Multichannel vs Omnichannel
When it comes to multichannel and omnichannel marketing, one might think that they are very similar approaches to reach out to customers. Multichannel marketing is when a business communicates with customers in different touch points, including physical stores, online stores, mobile device applications, and social networking sites, but the strategy commonly addresses each touch point as an isolated marketing channel. Whereas omnichannel sees these as separate channels yet connects them in a way that has the customer navigate them as one, irrespective of the channel the engage the brand through.
Multichannel Retailing and its Growth
Consider a typical multichannel approach: a clothing retailer could be a physical store in London, an online store or an e commerce platform and a mobile application. All of these are separate streams, each of which has its own stock, its own rates, and its own service department. This approach works well for the retailer as they can target a large number of people but the consumers get a very skewed and uncoordinated experience.
The Omnichannel Evolution
With the change in customer demands, new strategies were incorporated into the retail framework. Introducing the omnichannel concept – a more refined idea, the main goal of which is to optimise all available channels for better customer satisfaction.
However let’s assume the same clothing retailer but available in a holistic omnichannel strategy. For instance, the customer might be using a mobile application to shop and pick some items, and then move to the actual store to do a trial. The store’s personnel can see the customer’s current on line shopping cart, propose relevant other items according to their browsing history, and even perform the checkout by using the customer’s payment details provided in the app. Such integration increases value for customers while simultaneously offering the retailer insights useful in finetuning future operations.
Implementing an omnichannel strategy offers numerous advantages for both retailers and customers:
Enhanced Customer Experience: When customers interact with a company on the same level across all the touchpoints, they feel respected and appreciated.
Increased Customer Loyalty: Customer satisfaction prompts him or her to do repeated purchases, and hence, become loyal to a given brand.
Better Data Insights: Integrated channels collect better customer information that will be useful to retailers in understanding their customers.
Improved Inventory Management: Visibility of inventory status of each SKU in all points of sales keeps them out of stock or overstocked.
Higher Conversion Rates: A good internal branding message and easy movements from one channel to the next can result to increase in sales and conversions.
Challenges in Implementation
It is easy to see why omnichannel strategies should be pursued, but it is not always easy to put them into practice. Retailers often face obstacles such as:
Technology Integration: System integration can also be an expensive process because it means joining together several hardware and/or software systems.
Organisational Silos: Even more important, there should be the absence of internal barriers within an organization to enable the idea of integrated marketing.
Data Management: High traffic of customer interactions in multiple channels presents unique challenges on the need for proper systems and handling of customer data.
Consistency: It is a very big challenge to ensure that the company’s brand image and all the modes that customers get to interact with it and its products are cohesive.
Best Practices
Start with the Customer: It’s also important to know as much as possible about your target audience to be able to target them right. Customer behavior with products and your brand can be analyzed by different data analytics to see how customers engage with your firm across various channels.
Invest in Technology: Strong CRM systems and efficient ERP programs can go a long way into consolidating these platforms and offer a unique perspective on the customer interface.
Train Your Staff: Make sure that your team members are aware of the need to have customers get a similar experience regardless of the channel. This may need new training and change in corporate civilization.
Personalise the Experience: Ensure customers receive a tailormade approach to designers’ products and services through online and store contacts.
Optimise for Mobile: Given the increased usage of mobile commerce, always make sure that your Web sites are optimized for usage with small screens.
Embrace Social Commerce: True to your omnichannel strategy, incorporate social media platforms such that the customer can purchase items within social media channels.
Offer Flexible Fulfilment Options: Optimise click and collect, ship from store, and returns cross channels to increase convenience for customers.
Case Study: John Lewis & Partners
A good example of a retailer in the UK that fully supports the concept of ‘omnichannel’ is John Lewis & Partners. Extensive efforts have been made to integrate store, website, and the app – customers can check stock levels on the app before visiting the store, use tablets in-store to access the full catalogue on the App and, with the help of augmented reality, ‘test’ make-up on their faces with the help of a tablet. This combined strategy has assisted the company to continue dominating the market competitiveness in the UK as a retailer.
Looking to the Future
So, multichannel and omnichannel marketing ideas are also set to change with the advancement in technology. New opportunities for interacting with customers have now emerged due to the development of voice commerce, augmented reality, and AI. However, the fundamental principle remains the same: integrating customer channels to offer relevant and timely information that enables customers to shop in a desired way.
Although multichannel retailing has its merits, the concept of an omnichannel strategy is the future for retail. If the barriers between the channels are eliminated and the coherent multichannel environment integrated, retailers will be able to meet customer’s expectations and gain their loyalty while intensively competing in an overly saturated market. As we evolve let them who has understood this new retail environment perfectly to stand ready to benefit from this continuously evolving world of commerce.