At the dawn of the 2020s, online sales are in full swing. E-commerce sites are booming, while physical outlets are struggling to attract crowds. In this context, where the digital act of buying is strong, retailers have no choice but to reinvent themselves by putting the customer experience at the heart of all their attention, through a well-thought-out cross-channel strategy. The marketplace is the perfect solution for the digitalization process, provided that the right payment solution is chosen. Here are the explanations…
Digitalization, an essential game-changer for retailers
The arrival of e-commerce sites and the meteoric development of marketplaces has shaken up the B2C market, whatever the sector of activity. Increasingly connected and less and less loyal, consumers have higher demands ever and easily switch from one brand to another. To survive and continue to grow in such a context, it's unthinkable to be content with physical stores alone. Digitalization is, therefore, a crucial game-changer for retailers, capable of boosting their sales and increasing the loyalty of fickle customers.
A phygital strategy to revive points of sale
Physical shops have a strength that e-commerce shops do not have… human contact. Embracing digitalization does not mean giving up the values that have shaped your brand, quite the contrary. When it comes to a consumer's relationship with a brand, physical and digital should not be seen as two separate worlds, but as interconnected worlds that feed off each other. This is the whole principle of a cross-channel strategy, which consists of taking advantage of the different channels that customers use to make their purchases. The keyword of the phygital plan is to make the customer actor of his purchase by integrating web practices in stores. In this new paradigm, your customers can find online products, they like to come and try them in-store and decde whether to order them in click-and-collect or home delivery. The whole challenge of a cross-channel strategy is to offer a seamless and fluid customer experience, where the customers are treated regardless of their point of entry with the brand, by providing them an innovative shopping experience. Point of sale digitalization will improve your customer relationship and ultimately generate more sales, thanks to the integration of new conversion tunnels.
Marketplaces, the ideal solution for your phygital strategy
Digitalize, okay, but how? We're not talking about equipping your store with interactive terminals and other gadgets that are ultimately left unused by customers. Instead, it's a question of occupying the field of digital, to generate more sales within your sales network. To achieve this effectively, marketplaces are a particularly powerful tool. By grouping your entire catalog on a single platform, you maximize your chances of being seen and retaining the attention of your target audience. Unlike a simple e-commerce site, the marketplace model also offers the possibility of aggregating other suppliers' catalogs with your offer, to further increase your statistical power of the strike. For example, a women's clothing retailer can complete its offer by integrating shoe or jeweler sellers into its marketplace. If your commercial network is made up of independent members, as is the case for a franchise network, the marketplace model will also make it possible to federate all the points of sale, without them competing with each other online.
Marketplace and digitalization: the PSP role
Because the marketplace model differs from the e-commerce model, choosing the right payment technology solution must be given special attention. Whilst with a classic e-commerce site, only the seller and the buyer interact during a financial transaction; on a marketplace, you have to rely on a third player: the marketplace operator himself. Indeed, the marketplace must collect money from buyers before paying it back to sellers, to protect the funds while the service is being sold. Raising money before transferring it to a third party is a payment service provider activity that is strictly regulated by French and European legislation. To guarantee the smooth running of transactions taking place on its marketplace, without being burdened by cumbersome regulatory processes, a retailer can turn to a PSP, a payment service provider. As payment institutions approved by the ACPR, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, PSPs are responsible for the management and security of all transactions carried out on the marketplace and handle the collection of funds for merchants via a ring account. The protection of sellers and buyers is their responsibility, as well as compliance with the numerous rules and regulations governing payment management. Also, using a PSP makes it easy to offer a variety in terms of payment means and methods available on the marketplace, to match the payment habits of consumers and increase the rate. Lemonway is your partner for your digitalization and offers a flexible and secure payment solution, ideal for marketplaces.
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