How Shopping By Appointment Improves Your Physical Store Experience

Many changes are happening in retail with the advent of digitization. This trend has only accelerated due to the lockdown in the years 2020 and 2021. As a result, several physical stores had to close temporarily. Shopping by appointment was the norm for a while. Or is it here to stay?

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Over the past few months, I’ve talked to many retailers about appointment shopping. Many think that this is becoming increasingly important for the physical store. Therefore, in this article we look at the benefits shopping by appointment has for the customer. In addition, discover the tips & tricks for the store owners at the bottom of this page. How can you use it to increase sales and improve the experience for consumers? Furthermore, you will discover how to set up this process and we will share interesting examples.

Let’s focus on consumer needs for a moment. What drives them to come to the store, if everything can also be seen and bought online? This is mainly for the experience of the brand or product and the extra service that is required.

So, the main reasons for consumers to do appointment shopping is because their time is becoming more and more valuable and because they like to need customization or personal guidance.

Let us briefly explain these two points.

One of the most important consumer needs at the moment is the demand for customization and personalization. It is better to experience this in-store by appointment than just online. This may be slightly different for each industry, so here are a few examples:

For a jeweler possible situations are; selecting wedding rings or customization of a gold ring.

For a car company it could be a demonstration of a new car or the pick-up of a repaired car.

For a clothing store a tailor-made workshop in the shop could be interesting for the customer. For example, on color psychology.

In all cases, an expert employee must be available to help you. Therefore, shopping by appointment can give consumers the certainty that they are being offered a personal experience.

However, this is not a direct reason to only open by appointment, but it does provide the opportunity to offer consumers a personal experience during regular opening hours. For example, by greeting them with their name on arrival.

Another important reason to visit shops by appointment is to save time.

Of course, there are still plenty of people who want fun shopping, but the customer’s time is also increasingly valuable. Especially if you are used to getting everything via the smartphone with a few clicks.

Therefore, coming to the store has a slightly higher threshold. As a result, people need more certainty about the effectiveness of their visit.

Remove these uncertainties with a website and by offering the possibility to come shopping by appointment. For example: is the product I’m looking for in stock in this store? What exactly do I get when I visit this store? Am I not standing in front of a closed door?

What are the reasons for shopkeepers to start working with appointments? Let me list the benefits succinctly:

As described in detail in the previous chapter, you can offer customers a personal experience with a personal approach and customization. For example, by greeting them with their name on arrival. Discover all tips to boost sales below this page.

The importance of collecting customer information is still often underestimated by physical stores. Yet this is the ‘new gold’ in the digital society. By giving people the option to register for a one-on-one session, you can easily collect customer and contact information. This is useful for reaching people again at a later stage with marketing tools.

With shopping by appointment, consumers really reserve a part of their time to be in your store without distraction. This is a perfect opportunity to build a good relationship and possibly sell more.

By offering customers a one-on-one session there is more certainty that the store visit will not be in vain or that they will be faced with a closed door.

You have probably experienced it; one hour there is no one in the shop and the next hour there are three too many to help everyone properly. By scheduling timeframes, you can provide every visitor the best possible service. Furthermore, people will come more spread out throughout the day.

Sometimes people have the idea to visit your store someday. If it is too non-committal, it can be postponed so much that it no longer happens. By setting a specific date and time, people are already making a small commitment to visit you. Of course, people will cancel or not show up sometimes, but make it easy for them to make the first move.

Spending more time without distractions also provides the opportunity to get to know a customer personally. Especially in the evening when it is quiet with perhaps a drink. You can also talk about other things than just the products. This is extremely important to turn a visitor into a returning customer.

When people get an experience that exceeds expectations, they will be true ambassadors for the store. This attracts new customers. Not everyone wants to shop by appointment, but for more complex or personal services it has added value.

Perhaps your business model will shift to being open by appointment only in the future. As it gives you much more control over effective payroll administration. Because you probably don’t need to have 3 people in the store during the day. As a result, you may suddenly be open more often in the evening or early in the morning. So, the flexibility has advantages for the consumer, but also for the management of employees.

