While retailers in Indonesia are not immune to the pressure brought about by consumers’ spending habits, the holiday season provides a window of opportunity for brands hoping to recover from the sales slump in past quarters – if they know how to connect and engage with consumers the right way.

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online shopping, as consumers flocked online amid physical restrictions in the last couple of years. While Indonesia has recently loosened COVID-19 safety measures, the impact of the pandemic on online retail will last well beyond the recovery phase.

Globally, Indonesians are the most active online shoppers, with 26 percent of respondents purchasing a product or service online in the past day. For retailers in Indonesia, sustaining the online sales momentum requires them to pay greater attention to consumers’ shopping experience, while moving past a myopic focus on ad-based targeting.

Traditionally, physical stores have been more inclined to improve the shopping experience, adding value through tangible elements like providing couches where companions of shoppers can wait or offering refreshments, especially in the case of luxury shops. Without the element of tangibility, online shopping requires more creativity, and this is a gap retailers need to plug as they look into building connections with customers online.

Forming a lasting impression that turns one transaction into repeat purchases is all about effective communications throughout the purchase journey: identifying moments of truth, and sending the right message to consumers at the right time and channel. One area that most online retailers typically overlook is after-purchase customer engagement, and during the holiday season, the days after Christmas are especially crucial as these are the biggest return-and-exchange days of the year.

The value of having stellar after-sales customer engagement cannot be overemphasized: Customers need to feel heard and supported even after purchasing items, or the relationship won’t progress beyond a single transaction. This is where technology – including WhatsApp messaging and chatbots – can provide a two-way communication avenue for live exchanges, enabling retailers and consumers to resolve after-purchase issues more efficiently.

By putting the focus on building relationships with consumers online through quality conversations, retailers can move beyond one-sided transactional engagements and inch closer to winning customer loyalty.

Online shopping may be here to stay, but in-store shopping won’t be going anywhere either. Physical stores, after all, still offer more product visibility, allowing consumers to see, feel, and test products before purchase.

With the easing of restrictions in the last months, consumers are inclined to engage in in-person experiences after a long hiatus. For a lot of consumers, buy-online-pickup-in-store is fast-becoming the preferred option as this addresses online shopping pain points including long delivery times and shipping costs, which can dampen the holiday spirit for shoppers in a rush.

But that’s not to say that retailers can just take it easy this holiday season:  consumers are becoming more intentional about spending and demand convenience and exceptional service from retailers more than ever. This means consumers can easily get frustrated with long waiting times in-store, or late updates on the status of their pickup orders.

Given rising customer expectations, retailers can benefit from having an omnichannel communication strategy that boosts their ability to deliver excellent in-store shopping experiences. With access to data and information from customer interactions across all channels, offline sales agents can continue conversations in-store, and effectively recommend additional services and items shoppers may potentially be interested in.

With jingles and jangles left and right during the holiday season, brands that personalize emails and alerts using behavioral, psychographic, and demographic data can better differentiate themselves from the pack. With 67 percent of Indonesian respondents inclined to talk to human agents over bots, retailers should focus on communicating with mindfulness – instead of sending automated messages that fail to factor in shoppers’ varied interests and preferences.

Furthermore, 81 percent of consumers in Indonesia would like to make purchases directly through a conversational messaging app. When these messages are sent, the channels used to deliver them matter in the new age of engagement.

In Indonesia, 94 percent of consumers are keen to make purchases over WhatsApp, with Instagram ranking second (47 percent), followed by Facebook Messenger (43 percent). Delighting customers through targeted messaging can create positive impressions, which translate to repeat purchases, brand loyalty, and word-of-mouth promotion.

Data privacy issues can easily turn holiday shopping into a nightmare. Implementing security precautions, including protecting and streamlining product registration, authentication, and recovery, can prevent hackers and data breaches from taking the fun out of holiday shopping.

Trust-based shopping means that consumers today are prioritizing security as they interact with retailers through applications and communication channels. Retailers that don’t step up their security game with low-friction, strong customer authentication could potentially lose customers, who have become more conscious about sharing personal data.

Besides protecting consumers, having a secure digital presence also protects retailers from online payment fraud – allowing them to enjoy holiday season sales with peace of mind.

One thing is certain: Holiday shopping will continue to be an annual tradition in 2022 and beyond, with this time of the year heralding a season of gift-giving and countless sales events. Amid the flurry and excitement, there lies an opportunity for brands to refine their customer engagement and communications strategies, both online and in-store. In the throes of post-pandemic recovery, retailers that are able to connect better with shoppers during the holiday season have a higher chance of improving their bottom lines and finishing the year on a high – even as consumers become more intentional about their spending.

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The writer is regional vice president, solutions engineering for Asia Pacific Japan.