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What The New-Age Customers Expect From Brands

The customers of today are flooded with choices. But what they are truly seeking is a more wholesome and seamless experience in the digital world. 

In the post-pandemic world, customer experience must be recalibrated with transforming customer expectations. In fact, research reveals dramatic shifts in customer preferences and expectations which boil down to the overall experience they receive from a brand. 

In this day and age, how customers choose to shop has pivoted and brands must now be agile enough to reflect these changing patterns in customer behavior. 

There is a trend amongst consumers who are more inclined towards interacting and transacting with D2C brands. A whopping 88% of consumers prefer to buy directly from a brand! The result of these morphing customer expectations for brands is to stay ahead of the curve. Brands must step up their D2C game; even more so now with customers gravitating towards brands who are going direct. 

It’s no more a secret that the modern-day consumer is more than willing to go the extra mile and buy their favorite products directly from brands. 

For this reason, “It is no longer enough for organizations to sell a product or service they need to win the client’s heart. Consumers are demanding more… they want to be part of something greater than just buying a product or a service.”

Brands must be willing to build close-to-perfect shopping experiences to meet the needs of their customers.  

Embracing the leap 

The need of the hour for brands is to adopt an omnichannel strategy and D2C approach. By not providing your customers a direct channel, you are making it easier for middle men to get in the way and stunting your own brand engagement and loyalty. 

Even though it may seem like the long haul to take the D2C route and actually make it count, there is also enormous scope to improve your brand’s standing by disrupting the status quo and delivering on the expectations, values and experiences that the modern shopper desires. 

It so happens that customer loyalty is synonymous with the experience that you stitch for your customers. Going direct to your consumers is a sure shot way of being in control of your brand message and consumer engagement. 

D2C channels become an ideal platform for brands to articulate their values in driving higher demand. 

One of the most effective paths to standing out in the crowd is to share what makes your brand unique. Consumers find that when they buy directly from brands, they can make choices that align with their personal values based on the brand’s values. 

Another research conducted states that values such as “convenience” and “ease of use” top the list of benefits that a D2C brand has, with 94% of customers choosing at least one of these as a reason to opt for a D2C brand.  

With this D2C trend making the headlines, the door of opportunity is wide open for numerous brands out there. But the trick is to create a brand that customers feel connected to.

As a brand who is looking to tap into the D2C movement, you must have a lot of questions on how it all works. The good news, we’ve got you. At RadYes, we have empowered hundreds of brands to take charge of their direct ordering journey and cater to their customers’ expectations. 

Reach out to us today and let’s discuss the best way for your brand to seamlessly transcend the dynamic and ever-changing needs of the modern-day consumer.

How Social Selling is Transforming the Salon Industry

Innovation in the Salon Industry

On a global scale, the salon industry is one of those sectors to have encountered firsthand the hindrances and challenges that lockdown and social distancing brought along with it. To say that the epidemic shook up this industry would be an understatement. For a while, the salon industry was stunted with beauty and care taking a backseat in the minds of customers and health and safety becoming their primary concern. Although any woman would agree that their beauty and care regime is an indispensable part of life, one that is impossible to disassociate with. In light of this continued demand, a lot of salons found their ray of hope. 

One of the biggest takeaways that came out of this market disruption for all of us was that customer expectations have transcended and the only way to survive is by exploring the resilient path of innovating and staying in touch with customer expectations. Even before the pandemic, brands had faced the pressure to meet rising customer expectations and overhaul their innovation pipeline but this time, the deal was sealed. There was no running away from the inevitable; following where the customers were headed became the only way to survive. If the customers aren’t coming to you, you go to the customers. 

A sizable segment of the target audience is surfing social media channels for a considerable part of their day. Direct ordering and social selling is emerging as a trend that is catching up with salons who were so far counting on customers to visit their physical store. But now with COVID-19 restrictions and whatnot, customers are treating social media channels as more than just a social network; they are perceiving social media platforms as a marketspace where they can buy their favourite products or engage with brands that they haven’t yet experienced. 

