Drive-to-Store: Clienteling, Appointment Scheduling, and CRM to Enhance the In-Store Experience

Retail is now omnichannel. With the website e-commerce, the app, and now even an AI Shopping Assistant directly integrated with large language models (LLMs) and search engines, online sales have been booming for over a decade (+X% in France in 2025, according to FEVAD). That said, consumers aren’t quite ready to give up in-store shopping just yet. Proof of this, according to the Samsung Smart Retail 2025 Barometer, 75% of them prefer to complete their purchases in-store.

The challenge, therefore, is no longer simply to generate online sales, but rather to create opportunities for in-store visits, while providing a seamless experience across different touchpoints and channels.

To achieve this “drive-to-store” goal, many retailers are adopting solutions such as clienteling and appointment scheduling to deliver in-store experiences that make customers want to come back again and again. While effective on their own, these tools reach their full potential when connected to a CRM platform capable of centralizing customer data and orchestrating interactions.

Drive-to-store is no longer limited to local campaigns

"Drive-to-store" refers to all marketing initiatives, whether digital or in-person, that a brand implements to attract customers to its stores.

While the definition hasn’t changed, the ways to achieve this goal have expanded compared to a few years ago. In fact, initially , the question retailers asked themselves was , “How can I attract more customers to my stores?” And as was often the case back then, mass communication remained the clear favorite. Whether through geotargeted text messages, Google Ads, or Facebook Local Ads, these communications were partially localized but aimed to reach as many local customers as possible.

Since 2020, the question retailers have been asking has evolved to become , “How can we recognize a customer, personalize their experience, and extend the relationship after their visit?” Today’s drive-to-store strategy is no longer just about generating a visit; it’s about building an ongoing relationship before, during, and after the in-store visit. This is where tools specialized in in-store appointment scheduling and clienteling come into their own: they don’t replace Google Ads or Meta Ads; rather, they come into play later in the customer journey. Media campaigns can generate intent or initial contact, while clienteling or appointment scheduling transforms that intent into a qualified visit. The CRM then links these interactions to purchase, loyalty, and marketing data to manage the entire customer journey.

New Drive-to-Store Tools

Today, there are several categories of solutions that can enhance a drive-to-store strategy. Each one comes into play at a different stage of the customer journey and serves a specific purpose: building a relationship, facilitating the visit, or offering new in-store services.

Clienteling Solutions: Personalizing the Relationship Before the Visit

Clienteling solutions enable in-store advisors to build personalized relationships with their customers outside of retail locations. They offer the ability to communicate through various channels (text message, WhatsApp, email, etc.), share product recommendations, provide information about new arrivals, and even arrange an in-store visit based on the customer’s expressed needs.

Solutions such as our partner BSPK perfectly illustrate this approach by providing sales teams with personalized communication tools. Customers are no longer simply the recipients of a marketing campaign: they receive personalized support that strengthens their engagement and encourages them to visit the store.

Online Appointment Scheduling: Turning Intent into Qualified Visits

Online appointment scheduling allows customers to reserve a time slot in-store to receive a specific service: personalized advice, personal shopping, try-ons, workshops, after-sales service, or product demonstrations. By eliminating organizational hassles and ensuring that an advisor is available, it helps streamline the customer journey while enhancing the in-store experience.

Platforms such as Booxi, a Splio partner, allow retailers to easily integrate this type of service into their digital customer journey. Each appointment then becomes an opportunity to prepare for the visit, better understand the customer’s expectations, and increase the chances of conversion once in-store.

Other Strategies to Drive In-Store Sales

Clienteling and appointment scheduling are just two examples among a broader ecosystem of solutions dedicated to drive-to-store. Enhanced store locators, click-and-collect, in-store inventory checks, wishlist management, and live shopping are all tools that help create interactions with customers and encourage them to visit the store.

When used together, these tools enhance the omnichannel experience. But to fully realize their potential, the data they generate must be centralized and leveraged in a consistent manner. That is precisely the role of a CRM platform.

CRM: Essential for Coordinating Your Drive-to-Store Strategy

Clienteling, appointment scheduling, and click-and-collect solutions each address a specific need. However, when they operate in silos, they provide an incomplete view of the customer journey and limit opportunities for personalization.

