The Internet continues to have an enormous impact on the way retailers connect with consumers. Many are still striving to integrate their traditional brick-and-mortar and catalog businesses with their online operations to create a more consistent and profitable customer experience across channels. They're fighting the scourge of shopping cart abandonment in order to improve conversion rates, and looking for more opportunities to boost customer loyalty through online endeavors. Retailers are also considering new levels of online self-service to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Keeping pace with these new developments and challenges is the key to ensuring a successful and prosperous mult-channel business.

THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION
Problem:
Too many consumers shop without making a purchase. Industry-wide abandonment rates are a staggering 65 percent [Boston Consulting Group], but most retailers lack the tools to pinpoint where in the marketing and sales process drops are happening or why.

ATG Solution:
ATG provides the most comprehensive analysis capabilities ever developed for online marketing and sales – allowing your business managers to understand buyer behavior and quickly pinpoint where in the shopping process your customers are abandoning you. Only ATG enables merchandising managers to optimize online product placement, pricing, and promotion themselves, by creating, running, and analyzing A/B tests without relying on IT for help.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Problem:
Retail marketing managers say they'd give anything to know how to import their traditional marketing expertise into their Internet operations. Even when a Web shopper makes it to checkout, incremental sales through promotional cross- and up-selling still lags well behind traditional channels. Online retailers rarely have the ability to segment by demographics and psychographics, so leaders in the brick-&-mortar world run sites lacking the ability to set up and target promotions to specific audiences.

ATG Solution:
ATG is the recognized gold standard in online customer segmentation, profiling and targeting. Some of the best known retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Best Buy use this capability to segment customers, track their shopping history and preferences, and precisely target the most appropriate offers to the right groups. Making the online shopping experience as personal and relevant as the best brick and mortar experience ensures customer satisfaction and cements customer loyalty.

THE MULTI-CHANNEL CHALLENGE

Problem:
When customers shop online they expect to be able to continue their transaction on the phone or in person if necessary. In a multi-channel, customer-centric universe, service-minded retailers need to integrate call centers and online channels with each other and with in-store data and back-office applications. When call center reps can't access a Web transaction record, the customer relationship suffers.

ATG Solution:
The ATG solution is expressly designed to foster integration across channels and systems, enabling more efficient operations and streamlining your ability to provide the kind of outstanding, consistent service your customers deserve and demand, no matter how they reach out to you.

HELPING CUSTOMERS HELP THEMSELVES

Problem:
Forrester Research reports that when it comes to online self-service, most retailers fail to help customers achieve their goals. Online consumers yearn for better assistance. Yet expensive calls to service centers, for both pre-sale and post-sale help, are increasing.

ATG Solution:
Using our unique personalization capabilities, ATG can provide highly relevant and intelligent answers to customers' questions because ATG software understands customer preferences and shopping history. Answers are informed by the customer's latest interactions with your site, order status, and overall relationship with your company. ATG can build customer loyalty by addressing questions with more depth, and can even guide customers to related products and services.

NEXT STEPS
For more information, please contact ATG sales.