Today, having a digital brand presence is rudimentary to your brand’s journey and there is no other way around it. 

Leading by Example

With the epidemic looming, the road ahead seemed rocky and uncertain but we quickly turned this opportunity in our favour and found our own path to success. In a bid to empower brands as they treaded on their direct online journey, we left our mark across the entire lifestyle spectrum. 

When the pandemic first hit, a lot of salon businesses were dislodged and some had to even shut shop overnight. But soon after, brands found themselves entering the digital playground and strategizing their game plan from an innovative stance. 

One such brand that we added to our thriving network from the beauty and salon industry was Kérastase Institute Dubai. At the beginning of what was established as a long-term collaboration, we dipped our toes into the salon industry and found these prominent gaps:

  1. There was a growing demand for do-it-yourself beauty and hair-care products, now that customers were unable to visit physical retail stores and salons and brands were grappling with the creation of a direct selling platform between themselves and the customers. 
  1. With dependency on in-store engagement, beauty brands and salons were unable to generate growth and revenue without a solid social strategy. 
  1. In the digital arena, there was a lot of ground to cover and most beauty and care brands were seeking support to navigate effortlessly in the absence of physical interactions. 
  1. Chalking out a good customer experience for customers meant that beauty and salon brands had to be on top of all the touchpoints across the customer journey and with little data to leverage, this was proving to be a challenge in the industry.

By recalibrating the pace of their innovation through quicker response to market stimuli, our team at RadYes triggered social selling success for Kérastase Institute Dubai. Based on our learnings and understanding of the market, we built a solid transactional experience, enhanced cataloguing, top-notch fulfillment logistics and systematic workflows to fill in the blanks that eventually underlined their social selling and direct ordering victory.

In the current day scenario, salons are readily inclining themselves towards customer expectations by walking down the social selling route. 

At RadYes, we have mobilized a number of brands across a multitude of industries on their digital journey by reimagining how they sell directly to their customers and continue to grow our footprint in the social selling landscape. 

A Guide for Grocers Going Direct

If you own a grocery business, in all likelihood, the year 2020 didn’t end on a high note for you. Not only did the pandemic bring unwanted change but it also swept up the market in a wave of uncertainty. Ultimately, it came down to how brands met customer expectations. 

Reshaping consumer demand

At the onset of the epidemic, with the spotlight turning on a breed of direct-to-consumer grocery brands, it became evident that they were gaining popularity among consumers. 

Meanwhile, customers were on the lookout for brands that provided a personalized and reliable shopping experience. Their expectations were impacted by safety interests, convenience, ease of use, and the continued demand for essential goods. Some brands were just fast enough to read the shift in consumer behavior and keep up with their dynamic needs.

But how are you, as a grocery brand, ensuring that your customers’ expectations are being met? The way customers shop is not the same and how a brand sells must also shape up to suit these changing patterns. No longer are consumers keen on stepping outside the comfort of their homes and risking physical contact amidst the pandemic. 

More than half (51%) of millennials said they would rather place an order digitally versus visiting a physical location in person. Shopping on digital has surfaced as the go-to choice for consumers who are now relying on digital convenience to satisfy their needs. 

Moving forward as an independent player can enable a grocery brand to drive decisions based on owned data and target new customer segments that would have otherwise remained untapped.  

Take note – going direct is a necessity in today’s times! 

However, it takes a lot more than merely launching a D2C channel to ensure success in the grocery segment.

What this means for grocery brands

As a grocery business, you may have a bit of trouble balancing a large inventory of products, while catering to what the consumer expects. 

We completely understand the pain that goes behind meeting customer demands with huge inventories to manage and fulfilling last-mile logistic requirements.

