Experiential commerce to grow slow and steady

According to a survey conducted by CoreMedia, a provider of web content management software, only 11% of retailers have an experiential commerce strategy in place. However, the same research shows that experiential commerce is gaining traction, as up to 75% of companies are discussing the concept more extensively.

Findings unveil that the main factor boosting experiential commerce adoption is a lack of differentiation from the competition, as reported by 57% of retail respondents. Other factors increasing retailers’ interest in experiential commerce were low conversion rates (44%) and a lack of brand understanding among consumers (43%).

By embracing experiential commerce, respondents said they aimed to increase customer loyalty (68%), revenue (66%), customer satisfaction (63%), engagement (62%) and brand awareness (58%).

However, respondents have also stated that although they may want to implement an experiential commerce strategy, there are obstacles making the process more difficult, including providing a relevant experience across all channels (58%), personalizing the user experience based on context (58%), integrating with marketing systems, campaigns and content (58%), lacking experimental commerce expertise (48%) and integrating rich media into their commerce platform (48%).

The study was conducted in May 2014 in the US and is based on a sample of 143 respondents.

Experiential commerce seeks to replicate the complete shopping experience consumers are used to face in a brick-and-mortar store.