With the effects of the pandemic wearing off, consumers are thronging physical stores and outlets again. But there is a difference- consumers want digital to be the first touch. Right from chatting with a brand on social media to knowing the details of a product to an easier checkout process, a digital-first and last touch are preferred. But for most other things, consumers like to step out, touch and feel the products, and have an in-person experience. And this has given rise to Phygital customer experiences. 

What is phygital? 

Physical + Digital = Phygital. 

The term was coined back in 2013 but it has gained popularity only in the last year or so, after the pandemic. An amalgamation of physical and digital customer experience is what is termed Phygital. And it is of utmost importance for brands and retailers to ride this trend and offer phygital experiences. 

“73% of shoppers prefer to purchase online after visiting a store,” says a recent ET report. And more than 90% want to chat with a brand to inquire if a product is in stock before visiting the store. This clearly indicates why brands need to have a really good Phygital strategy and deployment to keep up with modern consumer demands. 

Different kinds of phygital experiences

The term may be new but Phygital has been around for a while. For instance, ordering via in-store kiosks has been around for about two decades. ChatGPT tells us that “the first in-store kiosk was installed in 1994 in a Blockbuster Video store in Dallas, Texas.” (Capillary launches AskAira, an AI assistant for marketers)

The other example of a phygital experience is the ability for customers to order online or in-store and get delivery through a variety of channels. This may be through the drive-in, doorstep shipping, or curbside delivery.

More modern examples of phygital would also include- immersive virtual reality experiences, augmented reality experiences, interactive voice-based experiences, and interactive video-based experiences. To summarize, phygital use cases include:

• Selecting a product online and picking it up in-store
• Redeeming a voucher online or offline
• Preorder items for pickup (works for F&B and QSR)
• Knowing store availability beyond working hours
• Dynamic voucher offers to drive customers to newly launched online stores
• Scanning a QR code instore to view detailed product information

Acing offline engagement along with online with Capillary

For a phygital experience to work smoothly, engaging a customer while in-store is the key. A platform like Capillary has several powerful features which can help you deliver an end-to-end phygital experience:

Dynamic Vouchering System (Communicate in real-time) 

Most conventional campaigns are hardwired to limited offers and do not encourage immersive customer engagement. Such static campaigns often restrict customers from spending more. Real-time offers are inherently better at engaging people and are thus, the need of the hour for every marketer these days.

Capillary’s Dynamic Vouchering System (DVS) enables a marketer to send personalized vouchers to its customers in real time.  These vouchers could be shared via SMS/WhatsApp notifications or printed coupons along with the bill receipt to increase the redemption further.

This has resulted in:

• Higher conversion rate (5% – 10%) than other promotions (1%-3%)
• Contributes 1% – 4% to the top line of the brand
• Assures instant customer gratification and repeat visits
• Increases wallet share by 50% by capitalizing on other campaigns

Power of CDP+ along with strong Integrations

In order to deliver a great phygital experience, it is crucial to collect consumer data from various POS systems. Capillary’s consumer data platform has a vast integration marketplace which allows you to build a 360-degree view of the consumer and deliver the perfect phygital experience. 

Phygital- A great opportunity to improve customer service

“More than 50% of consumers feel frustrated when they can’t reply to a promotional message,” according to one of the surveys we conduct at Capillary. Here are a couple of ways in which customer service can be improved:  

1) Seamlessly moving a customer from a chatbot to a human contact center agent if they have a complex issue or using human agents to supplement digital solutions.

2) Shoppers simply scan a product in the store to see a video of how it was created, how to use it, and its ingredients. The approach saves on packaging and in-store signage and empowers customers with more information about the products they are buying.

Conclusion

Get a 360-degree customer view, target better, and achieve business goals

To deliver a great phygital experience, having a 360-degree customer view is necessary and systems like Capillary have achieved a high level of sophistication to help you target customers better. Depending on zero-party data and first-party data, the system can nudge brand marketers in delivering the perfect experience suited for a particular customer. For instance, in some cases, a digital app notification would work better while in other cases, an SMS might be a better approach. Capillary Nudge Framework helps brands deliver highly effective loyalty programs which improve customer retention and increase overall revenue along with giving a superior customer experience. 

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Jubin Mehta is the Associate Director of Marketing at Capillary Technologies. He is a full stack marketer with 10+ years of experience as a tech journalist and B2B SaaS marketer. Also a meditation instructor, he is a proponent of non-dual philosophy. He can be reached out on Twitter @jub_in.