Introduction
Hi all, thanks for your attendance.
Before we start, some practical information. Our talk will take approximately 15 minutes. You can receive the slidedeck after the presentation.
We will take our subjects like:
- What is ROPO;
- What will it mean for you;
- Why should you take the ROPO-transition now;
- What will ROPO do for your company;
- What does the process look like?
We have been working on omnichannel-models since we can remember. Retailers across many different market verticals have experienced first-hand what the power of ROPO is. Due to recent developments, in regard to store visits in Google and Facebook, it only became more relevant. So I am super excited that we grasped your attention too.
ROPO Explained
Quick introduction first. ROPO is a process when a consumer researches about a product online and buys it offline in a physical store. For many retailers, this ROPO-effect is their truth and therefore, measuring this properly and being able to manage campaigns while keeping ROPO in mind, is crucial for the success of your company. ROPO, besides measurements, has a major effect on whether campaigns, channels, ads, audiences, etc. are successful or not. Often this crucial part is neglected. For example, all too often, we see online campaigns being judged on the basis of online returns only. While in the same instance, you as a marketer know very well this is wrong. You should also consider the ROPO-effect; the only question is: how?
Before we continue, a quick explanation on how we see the relationship between ROPO and omnichannel. Omnichannel is a strategy and ROPO is a way to measure a part of the strategy. Please remember that you can measure the ROPO-effect both ways. Online to offline but also offline to online (showrooming).
Why ROPO matters?
I don’t think I have to convince you of the importance of ROPO but just in case: one very important thing you should remember is that most transactions for retailers with physical stores still happen in their physical stores. Yes, digital is super important and growing fast but your physical network is just or even more important.
Other reasons you might not consider, technology has only recently evolved in such a way that we are able to measure the ROPO-effect with greater accuracy. Customer behavior has changed immensely in how they orientate and acquire information before purchases. So that is why besides looking at omnichannel from a strategic level, you need to be able to use ROPO in the tactics of your digital campaigns as well.
People have many different reasons to buy in a physical store. These will evolve over time but definitely not as fast as most digital minded people might say. For example, 55% indicates that ‘I want to see the item first’ is the main reason to buy offline. If you look at the correlation between researching and buying a product you will that for some sectors people search online and buy online but for most sectors people search online and purchase offline. Depending on what market vertical you are active in: the need to close the ROPO loop will be higher. For example, it is higher for someone that sells cars then electronics but even then I believe you cannot ignore the ROPO-effect for your specific company. For as long as you have a physical store, ROPO is something you have to consider.
How do your online efforts impact offline sales?
Let’s dive in and see how you integrate measure and adapt by using ROPO. What does the process look like? Here you have to total overview of the process. From past experience you can see the entire process can be up and running in four months. It just depends how urgent it is for you and therefore how much attention ROPO gets. We will tackle every phase separately.
1. Kick Off
The kick off, it seems trivial. Our experience is that you need the buy-in from all stakeholders. Why you ask? Well, consider the following real life scenario. As a digital marketer, when taking into account ROPO, you will start measuring campaigns to generate revenues of online and offline by pushing foot traffic to your physical stores. The result could be that some campaigns might be far better able to generate offline revenue than online revenue. You see the problem on the horizon? As a digital marketer, you probably have e-commerce targets and not e-commerce plus ROPO-targets. So first, your organization needs to agree on the fact that your e-commerce revenue targets might decrease in favor of generating offline revenue. You need omnichannel goals, KPI’s and eventually targets.
2. Setup ROPO
Next up are the measurements itself and the reports you build around. We have a very specific way of looking at evolutionary data. We won’t go into detail at this time. To be able to double check Google store visit numbers and more accurately determine the value of a store visit, we very often conduct exit research in physical stores. Exit research is conducted after a person buys something in a physical store. We also use this data as a baseline measurement to be able to compare datasets in the future.
Most of you know that Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads have metrics that measure store visits. We will adapt these and maximize this measurement system for the most accurate ROPO calculations. I will explain why I used the words ‘the most accurate’. As you might know Google and Facebook use many different data sources to determine in-store visits. Yes, indeed, it means that it is not 100% your own data. Therefore, not 100% accurate. But, it is the best in the market and it is our strong believe that only these two companies will have enough data to generate the most accurate numbers.
We have generated a free template for Google data studio you can download and modify as you see it. Besides this, you can also create more advanced and actionable reports in BI tools.
3. ROPO Campaigns
Once all your tracking is up and running, it is time to move forward towards managing your campaigns both on e-commerce and ROPO-value combined. It is in this phase you will see the main difference and what we would like to call ‘the magic’. As you can see, you will have both e-commerce and store visit value. Now, you need to be able to manage on the combined value or what we would like to call ‘the ROPO-model’.
Changing your current conversion settings, requires some knowledge of Google Ads. If you have questions regarding this, you know who to call. Important to remember; in most cases we see that the value generated via store visits outweighs that of e-commerce. This implies that store visit revenue will weigh more when looking at campaign performance. This is not a bad thing but just something you need to be aware of.
A note of critique or rather something you should keep in mind. You can only set one value for a store visit. This implies that with whatever intention people visit your site, they will get the same value. For example, somebody looking for a low value product that ends up in your store will get the same average value than somebody looking for a most expensive or high margin product. Nonetheless, store visit is the best of breed and you should use it. It is that simple.
4. Ongoing Management
Google Analytics’ store visits will allow you to track channel or campaign performance(??) for other sources as Google and Facebook. Therefore, you can use this to assess performance for all your digital channels. Remember, all assumptions about campaigns that worked or did not work in the past have to be reassessed. You have to use this ROPO information to further segment and scale existing or new campaigns. So happy testing and make sure all stakeholders are on board.
Want to learn more?
Want to learn more? Here you can find additional information about ROPO (check the resources page). Why to start using it, how to use ROPO or how to calculate the ROPO-effect for your company.
I know, that was quite a lot. So to wrap up, if you like to discuss the process in greater detail, we are here to help. We have ample experience across different market verticals in companies to guide you with this transition. It is one of the most important things to consider when you are present in both the physical and online world. ROPO is here to stay so let’s take it one step at a time.
If you have any questions or remarks, don’t hesitate and reach out. Thank you for your time.
