When measuring consumer satisfaction in 2021, a Unified Commerce Report showed 87% of consumers prefer a personalised and consistent experience across all shopping channels.. Retailers who have not yet adopted a solid omnichannel structure have a bit of catching up to do to meet these almost universal consumer expectations.
Primarily, a good omnichannel structure should use your valuable customer data to facilitate a unified and highly targeted shopping experience that’s seamless across all channels. When integrated with your existing marketing and commerce platforms, it will give you a 360° view of your customer information, history and intentions whilst understanding inventory, staff and store locations across your own brand.
So what does a good omnichannel commerce model look like, and what do you need to do to make it happen?
Bricks-and-mortar stores provide the in-person shopping experience that leads to brand loyalty. For those who don’t purchase during their store visit, brands have an opportunity to prime that customer for a future purchase in another store or channel. This assumes that store KPIs are not solely linked to the revenue that each store can generate through its own Point of Sale.
A brand’s e-commerce website primarily serves its in-store shoppers. A small portion of the site's visitors today will actually choose to transact on the website, with nearly all of them using today’s visit as part of researching a future in-store or online purchase.
Brands that implement features like click and collect, accurate in-store product availability, store directions and opening times and omnichannel wishlist features see far greater revenue generated than if they only implemented website features that are optimised for e-commerce conversions alone.
To complement this, brands with a large and engaging store footprint and features like ‘abandoned cart emails for stores’ and size/style/product preferences see a significant increase in e-commerce sales as customers can now buy online with confidence.
Social media is great at predicting and sometimes driving purchases. Millennials trust 84% of recommendations from friends on social media, but only 10% of ads they see online. Social influencers increasingly promote brand awareness and influence purchasing decisions. More and more social media sites feature “buy” buttons for customer interaction. Instagram posts let buyers make in-app purchases from a brand’s photos and videos across the app, and Pinterest has also introduced shopping page results with purchase capabilities. While transactions from social media channels often come with a much higher price, if you are intentional in targeting new or lapsing customers while keeping your own direct and active customers within your ‘owned’ content ecosystem, social media can be a useful lever for growing the size and value of your known customer asset.
Customers expect a brand’s presence in common marketplaces and department stores. These can offer brand exposure to customer groups they might not otherwise reach. Choose channels where your customers are likely to be, such as Amazon, Wish, or even eBay as well as those like Bunnings, Woolworths, Myer or David Jones, that enhance your brand presence and reputation.
Mobile commerce accounts for nearly 73% of all online commerce and continues to grow. Today, customers spend 90% of their time on mobile using apps, so it makes sense to use this channel to serve customers and deliver a hyper-personalised and customised experience designed for the brand’s power users. Native mobile features like push notifications, camera and location services allow for compelling experiences that are not as easy to deliver on the web, not to mention allowing your brand to live on the home screens of your most loyal customers.
With more and more consumers taking advantage of omnichannel features, such as buying online for in-store pickup, omnichannel is now part of their regular shopping routine. But remember, it’s important to always keep the consumer top of mind and offer a seamless and rich customer experience. According to a McKinsey insight, younger buyers are the most enthusiastic about new ways of shopping. Most Gen Z consumers don’t think in terms of traditional channel boundaries; their research shows they increasingly evaluate brands and retailers on the seamlessness of their experience.
However, as the Mckinsey insight identifies, “Omnichannel excellence requires a laser-like focus on value creation”. When developing your omnichannel structure, you should look carefully at your strategic and customer priorities and decide who you want to be from an omnichannel perspective. Then develop an equally clear understanding of what it takes to achieve that ambition. By embedding these principles into your retail strategies, you can create a decisive advantage.
By analysing your brands’ CRM, CDP, E-commerce, Marketing Automation, Clienteling and CX strategies, you can build a solid Omnichannel structure that will give you greater insight into your customers’ buying behaviour and intuitively meet their needs when they turn up to shop. In our next article, we’ll dive deeper into our take on the differences between CRM, CDP and CX.
To get you on the right track, you need the right partner. Partnering with Omneo gives a CX suite and support services that provide the tools and experience to leverage, support and supplement your existing customer and transactional platforms. It creates an ecosystem that provides customers with an exceptional omnichannel experience that connects customers' online and offline shopping experiences. Omneo provides you with a unified customer view and the ability to action every opportunity in order to create customer engagement and relevant brand experiences.
While not claiming to be any one of these things, Omneo is utilised as a:
A solid omnichannel strategy goes far beyond single sales models, like bricks and mortar or online sales, to have a presence and availability at every point where customers shop. It provides a holistic customer experience, including customer service, price, marketing, and fulfilment.
Today, customers’ behavioural reality has given rise to a need for new processes and systems to deliver exceptional customer experience and to remain both relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing retail landscape.
As we touched on earlier, customers on an eCommerce site expect the same prices and styles they find in the store. They may buy online knowing they can return to a nearby store, regardless of whether that store carries their item. They also expect to find items they’ve shopped in the store available to buy online. Pricing, promotions, customer service, and return options must now span all channels, creating a singular, seamless and enjoyable buying and brand experience.
To summarise, a successful omnichannel structure includes all touchpoints of the buying journey, all with the aim of providing a richer customer experience that promotes loyalty and advocacy.
Enhance the customer experience from end-to-end and deliver journeys that capture impact across every channel. Why? Because today's customers are increasingly sophisticated and expect a seamless, well-designed customer experience. No matter how they interact with a brand.
