Bring Your Salespeople Online to Differentiate the Shopping Experience

At Blueport, we partner with North America’s leading brick-and-mortar furniture stores to bridge the gap between online and in-store experiences. Creating a comprehensive end-to-end shopping experience is more than having all the products from all your stores brought online— it’s also about translating the advantages of your local stores (i.e. your salespeople, distribution capabilities and more) to differentiate the shopping experience and drive revenue.

There are many online tools that you can add to your site that deliver the personal spark of your showroom experiences and drive real results across channels. In this post, we’re going to focus on the tools that allow you to bring the salesperson’s touch online. Take a look at some of our top features on the Blueport Platform that can digitally replicate what your employees bring to the table – a deep understanding of your customers and your offerings.

Cover the Basics—Data Accuracy online to in-store

The first step to bringing a salesperson online is ensuring accuracy across information so that when a shopper goes from online to in-store, they won’t be disappointed by any inconsistencies. All product information and content across the Blueport Platform is automatically generated based on our standard ERP integration and updated based on local availability, pricing and delivery information. Once your site is fully integrated with your store systems, geo-location technology enables you to present shoppers with localized marketing, merchandising, pricing and inventory presentation—100% consistent with what they’ll see at their local store.

Personalize the Online Experience

Just as a salesperson would tailor the store experience for their preference, your site should identify the type of shopper and deliver content personalized for them. Blueport’s content management system allows any graphic on our site to be displayed based on two dimensions critical to furniture shopping:  Location and Segment. Shoppers engaged in the higher, more “aspirational” phase of the shopping funnel can be shown style-focused graphics, while those segmented as closer to purchase can be shown conversion driving images such as deals, warranties or delivery highlights. The result is unprecedented flexibility in offering your shoppers the best content for them and their stage in the shopping process.

Make Smart Recommendations to Shoppers

Every furniture shopper that walks into your store is unique. They’re each going to have different taste in the types of products that you carry in-store—and on top of that, you have a tremendous amount of products on display.

Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to deliver an individualized experience online. Blueport’s personalized recommendations combines machine learning with old fashioned merchandising to provide shoppers with the furniture they are most likely to like, from alternate pieces to the perfect add on. This advanced technology, a recent feature added the Blueport Platform, has shown tremendous results, increasing conversion by as much as 664%.

Answer Shoppers’ Product Questions

Furniture is a high consideration purchase that often comes with a lot of customer questions. When can I see this item in my home? Where can I see this product? What are the dimensions? In order to close the purchase online, it is absolutely critical to provide shoppers with the answers to their questions. On each product detail page, Blueport-powered websites showcase key information, including product descriptions, dimensions, a variety of images and how quickly an item could be delivered to their location or picked up in a store.

Engage Your Salespeople in the Omnichannel Shopping Process

At Blueport, we think long and hard about the feature releases that will connect the online and in-store experience to help retailers capture massive results online. Blueport has created unique omnichannel tools to bring the in-store shopping experience online and help drive more revenue online and in-stores:

Salesperson Attribution Tools

For any retailer, salespeople are the lifeblood of the organization and a key participant in the selling process. At the same time, furniture retail websites are critical sales and marketing tools to reach new shoppers, and ecommerce is a convenience expected by furniture shoppers. During checkout, Blueport-powered sites can allow shoppers to give salespeople credit for their part in the process, even if the sale closes online. Blueport provides an easy “type ahead” interface that allows a shopper to find and give a salesperson credit for helping them in a store.

Online and In-Store Cart Syncing

Blueport is the only ecommerce provider that offers Store-Sync technology, allowing shoppers to seamlessly move shopping carts back and forth between online and in-store shopping. If desired, the products the shopper browses online will be saved and sent to the nearest store location to facilitate fast and easy in-store viewing and purchase. Shoppers are then greeted by a salesperson armed with the items a shopper would like to see as well as other preference and segmentation data that has been collected online.

American Signature Furniture’s live Store Sync Application

Another benefit of Store-Sync is that shoppers can make an appointment with a store associates. Sales associates can then use their online cart and shopping data get a better sense of how to make meaningful recommendations.

Your store personnel is a major component to driving sales for your brand, providing furniture insights and adding a personal touch in each individual shopping experience. In tandem with online features that can personalize shopping experiences both online and offline, furniture retailers can capture remarkable cross-channel results. Contact us today to talk about strengthening your omnichannel toolbox.