Sally El Akkad, Director of Marketing and eCommerce at Electrolux Egypt

An eye on the Phygital revolution

Bring a potato and some other yummy ingredients and you will get a delicious mash potato to enjoy.

Bring your offline channels and mix it with your online capabilities, hopefully with your e-commerce structure and you will get a channel mash up! in other words you will step into the Phygital world.. blending digital experiences with physical ones for a more comprehensive consumer experience.

Bridging consumers touch points is essential to bring the awareness/ conversion that a brand aspire, thus if we agreed that the consumer journey is non-linear then a brand need to bring the synergistic effect of consciously allowing communication/sales channels to talk to each other- by that we need to ask some questions:

▪ Are we getting the best out of retail channel? Along with other traditional selling channels? ▪ Do we understand the consumer path to purchase?
▪ Are we on top of the e-commerce KPIs for growth?
▪ Do you have the infrastructure of technology enabling the blend?

▪ Is your brand communication standardized and symbiotic across mediums?
▪ Are we aware of the digital campaigns’ objectives? Its targeting? Its expected outcomes?

f you have an answer for that then you somehow approached the synergy equation of 1+1=3 and be rest assured that channels cannot any longer operate in isolation, where mirroring it to consumers … they don’t either

Nowadays, Phygital is promoting the new norm of brand interaction/ exploration throughout the funnel , or even -expectantly- purchasing; whether to be done through a mobile phone, a desktop and depending on the market stage- here I am referring to an emerging market- consumers heavily go to store but not necessary accomplish their purchase there. So it is quite classical seeing a consumer holding his mobile and stepping towards the sales person asking him to see a particular SKU … a true proof that digital impact is 100%! meaning that you can fairly split its ROI between brands health tracking attributes “awareness, consideration…etc” and a direct e-commerce growth or retail channel evolution.

That leaves us with a specific predicament!

How do marketeers design an immersive in-store experience while leveraging the efficiency of the digital world! bringing the best out of the 2 worlds needs lot of agility that brands today must demonstrate, remember… consumers want it all, a richer experience, a purchase at the comfort of their homes, a friendly searchable brand with brain/ eyes stimulating content & an engaging experience at store.

One of the things I truly admire about Phygital is that it gives the upper hand to consumers and allow him/her to freely interact with the brand, plunge in what it stands for, and hopefully immerse in its DNA … no boundaries here & no limits, just your machine learning “your geeky pixels” with your instore excellence to win the heart and mind of the consumer, so whether this mental fight is at a virtual shelf or actual point of sale in-store, consumer is empowered with a contextual advertising that sheds light on all the knowledge he/she aspires to identify for his purchase.

Moreover, E-commerce plays an instrumental role in connecting the dots; with an amplified growth trajectory with the pandemic & its causative lockdown; its maturity level differs from company to another and even from brand to another within the same organization and honestly while management might show an appetite to derive it… It is not always reflected in actions, like stocks allocated to it, logistics & operational excellence to permit its reach, budget to help its evolution, technology to enable its growth & even hiring talented calibers to derive its overall ambition & growth vision, the symbiosis of following is the name of the game;

  • ▪  The sales & marketing capabilities is what makes its operation float,

  • ▪  Another floating tool is its margin CTF, usually this channel has the higher CTF, you can even

    steer it to the better by keeping an attentive eye on the mix,

  • ▪  Furthermore defining your consumer offering, what are you winning tactics?

  • ▪  What is your partnership status with the online big retailers? How are your JBP?

  • ▪  What is your advertising & logistics cost?

If you are not making good monies “relatively high CTF” after answering those question, then you are in a problem and you are sinking “rather than floating” and you truly need to think about the efficiency of your e-commerce operations & its proper integration with the rest of channels & even discuss the company serious pledge to grow with it!

So if you are still thinking of the commercial operations as a village with so many habitants .. think again! it is more of one large“ Ameoba”!!

What will you do with channels/ interdepartmental friction is a big dilemma to answer, mainly because of human insecurities mixed with ego, older more established channels will resist the blend and will try to mitotically separate from mother Ameoba.. a pro tip here; rework the RACI and be transparent about it & let all stakeholders understand where they stand from it, expect confrontation though it will eventually dissolve as it will be the kick off of another new norm… the future is coming anyways, and the smart ones know that it is useless to resist.

Maybe you want to think as well about the budget needed to bring all those integration between channels you aspire for the sake of a more holistic consumer experience with your brand, for that a solid profit proof strategy can help getting you the sought investment, you need to showcase over phases the benefits of making sales/MKT channels synchronize before going to MAMA investor/ Senior LT to sponsor your dreams “ they will eventually do, but be prepared for resistance” and that is why I recommend that you show phases, you cannot do everything in one go.

It is a non-ending journey to shake the underlying consumption and the best thing is that it is continuously evolving, thus what are you waiting for? Go and MASH-UP those channels!