Data from interactions with advisors, in-store visits, purchases, the loyalty program, or marketing campaigns is often scattered across multiple platforms. As a result, teams, both on the front lines and in marketing, have a fragmented view of the customer and struggle to deliver a truly omnichannel experience.

Centralize data in your CDP to gain a better understanding of your customers

Every interaction that takes place before or during an in-store visit enriches customer insight: a conversation with a sales associate, an online reservation, participation in an event, or an in-store purchase, all of these provide valuable information. By centralizing this data within a Customer Data Platform (CDP), the CRM creates a single, constantly updated view of the customer.

This gives both marketing teams and advisors a comprehensive view of each customer’s journey, allowing them to tailor their actions based on the customer’s history, preferences, and behavior.

Customize learning paths using the marketing automation

Once the data is centralized, it can be automatically activated throughout the customer journey for enhanced CRM personalization . An in-store reservation can trigger a confirmation email and some preparation tips, while an appointment that doesn’t result in a purchase may prompt a personalized follow-up. Conversely, a customer who has made a purchase may receive additional recommendations or an invitation to an event that matches their interests.

This marketing automation thus makes it possible to turn every interaction into an opportunity to strengthen the customer relationship, without any manual intervention by the teams.

Enhancing Customer Loyalty and Measuring Performance

A CRM platform does more than simply guide the customer through the in-store visit, it helps sustain the relationship over time. Data from drive-to-store tools enriches the loyalty program by providing a more detailed view of customer behavior and engagement. This makes it possible to reward participation in an event, invite top customers to an exclusive gathering, or offer truly personalized benefits.

This centralization also makes it easier to manage performance. Retailers can measure the number of appointments that result in purchases, identify the most effective clienteling initiatives, and analyze the impact of their campaigns on in-store visits and customer loyalty.

Use Case for a Drive-to-Store Strategy: A Connected Customer Journey

Imagine Maria, a customer of our fictional hat brand, PopHat.

Maria is looking for a hat for the wedding she’ll be attending at the end of the month. She regularly chats on WhatsApp with the sales associate at the store just a stone’s throw from her home. So she tells the sales associate what she’s looking for and what she’ll be wearing on the big day so the sales associate can put together a selection of hats for her.

To browse the selection without wasting time in the store, Maria decides to make an appointment on the PopHat website for the following week.

When she visited the store, she discovered the selections the sales associate had put together based on her preferences as well as her very specific expectations. Without a moment’s hesitation, she bought the hat that best complemented her wedding outfit.

Her interactions with the advisor (WhatsApp conversation) and with the brand (scheduling an appointment), as well as the purchase she made, allow Maria’s profile to be updated in PopHat’s CRM. This valuable information will enable PopHat’s CRM teams to send her a personalized invitation tailored to her preferences.

The Benefits of a Unified Drive-to-Store Strategy for Retailers and Customers

By connecting their drive-to-store tools to their CRM platform, retailers create a more seamless and consistent experience for both their customers and their teams. Every interaction, whether digital or in-store is part of a continuous journey in which information flows from one tool to another.

As a result, customers enjoy a more personalized experience: they receive better support before their visit, are recognized regardless of the channel they use, and receive communications tailored to their expectations. This continuity strengthens their commitment to the brand and helps build their loyalty.

For teams, this approach makes day-to-day work easier. Advisors have a better understanding of their customers, marketing teams can run more targeted campaigns, and decision-makers gain a more comprehensive view of their omnichannel strategy’s performance. Everyone works from a shared set of information, all in the service of a consistent customer experience.

Drive-to-store has evolved significantly: it’s no longer just about attracting customers to the store, but about creating the conditions for a personalized and lasting relationship between the brand and its customers. Customer engagement tools, appointment scheduling, and various omnichannel services now play a vital role in bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds. But their full potential is realized when they are connected to a CRM platform capable of unifying data and orchestrating interactions throughout the entire customer journey.

For retailers, the challenge is therefore no longer to add new tools, but to build a connected ecosystem in which every interaction helps them better understand, better support, and better retain their customers.

At Splio, we’ve developed a robust ecosystem of partners specializing in drive-to-store, enabling brands to connect their various touchpoints and deepen their understanding of their customers. To learn more, contact us !