Omnichannel Today & Tomorrow
McKinsey & Company stated in its research paper titled “Omnichannel: The Path to Value” that “Offering a compelling omnichannel experience used to be the bleeding edge of retail. Now it’s a requirement for survival”.
The need to be omnichannel today, or for that matter yesterday, became clearly evident for most companies that sell direct to consumer during the pandemic. The post-pandemic consumer has grown accustomed to being able interact with a business across all (omni) channels and is expecting this trend to continue to evolve and be easier, seamless, and personal in the omnichannel world of tomorrow.
- Some 73% of consumers shop on more than one channel. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
- Fifty four percent of consumers say that, over the next year, they’re likely to look at a product online and buy it in store, and 53% are likely to look at a product in store and buy it online (source: Shopify)
- Omnichannel customers in average, spent an average of 4% more every time they purchased in the store, and 10% more online than single-channel customers. Omnichannel shoppers were also more loyal. Within six months after an omnichannel shopping experience, these customers had logged 23% more repeat shopping trips to the retailer’s stores and were more likely to recommend the brand to family and friends than those who used a single channel. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
The Omnichannel Journey
Omnichannel is an on-going journey. You should think about it as a crawl, walk run process followed by a rinse and repeat cycle. So, you should plan on building a strong foundation today that you can build on as things change and new consumer needs and wants arise in the future.
The table below can server as a high-level framework to build the right capabilities across the 3 Ps (Platform, People, Process).
| Crawl | Walk | Run | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Catalog | Synchronized product catalog across all channels | Inventory tracking and visibility for all purchase options | Real-time inventory adjustments to optimize the customer experience |
| Purchase Options | Centralized shipping and click & collect. Returns based on the original purchase channel. | Leverage online and physical store infrastructure to offer more options such as ship from store. | Mix & match delivery and returns to optimize for speed and costs. |
| Loyalty & Engagement | Single-master customer record. Loyalty program to promote repeat purchases. | Personalized engagements based on the individuals own customer journey. | Loyalty and subscriptions to engage the consumer even if they are not purchasing. |
| People & Process | Coordination across online and in-store Teams. | Cross functional Teams with easy access to the data they need to serve the customer. | Channel agnostic Teams that can serve the customer end-to-end regardless of the point of purchase. |
The good news is that you don’t need to start running day 1. At the same, technology today allows you to master these capabilities in a much easier way and a for a reasonable investment so you can reap the value that omnichannel deliver.
- If you would like to learn more about how bLoyal can help you get going today and be ready for tomorrow with:
- An omnichannel product catalog and inventory tracking,
- Single-master customer record,
- In-flow promotions,
- Flexible loyalty programs,
- Personalized subscriptions, and
- Real-time engagement
Simply email us at info@bloyal.com and we will be in touch with your shortly, or
