Gekko, the field and retail marketing agency, has launched a new digital Learning Management System for brands, enabling them to improve retail staff product knowledge and develop brand advocacy. The system called LMEY (Let Me Engage You) –  provides a central hub for product specific knowledge to ensure retail staff are better equipped to influence a sale.

LMEY is an ‘Off the shelf’ solution for brands wanting to engage with third party sales teams, whether based on the shop floor, in contact centres or online sales teams. The product features a library of digital learning content, user guides, training videos and sales tips, along with other helpful information. The system is designed to develop knowledge, advocacy and sales. By viewing content and successfully completing tests and quizzes, users will be awarded points, stage completion awards and badges of recognition for achievement.

It has been developed following months of testing by Gekko who manage the design, setup & hosting. Meanwhile, awareness and communication will be managed by account and field teams to raise awareness and encourage participation.

The key features include:

– Branded portal developed for mobile, tablet, PC & Mac

– Information hub / Learning content

– Product information

– Quizzes & Competitions/ Prizes & Rewards/ League tables

– Registration via social media

– Linked to brand content plus a Live link to brand social feeds

According to Daniel Todaro, Managing Director, Gekko: “Customer experience is more vital than ever in today’s world. The way your brand and products are portrayed, searched online, spoken about, and sold by Retail Sales Advisors (RSAs), can influence a product sale. This system provides brands with a hugely effective managed solution that, from a client point of view is not only low maintenance and low input but also cost-effective.”

He continues: “This approach and gamification of learning is a great way to extend beyond a brand’s own paid-for field team, offering the potential to reach all sales staff wherever the brand is range. A ‘digital first’ approach such as this can be effective in extending reach to retail doors where face to face field team coverage is perhaps unviable or not cost-effective. This is particularly relevant in the environment of an ongoing pandemic.”

For more information please contact Toby Hicks on 0780-362-8050 or email toby.hicks@visiblepr.co.uk

About Gekko

Gekko is a full-service field and retail marketing agency, specialised in creating rewarding connections between brands and consumers in retail throughout the UK and Ireland.  Gekko is experts in delivering tailored, results-driven campaigns for brands, with services including merchandising, in-store promoters, mystery shopping, training, and strategic field teams as well as a host of online retail marketing solutions.  We bring your brand to the right people and the right people to your brand.

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21st July 2020:  Gekko, a field and retail marketing agency specialised in enhancing the shopper journey on behalf of brands across both the physical and digital retail space, has made four key appointments as it invests in new initiatives to drive growth for the business and clients and reflect the current retail landscape.

Jeremy Daniels has joined as senior Account Director and is responsible for directing and expanding the agency’s strategic partnerships with key clients. With a wealth of experience in the Telco sector, Jeremy brings not only industry knowledge and commercial acumen but also the drive to spot and maximise sales opportunities. His most recent role was managing the UK launch of Xiaomi into key retailers as well as the distribution channel. Previous roles have been at LG Mobile, ModeLabs and Kondor.

Coming from Oppo Mobile, Wilkin Lee joins as Client Services Director to oversee all strategic client relationships. Recruited for his tech industry experience and understanding of the retailer landscape, Wilkin will ensure that as the business grows, clients continue to receive the strategic support and commercial direction they need to succeed in retail both online and in stores.  Aside from Oppo, his career has seen him in roles at industry-leading brands including Xiaomi and Huawei.

To lead Gekko’s data and reporting team, Tom Harwood joins as Data & Insight Manager from within the retail industry having worked at QVC and Cotswold Outdoor.  His role is to provide campaign, category and marketing information and analysis to Gekko’s portfolio of clients and the retailers they partner.

Finally, to expand Gekko’s e-commerce marketing capabilities, extending and complementing the services provided to clients from traditional retail to the online retail space, Charles Burrows joins in the newly created role of e-commerce manager. By understanding the online retailer environment in relation to third party e-commerce sites and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) positioning of brand products and messaging, Gekko will now be able to direct and guide e-commerce strategies and improve sales opportunities with customers and retailers. Charles is a digital expert with many years’ experience in the Gaming and Telco sector including roles at EE and Carphone Warehouse.

Commenting on the appointments, Daniel Todaro, MD, Gekko said: “During this pandemic, we’ve seen the increasing trend of the contraction of brick and mortar retail expedite.  As a company that specialises in helping brands be more successful in retail, we’ve spent this time working closely with our clients to establish how best we can continue to help them to thrive across both bricks and mortar and e-commerce.  These additions to the team will help us to strengthen our business and deliver on our promise to clients and demonstrates Gekko’s resilience and adaptability during the lockdown by deciding to invest in leading industry talent.”

About Gekko:

Gekko is a full-service field and retail marketing agency, specialised in creating rewarding connections between brands and consumers in retail throughout the UK and Ireland.  Gekko are experts in delivering tailored, results-driven campaigns for brands, with services including merchandising, in-store promoters, mystery shopping, training, and strategic field teams as well as a host of online retail marketing solutions.  We bring your brand to the right people and the right people to your brand.

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Daniel Todaro, Group Managing Director at Gekko, shares how retailers can collectively apply some innovative techniques to inspire more success.

When independent retailers are thinking about customers, store, product and marketing it can be overwhelming, let alone trying to apply innovative thinking to tried and tested strategies. I’ve consciously taken price out of the equation – we all know it’s impossible for independent retailers to compete on price with the behemoths like Amazon – so value for money, reflected in customers, store, product and marketing – not the cheapest should be the mantra of independent retailers. So how do independent retailers do this?

Let’s start with customers. Independent retailers should know their customers better than any multiple retailers ever can. Do you know what they are buying and when and if not, you should be seriously asking yourself why? And if you do know, are you fleet of foot enough to be agile with your merchandising strategy in order to stock the goods that your customers want?

