i3 - May/June 2018 - 47

By Steve Smith

Business

R E TA I L ST R AT EG I E S

Google Partners
With Independents

that the groups' privately-held, independent retail members have embraced
the search giant.
In her keynote at Nationwide's
"PrimeTime" convention, Joanna Chick,
Google's strategic partner manager
urged the assembled independent
electronics and appliance retailers to
embrace digital marketing, while
updating them on the changing nature
of the phenomenon. How consumers
interact with retailers and brands,
and how both must interact with this
generation's shoppers evolves on
a regular basis. "Mobile changed daily life
forever," Chick says. A study by Qualtrics
and Accel found that millenials check
their phones 150 times a day or more.
Chick says that many assumptions
thought to be correct a few years
ago are considered "myths" today.
For instance:

* Consumer attention spans are getting

was in Best Buy in Manhattan recently and noticed
a lady intensely shopping for an accessory. She was
rummaging through the shelves and seemed to be learning about the products right then, without having done
any online research. As I left the store I thought, "When was
the last time I didn't go online to research an electronics
product and find the best retailer to buy it from?" For me, it
had to be a decade, if not more.

Sveta Zi/Getty Images

The shopper may have assumed that
it was the place that would have the
right product at the best price. And
maybe she was right. But for millions
of consumers today, that shopping
behavior is from another era.
For thousands of independent electronics and electronics/appliance dealers that aim to get attention away from
the big guys, they need to embrace digital marketing to attract a new generation of consumers.

Enter Google

At the Nationwide Marketing Group
convention in Orlando, a Google executive addressed the independent
C TA . t e c h / i 3

electronics and appliance retailers highlighting their partnership. And
Associated Volume Buyers (AVB), the
retail buying group whose units include
BrandSource and ProSource, has
a relationship with Google, says Dave
Workman, president/CEO of ProSource,
which brings to AVB members "a tremendous amount of analytics" that can
be used to "create smart marketing
programs for independent retailers."
Google now sells its Nest home automation products through independent
retailers. But as a veteran attendee
of buying group meetings since the
1980s, it still amazes me that Google
has discovered buying groups, and

shorter. Chick says that 81 percent
of video viewing sessions capture
people's attention today;

* Consumers pay attention to all

screens equally. Consumers usually
view content in two very different
modes, "lean forward" meaning the
user is engaged, and the less desirable
"lean back" mode.

* Even if people pay attention they tune

out ads. Not so, says Chick, who quotes
Google research that found ads that are
relevant to the viewer, or feature people
like them, get three times the attention.

Nationwide's relationship with Google
provides the group's dealers with baseline website analysis based on Google's
best practices. The group says it is also
offering members its "Nationwide
Google Benchmark" to compare a dealer's analytical data against past performance or genetic data.
Google's partnership can help independents attract more online and instore traffic to keep them on par with
national retailers, and also educate
today's consumers about their services to
help explain the technologies they sell.
MAY/JUNE 2018

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