My FB Friends Are Replacing Your Brick and Mortar Store

Is your sales team still doing business like it's 1997? A look at the shopping experience and how it's failing in the digital age.

If you are looking for a reason to drink, I highly recommend you go shopping for a couch.

It's perhaps the one consumer buying experience that has become progressively worse as technology has gotten better and better.

First...let's talk stats. In an interesting article by Dana French of "Furniture Today", there's an examination of a study of 1,608 consumers talking about furniture buying.

• According to this study, 78% of Millennials have purchased furniture and accessories online compared to 81% of Baby Boomers and 85% of Generation X.
• Looking further into the study, 65% of online buyers were happy. 39% of Generation X buyers weren't thrilled compared to only 28% of Boomers.
• 22% of all responding consumers said area rugs that they bought online left them the most disappointed.
• 47% of consumers said they would never buy a sofa online.
• 20% said they would never buy a mattress online.

It's worth noting that last week, my wife actually bought two area rugs online - and the jury is still out on both of them.

Back to the brick and mortar shopping.

The first store we went into was a relaxing experience. But my GOD did we find a hideous couch there. Being a professional who lives in the digital world, I felt it was appropriate to upload a picture of it onto Facebook along with the following line: "In our search for a couch, we've found nothing but...well...crap. I think, perhaps...literally..."

We'll come back to that couch turd joke in a moment.

The second furniture store we walked into was my nightmare. It was the definition of the land of vultures. The sales guys not only literally fought over us...but they trailed us around the store the entire time we were there and I'm pretty sure I actually saw two of them salivating. I haven't seen that level of crazy since my ex-girlfriend three martinis deep.

The third furniture store didn't have as many vultures. But there was one particularly hungry one who actually lived up to every salesman stereotype ever written. "Hey, my name is Leo. When you come in here just ask for me, oh." Sure, it rhymes. But does that even count? And, "you here to look or you here to buy?" And of course there was this line, "well if you have to go to the discount store down the road that we own just tell them your cousin Vinny sent you - hahaha that's how they know it's my sale!".

Good God. It was the shopping experience that would never end. Why the hell don't they serve beer at these places?

But luckily...as we progressed through all three locations...I learned more and more in each store.

It had nothing to do with their sales teams. It had everything to do with Facebook.

My little couch turd joke stirred up those who picked up on my humor...along with some spectacular advice. We received recommendations on what stores to go to, what sales guys to ask for, and where to find slip covers that would protect our new future from our new baby.

There was no pressure. There was humor. There was information. And there was honest and candid feedback.

Now some more stats that you should consider when thinking about social usage of consumers in the stores.

• An early 2014 study by Omnico found that consumers ages 25 to 34 lead the way in smartphone usage while in the store. What are they doing? Comparing prices, reading reviews, buying products and engaging with brands on social media.
• 72% of Millennials - before ever going to a store or the mall - will research and shop their options online, according to Robin Lewis.
• And ready for this? 84% of store visitors use their mobile devices before or during a shopping trip....and 75% of those who responded to the study said product information on social channels changed their shopping behavior.

And yet for some reason, these sofa shops that we visited still seem to think that a high pressure, commission based attack plan is the way to close the sale.

Here's your tip of the day. If you're a business owner, an executive or a manager looking to grow your sales...stop doubling down on what may have stopped working 10 years ago. Start finding out exactly what your customers are looking for...and start delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.

Ok, you'll have to excuse me. I've got a lousy couch to go sit on while I shop around on Amazon. With, of course, that beer.

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POSTED BY

Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, New England's #1 Marketing Agency. We're a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology. You can find him on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.