So that we could truly grasp how a grocery brand can still thrive with these limitations, we attempted to dig deeper:

  1. Turns out 87% of consumers depend on digital channels for their shopping needs. 
  2. Values such as ‘convenience’ and ‘ease of use’ top the list of reasons for shopping with direct-to-consumer brands; 94% of shoppers chose at least one of these.
  3. While groceries are still relatively new to the digital space, consumers are not. Naturally, when they are shopping their reasons for shopping would be consistent across all needs. 
  4. These values could give you an upper hand being a grocery brand. Even more so because you’re already committed to delivering the aspect of convenience with a wide range of products and consumer goods to sell.
  5. A study conducted by Forbes took the pulse of the modern-day consumer and discovered that two-thirds of shoppers in a 6000-respondent survey use social media to fulfill their shopping needs. 

By tracking down where customers are choosing to shop and building a wholesome and valuable experience around it, we wrote our direct ordering success story. Embracing an omnichannel strategy and creating tighter ties with customers allowed us to refine the experience that we had built for brands we work with. 

Ever since we have helped various brands crack the code to their own direct ordering wins. 

With RadYes your brand too can reach its fullest potential while effortlessly managing customer demands.  

Taking charge of the situation 

It took the global outbreak for the grocery retail market to accept digital transformation and recognize the critical need for complete transparency in their overall supply chain and inventory. Eventually, it’s also why brands decided to go directly to their customers so they could stitch a seamless experience all the way. 

Advancing forward, grocery brands that are digitally equipped and invest in their own online footprint will be armed against future market disruptors like COVID-19. Let’s not forget that the outcome of direct selling lies in the hands of customers, making the customer experience all the more significant.

With every touchpoint across the customer journey in mind, RadYes is equipped with a host of benefits like loyalty, multiple payment methods, marketing tools, and the ability to get you orders from anywhere – WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and even your own website. You also get access to a dashboard for easier inventory management and consumer insights so staying atop the customer experience is now a possibility for your grocery brand. All you need to do is plug into a fully functional, thriving ecosystem that will help your brand grow and exceed customer expectations. 

Start your free trial with us to know more about how RadYes can add value to your grocery business. Our team is here to guide you.  

Why Choosing The Right Partner Is Critical To Your Brand Growth

The constantly-evolving world of technology has revolutionized how brands are flourishing and adapting in today’s dynamic market environment. Right from marketing to the sale itself, brands are falling back on technology to enable their business transformation and elevate their customer experience.

Technology plays a massive role in helping your business function efficiently and even though it gives you the much-needed nudge, technology alone can’t drive your brand forward. It takes a lot more to refocus the lens towards the brand and the customer. 

As a brand, you need to have various partners and people underpinning every business process of yours. Finding the right partner can not only help you level up your business but also lend your brand a solid support system to thrive, and ultimately leave you with happy and satisfied customers. 

Imagine depending on a delivery partner and having them bail on you at a crucial moment! That’s one less customer for you. Or worse, your payment gateway crashes and your business comes to a sudden halt. And there goes another customer or two! Let’s not forget, one bad review is all it takes to turn years of hard work to dust. The point is why put all your eggs in one basket? 

Fortunately, you do not have to live every brand owner’s worst nightmare and potentially risk losing your loyal customers. 

RadYes is built to ensure that you can leave all the headaches and challenges associated with running a full-fledged business behind you and instead, turn the spotlight on building your brand.

With access to over 50000 delivery partners, the ability to simplify payments for all your customers with prominent payment gateways and leveraging the power of the best Point-of-Sale integrations in the industry, RadYes offers you multidimensional solutions to most of your business problems. 

Walk into a fully-equipped, growing and robust ecosystem of 130+ partners; seamlessly manage all the components of your business like logistics, payments, point of sale, middleware, marketing and communications. Select one of our trusted partners using the RadYes SmartStore, just plug in the apps and systems you need or are already using and you’re all set within a few minutes! 

