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\nToday’s customers often want a fast, efficient shopping experience, and retailers are increasingly providing omnichannel experiences that are refined to meet those needs.<\/p>\n
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\nToday’s customers often want a fast, efficient shopping experience, and retailers are increasingly providing omnichannel experiences that are refined to meet those needs.<\/p>\n
While retailers hope to gain revenue and gain efficiencies in marketing, what do customers view as a successful omnichannel experience?
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\nTen years ago, a retailer might offer an online as well as a brick and mortar experience, hoping to catch shoppers who couldn’t make it to the store.<\/p>\n
In essence, e-commerce began as a way retailers could extend their shopping hours.<\/p>\n
Today, for many, e-commerce has evolved into a preferred means of shopping for many common items, but it doesn’t replace traditional shopping entirely.<\/p>\n
That’s where a strong omni-channel strategy comes into play.<\/p>\n
Clothing, electronics, furnishings \u2014 those are items that customers typically want to see in-person before buying.<\/p>\n
They may not want to purchase them in-person, however.<\/p>\n
Additionally, shoppers often want opinions of their friends before committing to those types of purchases.<\/p>\n
Best-in-class omnichannel retailing serves shoppers through multiple sales channels\u2014primarily online, in-store and social media \u2014 in a way that is presented cohesively, no matter how or where the customer journey began.
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\nFrom the customer’s point of view, most businesses currently provide a multi-channel experience.<\/p>\n
There is a brick and mortar store, a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and, perhaps, a blog.<\/p>\n
Those platforms engage and connect with customers, but rarely as a cohesive unit.<\/p>\n
In most cases, there is no seamless experience or consistent messaging across channels.<\/p>\n
Many times, “buy online, pickup in store,” or BOPIS, is unavailable, because inventory systems are disparate.
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\nA successful strategy should build a coherent, aligned experience across multiple platforms and involve stakeholders including the product, marketing, sales, customer support and customer journey teams.<\/p>\n
Each shopping channel should work concurrently to provide a truly powerful experience through many shopping touch points.<\/p>\n
Among the most important areas to align include:<\/p>\n
While the biggest changes have come primarily from the largest retailers, many smaller companies have actually driven the customer experience crusade, using social media platforms to engage directly with shoppers.<\/p>\n
Start-up retailers generally have omni-channel “baked in” as a foundation, leaving larger companies challenged to compete.<\/p>\n
Retail consultant McKinsey notes that an omni-channel transformation<\/a> is the only way for a company to address rising complexity, provide an excellent customer experience, and manage operations costs.<\/p>\n A true omni-channel strategy improves communication within the retailer itself, because different departments are routinely updating statuses that are then reflected throughout the internal supply chain.<\/p>\n As a result, the strategy better meets the needs of today’s customer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s customers often want a fast, efficient shopping experience, and retailers are increasingly providing omnichannel experiences that are refined to meet those needs. While retailers hope to gain revenue and gain efficiencies in marketing, what do customers view … Continue reading