How can retailers succeed at omnichannel?

The dramatic rise in e-commerce has challenged the position of traditional retailers. Consumers now willingly embrace the digital experience, offering more convenience and comfort. As per Harvard Business Review, about 73% of consumers prefer shopping through different channels, and such omnichannel customers can offer a 30% higher lifetime value.

Let’s understand the importance of omnichannel presence for retailers today and explore how these businesses can efficiently implement a successful omnichannel strategy.

Omnichannel is a multichannel sales approach aiming to fulfill customer needs at every touchpoint. Retail channels can be traditional brick-and-mortar stores, websites, mobile apps, social media, email or over-the-phone. The key benefits of an omnichannel strategy are that it can offer a fluid and flexible shopping experience and capture lucrative markets through emerging channels.

Modern-day customers use multiple channels for their purchasing decisions. With a wide range of technologies and online resources, they can access different platforms like social media, e-marketplaces, retailer websites, review sites and other digital touch points to make a purchase. Retailers can use these platforms best and create a unified shopping experience for their customers through better interaction and promotion.

Omnichannel opportunities for retailers

Retailers can utilise omnichannel opportunities to expand their customer base and offer an increase in choice and convenience. Besides, business models can be optimised with a broad online presence and integration of data and systems. Channel diversification also improves operational efficiency for retailers, strengthens the brand image, and increases the likelihood of more purchases.

However, embracing the omnichannel trend without a well-strategised approach can offer little value to retailers. Therefore, it is crucial to have clarity on the objectives behind such initiatives. Investing time and resources in the right fundamentals can help retailers achieve omnichannel excellence.

Augmenting omnichannel retail capabilities

For omnichannel success, the laser focus should be on improving the customer experience. Recent reports show that the purchase frequency is 250% higher on omnichannel compared to single channel retailers. Therefore, businesses should realise this opportunity and embrace omnichannel retailing while focussing on some essential points such as:

• Customer-centred strategy: Understanding consumer behaviour and accommodating different sales channels is essential to create maximum impact. Also, synchronising the physical and digital worlds can be highly beneficial. Holistic approach retailers must also align their operations to develop an integrated platform with more advanced capabilities. This integrated culture must be promoted across the organisation to optimise omnichannel performance.
• Strong technical framework: Investing in a myriad of tools and applications cannot guarantee outstanding results. Instead, choosing the right solutions is vital for a successful omnichannel agenda.

Tools retailers need to succeed with omnichannel

Adopting the right technology solutions can reshape the retail business and help them capture incremental sales. Here are some top solutions retailers can leverage to serve their customers better and offer them a seamless omnichannel experience.

• Odoo: Odoo is an all-in-one solution that offers a full suite of business apps that can be natively integrated into the existing infrastructure for automating retail processes. From CRM, point of sale and live chat to marketing automation and helpdesk, Odoo offers various apps that retailers can leverage to build effective omnichannel experiences for their consumers.
• Booxi: Booxi facilitates better customer connection with efficient appointment management. It offers real-time availability for slot booking and personalised connection, complemented by reminder management for increasing retention rates. Besides, retailers can also customise their booking rules and optimise resource management.
• Analyticalways: This app helps retailers enhance stock management and ensures that they have the right product at the right place at the right time. In addition, it can help with commercial planning, sales planning, automated forecasts and suggestions, KPI management, promotion management and several other processes with efficient tactics.
• Netmera: Netmera is an integrated engagement platform that helps create a better customer experience and a stronger connection with detailed engagement analytics, segmentation and targeting and mobile and web engagement. This platform can boost leads across all stages and nurture and drive them across proper sales funnels for increased conversions.
• Frequentiel: This app can help retailers with reliable stock information, serving them an entire network of stock open to all customers. Besides, it allows businesses to focus on customer experience with operational KPI insights, fast product localisation, shrinkage prevention and 99% accuracy delivering on promises.

Omnichannel needs strategic technology investments

A solid omnichannel presence can build positive customer brand experiences and drive considerable business value and revenue. However, to create such a successful omnichannel experience, retailers must make the right technology investments. They must have tools that provide access to customer data across all the sales channels to facilitate seamless, personalised experiences for the customers.

Written by Stéphane Pignard General Manager, Altavant