Digital Showroom: What Is It? Its Importance And Benefits ? 4 Examples & Tips To Sell More
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When trends are changing at a rapid pace, it is important to be able to keep up. Brands need to be able to present their latest and greatest products in a way that will captivate the attention of shoppers and push them towards making a purchase. Digital showrooms allow brands the opportunity to do this with greater ease by showcasing all of their clothes, shoes, watches, etc., in one place.
When retailers and brands were forced to adapt to a new way of working because of COVID-19. Using a digital showroom, you can share your collections by clicking a button. Depending on its functionality, you can share product images and videos and accept purchases within the same platform.
In times when Zoom meetings have become more common than we could have imagined in the last year. The pandemic, however, has accelerated the digital revolution and its implementation in digital showrooms. The purpose of this article is to explain what a digital showroom is? Furthermore, discover how brands, retail stores, grocers, supermarkets, and restaurants are handling this new way of selling using virtual selling best practices.
Digital showrooms, what are they?
Digital showrooms may also be referred to as virtual showrooms, allowing brands and retailers to engage online and sell products on the same platform.
With it, showrooms are replaced, removing the need for a physical location and physical samples to show new collections. The gap between digital and physical spaces is bridged through virtual showroom cloud platforms.
Organizing new collections, including photos, details, pricing, and delivery information, are tasks performed by brands, retail stores, grocers, and supermarkets. Customers are welcome to visit the showroom whenever it is convenient for them. Customers can digitally explore your new products or collections and make purchase orders directly on the same platform.
The concept of digital showrooms isn’t new. It has, however, gained increased popularity with the adoption of new technology. This trend isn’t going away any time soon. Digital showrooms offer brands and retail buyers many advantages, including scheduling ease, cost savings, sustainability, and safety.
The use of digital showrooms has been growing across various industries, such as fashion, beauty, home goods, auto, and more.
What do brands and retailers do with digital showrooms?
Retailers and brands in the fashion, beauty, food, groceries, and home design industries use digital showrooms for bringing the entire sale and buying process online. Customers benefit from this tremendously.
The brands upload their collections to the digital showroom platform rather than opening physical showrooms for retailers. In this way, retail buyers can visit at their convenience, view the entire collection, and place orders simultaneously.
Brands can expand their reach and streamline their B2B sales processes through digital showrooms. In an online buying process, you can have multiple buyers view your collection and submit their purchase orders simultaneously.
Online showroom platforms enable retailers to discover new collections and complete purchase orders. The virtual experience allows buyers to see and order from various brands without having to visit multiple showrooms.
Here are some examples of digital showrooms done right using Phygital24’s All In One Digital Showroom and Ordering Platform
24Seven
Vijetha Supermarkets
Digital showrooms have numerous benefits.
It may be possible to reduce costs, minimize waste on sample making, and increase sales by selling virtually.
Here are some reasons to consider using a digital showroom:
Cost reduction and improved sustainability:
In digital showrooms, product samples are reduced or eliminated. In turn, you save money and the environment.
A brand typically makes two to fifty sets of samples for salespeople. The number of samples varies based on factors like
- Number of sales representatives in each region
- Amount of wholesalers
- Availability of retailers
- Showrooms in the physical location
- The size of the market
Since retailers can now log into a virtual showroom and review collections, the need for creating physical products is almost obsolete. Samples can be made virtually before they need to be made physically. Shorter development cycles allow brands to respond faster and reduce waste by creating products that fit their markets better. Shouldn’t sustainability be about that? Only make products that sell.
Making your product assortment planning more effective:
You can easily plan product assortments once you have a digital library of products, whether you do this with product photography or 3D images.
With the digital showroom platform, you can search and add products from your library to create categories that can be viewed by retail buyers. Unlike a physical one, you can plan from anywhere with a virtual showroom. This has the advantage of allowing you to sell your products without waiting for physical products to be delivered.
Get your product to market faster:
It is not uncommon for sample shipments from the factory to be delayed. With products links, your retail buyers have access to your entire collection immediately. It is unnecessary to wait for physical samples before introducing your new collections.
Streamline wholesale buying and make it more efficient:
During the ordering process, digital showroom software handles everything. Creating purchase orders (POs) can be streamlined, and retail buyers do not need to submit POs in various formats. In addition, production orders can be consolidated more easily.
You can find everything you need in one place:
Buyers like the digital showroom platform because it makes the ordering process easier. Your customers just have to choose the products from your product library and add them to their PO or virtual cart. It gives buyers easy access to products’ details like the style and SKU numbers, size ranges, and delivery times. If you sell virtually, you’ll be able to sell to more buyers in less time, and you can minimize your sales window.