You can count on RadYes to open the pathway to a world of trusted brand partners and scale up your business. Want to know more about our massive network of partners? Get in touch, our team at RadYes is always here to help! 

Why Will Customers Order Through Instagram in the Age of Aggregators

Online ordering works for food on Instagram. Find out how!

As per the global digital report, close to half of the seven billion people in the world are active social media users and the fastest expansion of user-base is happening on Instagram. With over a billion people sharing their lives on Instagram every month, we are excited to discover the real potential of the platform.

In this blog post, we have covered 6 logical reasons why the online food ordering phenomenon will successfully gravitate towards social media. The reasoning has been categorized as follows:

  1. Popularity
  2. Bespoke experience
  3. Instant gratification
  4. Ad-clutter on aggregator apps
  5. Relevance
  6. Trust

In May 2018, Instagram brought in some extremely useful action buttons to turn discovery into action. Instagram creators had announced, “With the Instagram action buttons available, people can now make reservations, buy tickets, send an order, or book through famous third-party partners without having to leave Instagram.” After this people could do more with Instagram than just liking a food pic and moving on. 

With that in mind, we set out to probe the scope of ordering food on Instagram itself. Does it have the potential to reduce dependency on food aggregators for both customers and restauranteurs? We narrow down our research to 6 points:

  1. Popularity: With 200 million Instagram users accessing at least 1 business account per day and 135 million of them clicking on shoppable ads, the scope of selling on Instagram is huge and poised to grow further. 

As per Rival IQ’sIndustry-wise report, food and beverage posts draw a higher than average engagement rate on the platform. So how many restaurants are actively selling on Instagram? The answer is hardly any. 

Apart from mentioning the website link in the Instagram bio and stories, using shoppable ads to create food orders is not being done at the moment. 

People are drooling over the 366 million #food pictures on Instagram, surely that’s an encouraging figure for restauranteurs to start selling on the platform.

  1. Bespoke Experience: Customers would prefer interacting with the brand they use in a more personal way rather than a standardized experience of all brands on one aggregator. Instagram is the perfect platform for this engagement. 

By tracking social mentions and collecting feedback on the platform, restaurateurs will know exactly what their customer is expecting from them. This information is valuable for tailoring brand experiences for customers.

  1. Instant Gratification: Now we are yet to meet a person who does not love instant gratification. As per data sourced by Invespcro, 84% of all shoppers make an impulsive purchase. How about feeding the impulse with delightful food? You can’t go wrong with that.
  1. Ad-clutter on aggregator apps: Remember the time you wanted to order breakfast and you could only finalize your choice by lunch? We’ve all been there. With the exorbitant number of choices that one gets flooded with on food aggregators, life would be simpler if you could see something that you like and order it without overwhelming suggestions.

Sweeten the deal by adding some discounts, the convenience of tracking the food, and making the payment online. You would not open a food aggregator app again. 

Oh wait, we already do all that! Check out RadYes, We make food pics edible.

Image Source: https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/2019-social-media-benchmark-report/#title-food-beverage

  1. Relevance: Instead of liking a picture of a dish across the world, wouldn’t you prefer discovering something awesome to eat around you? Hyper-local ads on Instagram can be a gamechanger for restaurants since they will only reach people who can place an order. 

This will surely generate traction amongst hungry Instagrammers located around your restaurant during lunchtime.

  1. Trust: The Instagram feed is a great way to know the story and motivation of a restaurant. This knowledge builds trust and interest in the food a restaurant dishes out. Instagrammers are more likely to order what they can trust in, rather than switch platforms to find something else altogether on a food aggregator’s app.

The ‘click it before you eat it’ phenomenon is here to stay, schedule a demo with RadYes to monetize this massive opportunity. 

Platform users are spending an average of 53 minutes on the app every day. So tell me again why can’t they order food while they are at it?

Start selling smarter. Start with Radyes.Let’s Talk