits of staff interaction and, more importantly, how this is likely to evolve in the future, as technology provides new and innovative ways for sales associates to enhance the interaction and shopper engagement.
Key rules for optimizing staff interaction
Effective shop sales staff engagement is critical for driving sales, but also for improving shopper satisfaction and of course, customer loyalty. Any staff training program will undoubtedly highlight these basic, but golden rules of staff interaction. Here are just a few.
Build genuine relationships
Listening to the customer and engaging in conversation that goes beyond the sale, to build a more genuine relationship, is a highly valuable skill which sales staff should endeavor to nurture and perfect. This involves listening without interrupting, as well as showing empathy to the customers’ specific context and needs and providing helpful suggestions.
According to m1nd-set, effective shop sales staff engagement is critical for driving sales
To build a genuine relationship, sales associates should ask questions, remember the customers’ responses and note the information and refer to it on future visits. Again, this skill is complicated in GTR but an area where technology already enables sales staff to create this human connection.
Detailed product knowledge
An essential skill is of course detailed product knowledge. Effective sales staff must be able to provide advice and explanations of the products’ ingredients, sustainable attributes and main characteristics as well as how it compares to similar products. With so many SKUs in the travel retail environment, this might seem near impossible, but with the resources many brands provide to sales teams, including training and online resources, this can be attainable.
Up-selling and cross-selling
Up-selling and cross-selling are both valuable expertise which all sales staff should aim to perfect. The more premium version of a Cognac, the ideal complement to a spirit for an interesting cocktail, or the various accessories that can accompany an electronics purchase will not only increase the average transaction value, but also enhance the overall customer experience.
Creating memorable shopper experiences
As m1nd-set and partner Blueprint will be detailing at the EX.CEL Experiential Retail Workshop in Cannes on Sunday 29 September, creating memorable shopper experiences will invariably enhance sales, customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty. Staff who exceed expectations and surpass requirements to make the shopping experience more memorable and enjoyable will invariably see a positive impact and a successful sale. There are multiple ways in which such experiences can be conceived where the staff play an active and interactive role in creating the experiences.
Allowing customers to sample make-up, fashion or jewelry products with augmented reality applications on a mobile or tablet, product tastings, mini-educational demonstrations and workshops, personal styling sessions, gamification applications and product knowledge clinics are just some examples of how staff can create these memorable experiences with the travel retail customers. Such techniques can have a significantly positive impact on the customer experience and generate higher customer satisfaction, repeat business, and positive peer-to-peer referrals.
Technology as a catalyst for staff interaction
Technology will appreciably facilitate much of the aforementioned examples of how sales associates can engage better with customers. CRM systems which allow detailed customer profiles and personalized information are already highly effective in themselves; when enhanced with facial recognition software that triggers an alert to sales staff about the identity of customers arriving in the store, the complexity of personalized greetings to repeat customers in the travel retail environment becomes less complicated.
In addition, Artificial Intelligence also enables retailers to predict shoppers’ needs, preferences and behavior, allowing staff to suggest products, based on algorithms compiling countless other shoppers’ behavior. Wearable technology, such as Smart Watches and Smart Glasses, also enables sales staff to access the information in real-time and instantaneously. The product sampling, educational experiences and gamification applications are other ways which are increasingly used by retail staff to enhance their interaction with customers and improve the impact of the engagement. Loyalty programs and discount or voucher redemption programs can be highly personalized through a robust CRM system also.
Technology is also extremely important for assisting shoppers to navigate through store environments, particularly for people with disabilities such as impaired vision. m1nd-set has partnered with the Spanish company Navilens to promote their solutions in the global travel retail sector. The Navilens codes and APP enables people with impaired vision to navigate through travel and retail environments through audio signals and descriptions, as well as to locate products and access the product’s ingredients, nutritional and allergen information via the codes which trigger an audio description.
