RETAIL INDUSTRY
Customer Engagement:
The Weakness Of Kenya’s
Retail Industry
By Mungai Charles
C
ommunicators
say
93%
of
communication is non-verbal. For
decades this worked in favor of
brick and mortar retailers, physical stores
such as supermarkets and shops both in
Kenya and globally where information on
pricing and product availability was a one-
way broadcast to the customer.
Then came Amazon and Alibaba, the
advent of e-commerce, and the scales of
communication sharply shifted in favor of
the consumer. Many companies in Kenya's
retail industry largely driven by brick and
mortar stores are struggling to adapt
to the new dynamics of retail business
with margins becoming ever so tight,
customer tastes so refined, innovation and
competition at an all-time high.
Customer Engagement is now the number
one factor to Retail business longevity.
According to a recent study Published
in the Journal of Marketing, researchers
found that a retailer whose social media
posts had high engagement (e.g. Likes,
comments and shares) had more in-store
sales and higher customer spending. Also,
a brand that invests in both social media
and a TV advert had a sales increase of 1%
over a brand that invested in TV alone.
Kenyan Supermarkets need to learn how
to pick up on these non-verbal customer
communication cues. Whether it's
customer searches for your store on the
internet, visits to your website, mobile
app downloads/installations and usage,
logging on to Wi-Fi in the supermarket as
With most Kenyans spending an average
of 4 hours on the Internet on their mo-
bile phones, averaging 3 hours of these
on Social Media, this means they have an
email address too. So ensure you have a
strong Social media presence and ensure
that when they visit your supermarket
whether online or offline, you get their
email address and phone number to en-
sure you can reach out to them on those
platforms later.
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they shop, scanning products, redeeming
coupons, adding items to their online
shopping cart, sharing their contact
details as they complete an application
for your loyalty cards, “likes” or “sharing
photos” on Instagram, they are exhibiting
a “digital body language”.
Therefore as a retailer, you need the proper
tools and resources to read these signs,
recognize the opportunity and respond
timely and accordingly. Only then can you
say you are engaging with your customers.
The problem is that many in Kenya's Retail
industry have no clue how a retailer can
improve customer engagement activities.
Customer Engagement
Activities In Retail
Make it easy for the customer to interact
and shop
Give them multiple touch points both
offline and online. This means, over and
above a physical store, get a website if
you don't have one. However remember
that unlike the rest of the world, Kenya
is now not just a Mobile 1st country, it
is a Mobile only Country. So ensure your
Website loads very fast and is easy to use
on a Mobile phone or better yet, create a
Mobile Application for your supermarket.
With most Kenyans spending an average
of 4 hours on the Internet on their mobile
phones, averaging 3 hours of these on
Social Media, this means they have an