Vinculum – Omnichannel Retailing And Why It Matters

Omnichannel retailing is growing in popularity among online retailers because of the potential benefits it provides. Multichannel retailing occurs when a customer interacts with a business via different channels. These channels vary but typically include physical stores, online stores, mobile devices and telephone contact centers.

Basically, you can use omnichannel retailing to increase revenue and loyalty through flexibility and interaction. You improve the customer shopping experience by providing it via outlets, websites, telephones, emails, apps, and mobile devices.

But What is Omnichannel Retailing and Why is it Important for Businesses?

Omnichannel retail is a service that involves integrating your business’s sales and marketing channels in order to provide a seamless customer experience, regardless of where customers interact with your brand.

A company engaged in multichannel retailing sells products and services through different channels on the Internet (e.g. a web store, marketplace and social media). Omni-channel refers to retailers that have a physical market presence in addition to digital channels.

An e-commerce strategy of this nature puts emphasis on creating a cohesive user experience for each customer touchpoint at every stage of the buying process. That does not happen with traditional marketing, where each channel was optimized separately for the benefit of individual customers.

Most omni-channel retailers aren’t startups. In addition, they’re not merely web-only shops, meaning they’ve got the capital to get their feet on the ground. That much is clear.

What isn’t is the idea of seamlessness and sophisticated retail marketing. It is from that perspective that few retailers today are successfully implementing their omni-channel initiatives.

This is due to the increasing trend of retailers working with multiple channels of commerce, yet one big puzzle piece is missing: what consumers really want. When this happens, retailers are only guessing.

While they possess proprietary data on consumer usage of their own channels, the word ‘omni’ comes from the Latin word omniscient, meaning being aware of everything that happens, not just your own channel.

With this perspective, omni-channel marketing becomes more about providing a unique customer experience that transcends any one channel and just enables consumers to purchase whatever they want, whenever they want.

Profits of Omnichannel Experience?

Your customers, in particular millennials who are the majority of those who make online purchases, tend not to look for pricing as the main motivator to engage with the brand. A seamless shopping experience is what shopping in the true sense means.

The only way to earn the patronage of customers is by providing them with remarkable brand experiences. The research of Bigcommerce indicates that the current generation of buyers, the millennials, is shifting progressively toward the gen Z. In the report, it identifies the following as the biggest expectations of a great brand experience.

• Brand coverage
• Social media presence
• Overall lifestyle affinity

So, Why Implement Omnichannel?

Customers use five connected devices on average when shopping across channels and devices.

The consumer is no longer impulsive. It is their intention to find the best deals and do a lot of research before they buy anything. They seek simplicity. Their need for choice, speed, and convenience is insatiable.

You would lose customers to your competitor who provides a better shopping experience.
In addition to improving sales, a better customer experience also will lead to improved brand identity and brand loyalty.

How to Provide an Omnichannel Experience?
Channel Mix to Consider

Previously, we discussed how being on several channels is multichannel. It is the goal to leverage customer presence, behavior, interests, and other metrics to make a sale by being omnipresent. So, where do we begin?

In order to begin, you need to analyze the media, channels, and devices your customers are using. It is also necessary that you clearly analyze the demographics and decide upon a thorough analysis of the channels, mediums, and the style of integration.

This is not the same as retargeting. As retargeting would only be able to achieve conversion optimization. Rather, omnichannel presence encompasses an extensive range of activities. It is about knowing where your customers left, and being swift with your messaging and channel along with persuasive ‘buy now’ messages.

In order to begin, you should check the Google Analytics acquisition reports to understand which sources are driving traffic to your site. To analyze funnel paths before converting, you can also use attribution reports.

Investing in Technology

A good investment will allow you to bring the omnichannel strategy to life through the use of expertise, an advanced technological infrastructure, a vision, and a sophisticated set of skills. The backend system should be powerful enough that it can signal out customer information, order information, and inventory information.

Do you know about the PIM technology? It can be considered the backbone of omnichannel and multichannel approaches.

By connecting different channels and geographies easily, the unified back-end system will enhance business decisions, functions, and actions. The ability to make sense of all the information is enhanced when it is at your fingertips in a single, unified repository. Based upon how receptive your customers are to the type of product content you create, this will help you generate sales, create personalized content and execute targeted marketing strategies.

In order to cultivate deep connections, you need the right foundation, and PIM provides this foundation.

Conclusion:

A brand should not be confined to one channel in order to offer great customer experiences. Perception, emotions, and feelings play a significant part in customer experience and only an omnichannel approach can facilitate retention and acquisition strategies.

Customers’ experiences are both positive and negative. Customers and your brand interact with each other both on and off your website. There are several touchpoints that directly affect the customer, including the physical store, the digital store, and across multiple devices. Whenever someone interacts with an organization, they can be either analog(storefront, salesperson, etc.) or digital(website, mobile app, etc).