You might feel like you’re in a constant battle to ensure your firm doesn’t get left behind in the tech revolution. Shopping habits are changing all the time and if you fail to keep pace with developments, your retail outlets may not survive and flourish.

One of the areas you might want to work on concerns making sure your shop design and your social media campaigns link together effectively. If you succeed in this, you may well be able to drive increased traffic into your stores, boost sales and ensure you achieve maximum ROI on your online activities.

Many firms are failing

Speaking ahead of the Retail Bulletin In-store Engagement Conference 2012 in London on July 10th, head of social strategy at TBG Digital Jeremy Waite claimed that many retailers are “absolutely awful” at this and have not yet learned how to “join the dots” between their shops and their Web 2.0 activities.

He suggested that they have a problem creating a link between consumer interaction on the internet and subsequent purchases offline.

Some tips

The expert went on to offer a number of tips. For example, he recommended rigging up till systems so they take customers’ email addresses when they buy items. This information can then be matched to their online activity. About this, he remarked: “You can track what they are doing and see how influential they are. Part of measuring ROI and attributing purchasing habits to online behaviour can be solved by doing this.”

Also, it’s possible to encourage people to use Foursquare when in-store or prompt them to log-in when they use shops’ free Wi-Fi. He noted that coffee chain Starbucks has had huge success with FourSquare.

Augmented reality

Mr Waite went on to recommend using augmented reality (AR) as another way to join social media and in-store experiences. For example, it’s possible to highlight an offer on Facebook or Twitter and then when a customer holds their phones up to special AR posters, they can activate the deals and close the loop.

Using Twitter

In addition, the expert noted that when it comes to using micro-blogging site Twitter, it’s important to really engage with consumers. He stated: “It is an amazing conversation platform where you can check what people are saying about your brand. While most retailers just see it as a tool to promote their businesses and show videos, most people just want to talk to brands on it.”

How we can help

Trying to create retail interiors that make optimum use of social media and other forms of technology can be difficult and you might lack the confidence and knowledge to do this effectively. Thankfully, help is at hand.

Here at Green Room, we’re experts when it comes to multi channel retailing and our team is perfectly placed to ensure you’re able to engage with your customers both in-store and online. We can help you link your social media campaigns and your shop layout. To find out more, just take a look around the rest of our website.