With more efficient ordering, you can deliver higher order values, offer better customer service, and schedule more virtual appointments, so you can sell more in the future.
You and/or the buyer will no longer have to rush from one showroom to another to see collections and make notes. You will be able to reduce appointment times with a digital showroom.
Increase sales by leveraging data:
Most digital showroom platforms collate all user sales and order data in a user dashboard.
Thus, you can easily see which products are selling more than others and which may not make it. If there is not enough demand for certain products, you may decide not to produce them.
It is possible to update the virtual showroom in real-time to react to customer needs much faster and direct buyers to products and assortments that have already proven to be in high demand.
Reach a broader audience across the country or around the world:
In addition to providing brands and retail buyers with a marketplace, many digital showroom platforms act as a marketing and sales tools. When you use a virtual showroom platform, you can show your collections to buyers in different countries. There is no need to spend money setting up physical showrooms in their region. In addition to expanding into new markets, this can also increase national or international sales.
If you’re located in Kerela, a buyer in Punjab can view your products online and order from your digital showroom.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
By taking advantage of a digital showroom platform, you can remain open for business. Anyone who has a computer, tablet, or smartphone can buy from you.
The future is competitive, and we have to adapt to it:
Many industries have been pressed to go digital because of the pandemic. Despite this, this new form of working has proven beneficial in several sectors. Adapting to digital showroom selling now will position you to succeed today and into the future.
By increasing efficiencies for brands, brands can increase their individual order values and compete more effectively in the market.
How to maximize revenue in your digital showroom:
The price structure of each digital showroom platform varies, but most charge a monthly subscription fee. For certain platforms, you may have to pay extra for more features. It is important to always keep these best practices in mind when selling virtually so that you get the best return on your investment.
Identify your digital showroom’s KPIs:
The first step for brands in their digital transformation journey is to decide what their objectives and KPIs are – what is it that they really want to achieve?
Here are a few common goals you can consider:
- Reduce your number of physical showrooms
- Reducing salesman samples
- Accelerate the development process to reduce time to market
- Achieve higher order values
- Reduction of unsold stock
- Speed up the design, sales, and production
- Reducing carbon footprint
Establish your primary objectives to build your digital strategy around those objectives.
Think digitally:
Doing business differently isn’t easy. However, you need to adopt new practices to improve productivity and stay ahead of your industry for your company to grow. Nothing can drive smart, sustainable change through great software as effectively as believing in yourself if you believe in yourself. It is the most powerful asset for success for both individuals and businesses.
Content marketing is important for a brand’s success:
In addition to reducing costs and waste associated with sample making, a digital showroom offers reduced sample making as one of its key benefits. Nevertheless, you must still exhibit your collections to prospective customers. A successful virtual or digital showroom must include detailed, high-quality brand content.
Since brand content directly impacts buyer behavior, brands should invest in the highest quality imagery, videos, and marketing materials. At Phygital24, our experts say that the more engaging the experience, the longer the buyer will spend in the environment leading to a higher-order value and greater retention of customers.
By offering customers a variety of angles from which to view your merchandise, you can make your content and the experience interesting. Describe your products in detail for buyers to understand them. Include product details, such as material, price, where the product is made, size, and delivery dates.
Offer trial kits or samples to buyers:
Many buyers are likely ok with an entirely online buying process. However, some consumers- especially those who have never used your products before- still prefer to see samples up close and in person. This link between the digital showroom and samples helps brands improve efficiency and capture editorial opportunities.
Make choices simpler for buyers:
You can reach new markets with the help of a virtual showroom. There are, however, distinct regional differences, and products that sell well in one area may not work in another.
As you expand, you can localize product assortments. Edit products and organize them into categories or themes so buyers can easily navigate relevant collections.
Engage buyers with graphics, promos, and banners that spotlight bestsellers, seasonal items, and your own personal favorites.
The future is digital:
With travel restrictions and social distancing measures still in effect in many regions, digital showrooms can help keep your business on track. Plus, You can integrate technology into your marketing and sales strategy and improve your customers’ experience at the same time.
In conclusion, digital showrooms are beneficial to both retailers and brands because they streamline the sales and purchase process. With this convenience, retail chains can maintain a wider range of inventory without occupying as much physical space. In addition, digital showrooms allow brands to display their products to a global audience without any travel expenses. The benefits of implementing digital showrooms within organizations should now be obvious from this article.
info@phygital24.com | Phygital24.com