Technology is inescapable when it comes to sales staff training programs. Learning Management Systems are used not only to deliver staff training programs but also to manage and track progress, conduct assessments and issue training certificates, while other tools such as sales analytics tools enable employers to track performance of individual team members and identify knowledge gaps.
Finally, it is crucial to note that shoppers are increasingly looking for more hybrid retail models, where the online and physical retail environments are fully integrated. Around three quarters of shoppers say they expect the same level of service both online as well as in stores while 64% say they expect the same level of personalization in the physical stores as they do online.
Phygital first
When m1nd-set researched this aspect of shopper behavior just after international flights resumed after the global COVID pandemic, interaction levels between shoppers and staff soared, as customers were pining to meet and engage with other humans, having been locked down and forced to engage through a protective face mask when in stores.
This is underlined in the chart above, where human interaction was the second most favored interaction type, behind ‘digital & human interaction’ in 2022 for the Beauty category. The previous year, it was in third place, as COVID protective measures were still quite prevalent and human interaction was both less desired and desirable, due to the masks and fear for one’s health. While a mix of both ‘digital and human interaction’ still remains in first position among global shoppers in travel retail, the ‘human interaction only’ type has slipped back to being the least favored interaction method.
Global interaction
Today interaction levels globally have fallen back down to just below the pre-COVID level, at 48% of shop visitors compared to 49% in 2019. Interestingly European shoppers tend to interact the least and are bringing the global average down. Only 36% of European shoppers say they interacted with sales staff in the duty free shops on their last international trip, which is significantly lower than the tendency in other world regions, which increases from 55% among shoppers from the Americas to 58% in Asia Pacific and 62% in Africa & the Middle East.
On average, 26% of visitors say they were approached by staff, while 22% proactively approached the sales staff themselves. Visitors to the duty free shops tend to engage with sales staff most of all in the Jewelry & Watches category (65%). Make-up and Skincare follow with 63% of visitors interacting with sales staff; six in ten store visitors engage with the staff when shopping for Clothing & Accessories and 56% when shopping for Electronics.
Encouraging impact
The impact of staff interaction also spiked immediately after the pandemic and, unlike interaction levels, has remained considerably high. More than seven out of ten shoppers who interacted with sales staff report a positive impact of the interaction. 31% of shoppers say the sales staff helped them to choose which product to purchase, 27% purchased a different product to what they had initially intended to buy as a result of the staff interaction and 13% say they would not have bought anything if it had not been for the advice of the sales staff.
Africa & the Middle East once again top the ranking, with 79% of shoppers reporting a positive interaction, significantly higher than the global average. In second place are shoppers from the Americas, 73% of whom say the interaction was positive, just ahead of the Asia Pacific region, where 72% said sales staff had a positive impact on their decision to purchase. Europeans once again are the least positive about the staff interaction, but the gap with other world regions is not as wide as two thirds of shoppers from the region reported a positive impact from the interaction.
The categories which tend to see the most positive outcomes of the staff interaction are Electronics, where 82% of shoppers globally report a positive impact. Jewelry & Watches follows with 81% and Clothing & Accessories with 78% of shoppers in the category saying the staff interaction positively influenced their decision to purchase.
Engagement = Higher Spend
The importance of staff interaction is further underlined by the impact on spend levels. Average spend among shoppers who interact with sales staff is 51% higher than among those who do not interact: US$90 among those who do not interact compared to $136 on average for those shoppers who do engage with the sales staff.
Staff interaction and the effective engagement of the sales staff is vital in travel retail, to ensure the customer experience is on the same level, if not beyond that of high street retail. Personalization, relationship-building, product knowledge, and the creation of memorable experiences are critical, and technology will play an increasingly pivotal role in enhancing these interactions. As technology advances integrating and combining the benefits of CRM systems, Artificial Intelligence and augmented reality, sales associates will be increasingly empowered and motivated to deliver more personalized, effective and impactful customer engagement. This in turn will ultimately drive higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and as we have just seen, increased spend.
