Everything you Should Know About Omnichannel Retail
Omnichannel retail has become a buzzword on the internet. It used to be about multichannel but now, things are gradually tilting in favour of omnichannel. It’s not enough to adopt a multichannel approach. The bar has been raised yet again. In the online world, you have to keep up with the pace or get swallowed up in the sea of changing trends. The big question — what is omnichannel retail?
Defining Omnichannel retail
Omnichannel retail is the use of different selling channels to get your products and services to your customers through an integrated approach. Customers can search and purchase your product through several interconnected channels.
These channels are unified in a way that customers can easily transition from one channel to the other without constraint. Contemporary consumers do not just want to see your presence on different buying channels.
They also expect that they get the same treatment from these different buying channels. The integrated omnichannel approach sees the customer journey as a road map, a unified process, and not a one-way path or linear journey.
Customers can begin a purchase journey on an app and end up in your brick-and-mortar store to complete a transaction. When this happens, customers expect that there are no communication gaps or confusion. They expect that you should be aware of their buying process.
Omnichannel addresses the whole customer experience, not the customer’s individual interaction with the different channels. Every touchpoint is important in the omnichannel approach.
Why omnichannel has become important
With the growth of online shoppers following the pandemic, retailers must find a means to give shoppers the best experience. In Nigeria, 81% percent of consumers shop more online since the pandemic set in.
This doesn’t make in-store irrelevant. Studies have gathered that “82% of online buyers still want to view and touch products in-store before committing to buying them online”.
This shows that customers these days want to connect with different touchpoints before making a purchase decision. You need a business model that helps you remove barriers between your multiple selling channels. An omnichannel approach makes that possible.
To meet the above demand, retail brands in some parts of the world have included augmented reality shopping to help customers feel products before buying in a contactless manner. Shopping experiences like these exceed the expectations of customers.
Businesses that can go above and beyond in meeting the needs of the customer will always romp ahead. Customer experience data tells us that 86% of consumers are willing to pay up to 25% more on a product with a superior customer experience. There’s more. According to a survey conducted by Aspect Software
“businesses that adopt omnichannel strategies achieve 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates compared to businesses that don’t”.
We live in the age of the customer and your business should go with the tide. Adopting the omnichannel strategy would help your business grow exponentially.
Challenges of the omnichannel approach
Integration
A Lot of work goes into achieving a good shopping experience. It involves syncing your inventory and making purchases simple no matter the buying route the customer decides to take.
How easy is it for your customers to find the same product that is on your website in your physical stores? Can customers get the same products they saw on your website on your social media shops? There is also the challenge of offering competitive shipping options.
If integration is not done correctly, there would be conflict and inconsistency across the multiple channels of selling. The solution to this is to bring your customer data into a single source and adopt a cross-channel communication strategy.
This ensures that you send more precise and selective communications that are impactful to your customers. This will also make sure that everyone is aware when a customer buys something offline or online.
Personalisation
There is the challenge of keeping track of customers’ data to help you give personalized services. For instance, you need to understand a customer’s shopping behaviour to help you make accurate product recommendations to him/her.
Track what they have bought from you and what channel they mostly use to make their purchase. Find ways to re-engage them after they have bought from you. Using AI-powered marketing tools can help you proactively engage your customers.
The omnichannel approach involves using a lot of customer data and is predictive. The whole point is to not just make customers buy from you. It has to do with optimising the customer buying journey, making them buy however is convenient for them and following upon them to make them return buyers.
Advantages of omnichannel
Better data collection
With omnichannel, retailers can track their customers’ behaviour and journey over different channels. This will help retailers give personalised services to consumers. With the insights retailers gain, they create the right content to engage consumers.
Increase in sales and traffic
The omnichannel approach helps you expand your reach since you would be utilising multiple platforms to reach your customers. While you may spend more money being on different platforms, you receive a return on investment. The omnichannel strategy improves sales. With a good omnichannel strategy, customers can get well-targeted product recommendations that may result in impulse buying.
Better customer experience
Personalization and integration put your customer at the center of it all. This is so because your multichannel does not work in silos. All channels are connected and intercommunicate with each other. A customer can buy online and return offline without any argument or hassle. It also makes it possible for customers to start and complete purchases on different channels which delivers a unified experience to customers.
Customer retention and loyalty
Customers are likely to come back to you when they encounter a seamless buying experience with you. They are willing to pay extra for the type of personalised convenience your business offers.
Word of mouth referral
In no time, customers will begin to tell others about their pleasant experiences. They refer your businesses to their family and friends because of the satisfaction they get from buying from you.
How to Get Started with omnichannel
Know your customers
Research to know about your customers. Find out where you can find them, what they are doing, and where they prefer to shop and what their needs are.
Select the right channel
After researching your customers. You should figure out what channel or combination of channels works for your customers. You get to know what platforms the majority of your customers prefer to shop on.
Connect all channels
You need to follow your customers across all channels. This is the make or break strategy that you must get right. The only way to go about this is to use the right technology.
Maintain your channels
Don’t stop improving your strategy and learning new things. Don’t be afraid to test different tactics. You can only find out new ways that will bring the best results only if you try them out the first time.
In this day and time, the only way to be a go-to brand is to invest in omnichannel retail. You can’t afford to be left behind. Work at integrating all your multiple selling platforms to help you give your customers the best shopping experience they would never forget.
