Over the past few years, the retail industry has been negotiating with the challenge of adopting an omni-channel strategy for providing a unified experience to its customers across all channels. The reason for this is not hard to find. According to research1 conducted by the Aberdeen Group, companies with the strongest omni-channel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, increase their annual revenue by an average of 9.5% year-on-year and decrease their cost per customer contact by an average of 7.5% each year.
Here are four steps to achieving a seamless omni-channel retail experience:
Start with a Clear Strategy
Any strategy that you develop for creating an omni-channel experience should begin with the customer. All stakeholders within the company, be it marketing, customer success or product need to buy into this new approach of making the customer the center of all that you do.
In order to develop a clear strategy you need to identify the key touch points that your customers frequent and see how you can enhance their journey at each one of them, based on the stage at which they are in the customer journey.
Setting and Meeting Expectations
It’s a huge transition for a brick and mortar store to digitize itself. Hence, when a brand decides to take the shopping experience online, it needs to be fully prepared to meet the expectations of the new-age customer.
Setting expectations through ad campaigns is one thing, but fulfilling them on the ground is an entirely different game. You must have a well-functioning supply chain to meet any spurt in demand that might come with your online presence; ensure that logistics are in place for timely deliveries and pickups right from the customers’ doorsteps; and revisit your content strategy to see if it’s addressing the customer’s concerns adequately across all channels of interaction.
Channels Must be Interlinked
The voice of the brand should be uniform and consistent, irrespective of the channel.
For instance, if your online channel is showing a discount on a product or is running any special offer, the same should apply to your physical store as well, in case the customer simply chooses to walk in. Are prices and product assortment unified across all channels? If each channel is viewed in isolation, you have every chance of ruining the customer experience.
Take the example of UK fashion retailer Oasis. If you visit any of their stores, you’ll find sales associates armed with iPads that can be given to a customer on the spot, with accurate and up-to-date product information. They also act as cash registers, making it easy for associates to ring you up from anywhere in the store. And if something is out of stock, the staff can instantly place an online order for you to have the item shipped directly to your home.
Take the example of UK fashion retailer Oasis. If you visit any of their stores, you’ll find sales associates armed with iPads that can be given to a customer on the spot, with accurate and up-to-date product information. They also act as cash registers, making it easy for associates to ring you up from anywhere in the store. And if something is out of stock, the staff can instantly place an online order for you to have the item shipped directly to your home.
Integrate Customer Data Across All Customer Touch Points
This is one of the biggest challenges retailers face while providing a seamless experience to customers. Hence, it is important to have an accurate and real-time view of the inventory in each physical store and the same information needs to be integrated with your online presence.
Tim Simmons, vice president of Teradata, in this Forbes article3 writes, “In omni-channel retail—creating a 360-degree view of your customer based on purchase history, preferences, extended demographics, shopping behavior and additional granular pieces of data to fuel an integrated, customer-centric experience—is the key to modern retail marketing success.”
References:
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2013/12/31/why-omnichannel-strategy-matters/
https://blog.hubspot.com/customer-success/omni-channel-experience
