The user experience can not forget the analog world | Trends

The digital transformation is an obligation for the Spanish company. The impact of the digital world has brought about a paradigm shift in the market that can invite the directors of companies to ask themselves a question: should we leave in the background or even forget the analog world?

The volume of sales data through platforms of ecommerce they do not stop increasing. According to data collected by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), only in Spain online sales of products increased by 23% in the last quarter of 2017.

With this upward trend in digital commerce, physical stores are immersed in a continuous and profound reinvention process to continue offering a differential value based on giving the customer a great user experience that, in short, allows brands to increase their sales

One of the most representative cases of this situation comes from the hand of the American giant Apple. A company does not become the first in history to surpass the trillion dollars of value just because. There is a deep work and brand development where the quality of the products they offer is not the only indispensable factor. In fact, it is that extra value that places it as the brand among brands. This unique user experience in all its formats (online, analog and product, in fact, 60% of Apple's sales comes through the Iphone).

Because in times where it is increasingly sold digitally, Apple increasingly opens more physical stores. The statistics determine that since 2005, when the Steve Jobs brand had 116 stores, until the last data collected in 2018, they have not stopped growing. Currently the curve is located in the 499 establishments around the world. Something that is not the result of chance.

A priori it seems contradictory that the more sales volume there is online, a company decides to open more physical stores. And why do they do it? To create user experience. To follow the idea already started by Steve Jobs to make him feel different from the one who consumes his products. A sort of division of the world into two groups, between those who think differently and feel special and those who do not.

Something that has even allowed him to increase the price of his mobile devices and not resent the volume of sales and revenue. A strategy that, together with the customer experience that accompanies it, has helped to increase the brand's revenues by 20% in the last quarter.

Stores where the experience is important. Where to feel served at all times, where you can try the products without restriction, where to find the best advice and learn to use the devices thanks to courses taught there. A true theme park of the 'apple' terminals. A 360º center where the user feels unique.

A philosophy that other brands are already undertaking in other sectors. For example, Nespresso. Creating unique sensations in their physical establishments has not only escaped the conception of coffee as a staple product -which can be purchased at any supermarket with the weekly purchase-, but also elevates its product to the category of luxury item. Only this way it is explained that the members of the Nespresso community feel different to the rest, feel that they belong to an elite.

Feeling unique is the idea that Cabify or Uber also promulgates. Raising their service to a special experience where, offering the same as the taxi service, they get people to feel at a higher status. Always a user experience within the analog world with which the client identifies and feels comfortable.

From the driver's treatment to the services offered in the vehicle. All for and for the user: Tinted glasses for your privacy, bottles of water, possibility to choose the music, ... Details with those who make the difference.

An experience that the vast majority of brands do not yet seem to understand. According to data provided by the Financial Times, only 1% of companies meet the expectations of customers, going against the thinking of users. Since according to the same medium up to 87% of customers would be willing to pay more for a product in exchange for a better customer experience.

The customer experience consists of creating in the user the feeling of buying feelings, ideas, elements that go beyond the product that they acquire. And it should be remembered that, in a world where everything is being digitized, the perspective that the analogical, the physical still has a great value in society can not be lost.

Daniel Marote is an expert in marketing and digital transformation, and managing partner of Hydra.Digital