By setting up timeframes you can also better determine who has been in the store and when. In this way you can easily establish an extra touch point in the customer journey. This is very useful for doing marketing. For example, if it has been six months since someone last visited the store, you can (automatically) send that person an invitation or offer.

Appointment shopping has advantages for both the retailer and the consumer. So, how can you efficiently add this process to the store? It is a pity if it costs more time and money than it pays off. Therefore, let’s investigate the five steps to get the best result and how to get started. In addition, it remains interesting to continue offering the flexibility of visiting without an appointment

Are you convinced that shopping by appointment is something for you? Discover the practical setup on your website to install the complete process for free.

The first thing to consider is which products get added value with appointment shopping. Do you want to use it for specific services? Is it important that an invoice is automatically sent afterwards or should the customer be able to pay online?

In this first step, it is especially important that you discover the added value for your customers and how it can increase store sales or save time.

Then of course you need the right tool to manage appointments. We’ve made a comparison of the best appointment scheduling software companies out there. Here we also describe the most important things to pay attention to when choosing the right software for a physical store. Furthermore, the nice thing is that these systems offer a free version to get you started.

In addition, it is also important that the process can be smoothly integrated with the current processes in the store. Because you do not want to work in too many different systems.

The most important thing is that you get the employees involved. So don’t let them ‘jump on a moving train’ but inform them right from the start. Make clear how the process will work and what will change about the current situation.

Also, do it in phases instead of presenting a complete plan right away. So first say “we’re going to test it to see what works and what doesn’t”.

Make some types of appointments or make sure that only a specific service can be done by appointment. In this way you can discover more quickly what works and what is not so useful, before making major changes.

Then, in addition to step 1, try to see how the process can run in the best way. So how can people register? What is the experience during registration and during the appointment? How will the follow-up go? By going through this process yourself, you get a better insight into the areas for improvement.

Next, it’s important to make it easy for customers to schedule the appointment. So put a clear button on the website or ensure that the registration form is integrated on the website.

Then communicate on the Social Media channels and in the newsletter that people can now shop by appointment. Also mention the advantages of this for the customer. You may also be able to do something in-store with a banner or poster. Especially when it comes to registering for a workshop, for example. Make sure the sign-up link is easy. For example: www.mywebsite.com/appointment.

After a while, see what results it has delivered and what can still be improved. Also discuss these results with the team, so that you get more information. The entire process can then be optimized, because the features of appointment software are extensive.

An important key factor of automation is that it should be well integrated with the other systems, such as your CRM and marketing system. This could be the next step for you, if the process is becoming increasingly important in your business operations.

Let’s see how several other companies do this. How can you offer added value to consumers with one-on-one sessions? Because research shows that:

At the company Apple you can make online an appointment to visit the store. The nice thing is that you can also directly select the product you are interested in. The nearest store is also shown directly based on GPS. Check it out on their website.

This clothing brand with physical stores offers both virtual shopping and shopping by appointment in the store. They have a clear page with all the options, so that the customer can choose what is convenient for him or her. Check it out here.

At this car repair company you can easily choose the location (or search) first and then immediately enter all necessary information. It saves a lot of time if the data is stored directly in the CRM. Because the employee no longer needs to add the data, but only has to confirm it.

This is a good example of how to arrange group events. First, you will see an overview of all dates and the number of places available. Then if you click on an option, you will see a summary of the event and you can register immediately.

Another good example is the beauty shop of Brown Thomas. They offer various types of services and you can select the right store first.

Another nice example is the Headroom Hair Salon. They have a very clear option on the website to book an appointment. They use Timely as their software system which is fully integrated with their CRM.

This plumbing business has fully integrated appointment scheduling software. This is an interesting option for other companies that focus on services and less on products.

With retail appointments you can increase turnover, manage your time better and increase customer satisfaction. Finally, we now share a list of all the tips to improve sales during the session. Share this with all employees, so you can work on it together: