Less is more: Creating the best omnichannel retail
The best omnichannel retail strategy focuses on the channels that matter most to your customers and providing seamless customer experience.
Sharpening digital commerce capabilities was a line item on many business agendas long before the pandemic. Now it’s fundamental for growth. But simply having an online presence isn’t enough.
The bar for e-commerce excellence is higher than ever – but thankfully not unattainable. Today, it’s all about omnichannel commerce.
Omnichannel commerce: 7 crucial elements to bring it all together
Most retailers operate as multichannel business, in that they sell products across more than one channel. They’ll sell through a website and physical stores, but the channels generally don’t interact.
Omnichannel commerce, on the other hand, provides customers with lots of different ways of buying from or engaging with the retailer through multiple marketing channels.
The future of omnichannel commerce requires unifying 7 crucial online and offline facets:
- Fulfilment
- Marketing
- Marketplaces
- Merchandising
- Mobile
- Social
- Web
It also includes the retailer’s own website UX, lead flow, sales process, and customer service.
Omnichannel brings all these touchpoints together, delivering a consistent customer experience regardless of the channel.
Omnichannel marketing: Definition, examples, strategy
Omnichannel marketing is the strategy and practice through which a brand interacts with its consumers, both off and online.
Omnichannel commerce example: Retailer adapts, and delivers
A good example of omnichannel in action is The Entertainer, the largest family-owned toy retailer in the UK. The company successfully pivoted throughout all three COVID lockdowns, thanks to its firmly established omnichannel e-commerce strategy.
The company was able to master frictionless online and mobile customer experience, enhanced by its 30-minute click-and-collect service, all of which matched the customer service levels of buying in-store.
The ability to deliver this type of seamless shopping experience across a variety of platforms means retailers can reach a much wider consumer audience (even when your bricks and mortar shops are closed), and successfully switch gears when circumstances change unexpectedly.
Omnichannel vs. multichannel 2024: What’s the difference and who is doing it?
Most retailers are now multichannel, where they sell their products across more than one channel. Very few, however, are truly omnichannel. Discover what it means to be considered an omnichannel business.
Meeting customers where they are and how they want
According to a recent report, social media drove one out of 10 visits to retail websites during the peak holiday season of 2020, a 17% increase year over year. And it’s a trend set to continue. Digital consumption changed in the pandemic with consumers trying out new ways of shopping, and many saying they intend to continue a hybrid approach beyond the crisis.
Meeting potential customers through the buying platform they’re most comfortable using not only increases the likelihood of a sale but can also amplify customer loyalty for a retailer’s brand. This is one of the great unappreciated strengths of an omnichannel approach.
In fact, retailers adopting omnichannel marketing strategies average 15 to 35% increases in transaction size, and 30% higher lifetime value of an omnichannel consumer versus those using just a single channel.
The case for omnichannel personalization: Beyond the sale
Omnichannel personalization is the new frontier. Here, we explore how brands can build customer loyalty by delivering personalized experiences on the channels that matter most.
Omnichannel commerce: Start now before it’s too late
But how exactly do you give customers the same level of service and response wherever and how ever they choose to shop with your brand? The answer lies in unlocking business agility and a modern e-commerce architecture.
Without a doubt, successful digital commerce is one of the most sought-after areas of insight. Just about every retailer I speak with is keen to sharpen, strengthen, or even start creating market-defining e-commerce experiences and capabilities across all available customer channels.
Customers don’t just like omnichannel—they’ve come to expect it.
If you’re not already offering cohesive experiences that put customers in complete control of their experience, you risk losing their business to a brand that is.
