What would a store manager do?

I love this little video made by Google to illustrate what an online checkout would be like in a store environment. Mainly it's really funny but also makes a good point - how many online retailers ask themselves on a regular basis 'how/why would this work in stores?'.

More and more I find myself going back to this fundamental question as challenges come up about how to create multichannel experiences for customers. It's not about replicating the store experience online -technical and security challenges for a start would put paid to that -  but about applying real world behaviours to the digital space. I find it adds another viewpoint to think in this way.

The other interesting spin on this is that when you ask a question like this of your self, your team, your ideas - you're going back to basics and stripping the issue right down. Say you're facing a dip in conversion and you're asked to come up with the magic idea which will fix this (How many of us are going to get asked this question this Christmas I wonder?). How do you start? Usually with analytics and data - first find the possible pain points, OK so far so easy. So now how do you improve it? That's when I ask myself 'how/why would this journey work in stores?.

A store manager doesn't have the ability to take down and rebuild his store, he can't create content himself, he can't even add more lines or greater depth of stock. Take away thoughts of technology and complex channels - there is only a couple of ways of communicating with customers in this scenario. So then - what does he do?

I noticed that Mary Portas has a print behind her desk which says 'What would Mary do?' - next time you're faced with a challenge on your site try thinking ' What would a store manager do?'