Stage 1: Create a digital strategy by blending in-store advantages

People still value the in-store shopping experience. Traditional physical stores offer not only products but also atmosphere, entertainment, stimuli, and inspiration. At the first stage of their digital strategy, businesses should bring something customers value from inside the store online. The best way to do this is by connecting with customers and solving their pain points. In this way, an O2O2O strategy can boost the usage of your brand’s digital platforms and build customers’ trust in your upcoming digital services.

Stage 2: Predict mobile app usage in everyday life

Mobile apps are becoming a go-to tactic for retailers because they promise highly convenient digital engagement. Engaging first-time users the right way can secure a stream of loyal, returning customers for months and years to come. The question is how best to engage mobile users. To create a successful mobile app, you first need to think about the end-users (and keep them front-of-mind throughout the process). Your primary goal should also be to solve their problems and fulfill a particular purpose for them. A few key features that provide tangible solutions for users include:

• Deals and Offers
• Price Checker and Comparison
• Analytics Integration
• Loyalty Program
• Mobile Wallet

There are many others, but these are a few to keep in mind as you embark on the journey of designing your mobile app.

Stage 3: Blur the line between digital and physical worlds

In the last stage, it’s time to create a new O2O2O customer life cycle through a series of online and offline activities. To ensure that these customers eventually become loyal consumers of your brand, these activities should meet and exceed their expectations for convenience, efficiency, indemnification, and potential benefits. At the same time, you can use data you gather to connect all facets of the customer and drive new retail success.

Case Study: Carrefour App Clips

Cloud Interactive has been working with Carrefour to develop the brand’s mobile app using an O2O2O strategy. We understand that customers like shopping in stores but hate standing in line. With this in mind, we helped Carrefour improve their customer experience in physical stores with Apple’s new App Clips, which were released with iOS 14 in September 2020.

App Clips let people quickly access a brand’s app without downloading it. Carrefour’s “Scan & Get The Loyalty Card” App Clip lets customers sign up for a Carrefour loyalty card without waiting in line. The “Go Self-Checkout” feature allows them to tap NFC to scan items they want to buy, expediting Apple Pay checkout.

These new One Carrefour app features improve customers’ shopping experience by solving their pain points and help Carrefour reduce labor costs and boost their online ROI. Additionally, customers enjoy acting as advocates. By having a great mobile referral program, Carrefour can attract new customers to stores via referrals and eventually generate a complete O2O2O consumer lifecycle.

More and more retailers are embracing app gamification to enhance the online shopping experience and build long-term brand loyalty, so you may want to include challenges and rewards in your digital strategy. However, remember that customers are diverse, and not all will find gamification engaging and appealing. Betty recommends referring to your customer personas every time you consider new digital features.

As with any other marketing strategy, you must understand your audience to truly improve your ROI.