Advanced technology solutions aren’t what’s needed here, your POS will be able to provide basic information about your customers and all you need to do is let your team do the talking and stalking.

Listen, talk to and watch your customers and learn from their behaviour. When was the last time you asked your customers what type of products they’d like to see in the shop? How would they improve the shop? Making the customer feel like it’s their shop is something the larger brands can never do – and use that to increase product sale through. And think about whether your customer service is worth bragging about! Remembering what your customers bought is the start of a rewarding relationship.

Do everything you can to turn your shop into a destination and take inspiration from what the larger brands are doing, especially in their concept stores. Your shop needs to be an enjoyable experience with an element of discovery every time your customers go there. You wouldn’t eat at the same restaurant multiple times if the menu never changed. If you are selling electrical goods, people want your expertise and experience to buy products they know will be fit for purpose.

Sell the solution and impart practical advice rather than just selling products in isolation. Obvious, but something an online experience can’t replicate. Make sure you know your products and the market and that you communicate this intimate knowledge to potential customers – they don’t know what they aren’t told – and provide an environment in which they feel welcome. Even if it’s a small shop, there’s still no reason why you can’t provide two chairs and a coffee machine to encourage people to sit down and discuss with you their needs – again, increasing sale through and customer loyalty.

And then there’s the marketing strategy, and I don’t just mean ‘brand’ – you all know that a consistent brand experience is important for brand re-call. This is where I think independent retailers have an opportunity to think bigger.

We asked 2,000 UK adults if they thought independent retailers should collaborate to come up with innovate ideas like sharing shop space and marketing costs to cut down on their individual overheads and 73 per cent thought it was a great idea. Every shop on the high street is in the same position, yet despite the current challenges each is still operating in silo.

Get to know your neighbours, seek collective advice and behave like a group rather than individual businesses. Collaborate to organise customer events as well as on marketing drives to reach a wider audience. Joint special events, discount schemes and offering a local delivery service and recycling throughout the year, not only at key times, will all help in developing your customer base.

Independent retailers are the beating heart of our communities and have a huge amount to offer. Collectively helping each other to apply some innovative techniques will hopefully improve the fortunes of many.

To find out more about Gekko, get in touch with Daniel Todaro at daniel.todaro@gekkogroup.fm

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Independent retailers should think creatively and work together to avoid going to the wall and revitalise beleaguered high streets, according to a new report ‘Collaborative Retail’ commissioned by retail marketing experts, Gekko.

In the report, which interviewed 2,000 UK adults*, nearly three quarters (73%) said they think independent retailers should collaborate to come up with innovate ideas like sharing shop space and marketing costs, cutting down on their individual overheads. Most popular ideas for shop collaborations included independent shoe and clothing retailers, favoured by 71% of consumers, followed by book shops and cafes 68% and bakeries and greengrocers 65%.

Top reasons given by consumers for suggesting collaborations are supporting the High Street 64%, supporting local businesses 63%, choice 56%, convenience 52% and an enhanced shopping experience 48%.

Alongside collaborations nearly 90% of consumers thought it was important large national retail brands roll out their new store designs and concepts to regions other than just the major high street destinations. Over fifty per cent (56%) said they would visit their local high street more if brands did this.

Nearly three quarters (70%) of consumers said they were concerned about the impact of online sales on the High Street and the local economy, but felt that the high street still had a major role to play with benefits such as ‘try before you buy’ 62%, browsing and leisure 55%, buy and takeaway 51% and the opportunity to visit multiple shops 40%.

Daniel Todaro, Managing Director of Gekko, comments: “We cannot just sit back and watch our high streets continue to degrade. Our research clearly shows that UK consumers are worried about the future of the high street and the impact its demise will have on their communities. They would love to see more independent retail collaborations and believe this is a very exciting way to inject life back into the high street and it does make sense.  However, this approach to retail requires new and imaginative ideas from Government that support the legal and financial infrastructure of such initiatives. Our high streets do have a lot to offer so Government and retailers need to work together to make it an enticing proposition and lure people back.”

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A new report – Click and Regret- from marketing agency Gekko has revealed the shocking waste now involved with online shopping. According to the survey, £641m is the astonishing figure consumers are wasting online every year buying goods they don’t want and failing to return them.

The survey of 2,000 UK adults conducted by One Poll on behalf of Gekko reveals that 27% of respondents (equating to 12.4m UK adults) order goods online they regret buying but fail to return. The average amount wasted every year is £51.90 per person equating to £641m overall.* Nearly a third of UK adults 31% also confess to being lured into buying items they don’t want or need and 70% regularly regret buying things online so send them back.

Despite people seemingly unable to resist the temptation of spending money online, nearly half felt that the ease of shopping online fuels extensive shopping habits and 43% said they also spend more money online than they originally intended.

Although internet shopping is meant to be time efficient, a whopping 65% said they spent more time shopping online than they expected because there’s too much choice 69%, they want to hunt for the best prices 54% and they feel compelled to shop around 34%.

However, respondents also claim to be concerned about the environmental impact of online shopping with 75% worried about the excessive use of packaging and single use plastics. Meanwhile 70% said they were concerned about the societal impact on the high street and local economy of increasing online shopping.

Daniel Todaro, Managing Director of Gekko, comments: “It’s clear from this research that online shopping can be a false economy.  Although in theory we can return the goods we buy, many of us are too busy to bother, so what starts as convenient soon becomes costly and inconvenient. This results in unwanted goods cluttering cupboards, gathering dust in wardrobes or heading for landfill at an alarming rate.  With our high street suffering and many people still enjoying its benefits such as try before you buy, excellent customer service and immediate purchasing experience, people should be more mindful before they click and get out and support their local businesses, help the environment and their pockets.”

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