What is Omnichannel Retail: Here’s Everything to Know
Consumers love to have choices and alternatives. They love to shop across different channels rather than just sticking to one. They search products across different channels to get the best deals and discounts. This is precisely why many companies and retailers are now focusing on omnichannel retail to reach out to their customers in every way possible.
Customers use multiple channels to research products, look for deals, and finally make a purchase. Being present on all the channels to ensure your target customers are able to find you conveniently is crucial. Therefore, an omnichannel retail strategy is now vital to achieving success and scaling a business.
In this blog, we shall discuss what omnichannel retail is and how it can be beneficial for your business.
What is Omnichannel Retail?
Omnichannel retail targets customers across multiple channels – website, online marketplaces, social channels, and brick-and-mortar stores. Simply put, selling products on different channels to target customers across channels.
While some customers might be willing to purchase from your brand website, some might only like to purchase from an offline store. With a successful omnichannel retail strategy, you let your customers transact with you on their preferred channel. An omnichannel retail strategy enables you to retarget the same customer on different channels and increase your business transactions.
While adopting an omnichannel approach, you need to deliver a consistent brand experience so your customers can recognize you across channels conveniently.
Single Channel VS Omnichannel
A single channel is a traditional method where the sellers focus on selling on a single channel. They own either an offline or online store. Earlier, this model was the go-to marketing strategy as it led to maximum business growth at minimum spending. This strategy also helped business owners dominate the market with their products/services. However, as the digital age entered, business owners faced limitations with single channel strategy.
In today’s time, a single-channel strategy is not enough to attract customers and scale business. This led to business owners reshaping their strategy and adopting omnichannel retail.
At the moment, more and more sellers are adopting an omnichannel strategy, essentially because of the benefits it has on offer.
Benefits of Providing Omnichannel Retail Experience
Here are five benefits of adopting an omnichannel retail strategy for your business:
Retain Customers
An omnichannel retail strategy puts the customer in focus. And customers want to stay associated with the brand that puts them in the front seat. An omnichannel retail offers them convenient ways to shop as per their convenience. Plus, brands consistently engaging their audience across channels witness improvement in their retention rates.
Increase in Business Revenue
As discussed earlier, omnichannel retail values customers more. This leads to increased repeat customers and their lifetime with the brand. As a result, brand revenue increases. Businesses looking for long-term business growth must adopt the omnichannel retail strategy.
Increased Footfall
This is an obvious benefit of the omnichannel retail strategy. Increasing customer footfall is costly as it involves spending money on branding, promotions, and marketing. But with omnichannel, you mark a presence on multiple channels. Thus, you can connect with more buyers on all platforms leading to increased footfall. Besides, most buyers tend to visit offline stores before making a purchase.
Satisfied Customers
With omnichannel, you can engage your customers well. However, this is not enough. You need a good customer care team to provide your buyers with real-time customer support, irrespective of the channel.
Word of Mouth
The results that you get from marketing are nothing compared to what you get from word of mouth. In fact, most customers buy products their friends and family recommend. You can engage customers across channels, drive sales, and reward them for recommending your brand to others.
New Customer Segment
With an omnichannel strategy, you can reach new customer segments. With a presence on multiple channels, you can reach out to more customers – which is a key to business growth.
Increased Business Output
An omnichannel strategy can help increase operational efficiency and reduce business costs. How? When your business is present on multiple channels, you need to collect business data only once rather than from every channel. With a holistic approach, you also don’t need to create and implement strategies for all channels.
Improved Inventory Turnover
Many businesses lose customers due to stock-out. An omnichannel retail strategy provides a better overview of the inventory. You can conveniently optimise stock levels and replenish inventory whenever required.
Conclusion
Earlier, consumers only bought products from offline stores where they could touch and feel products. Now, they are more inclined towards online stores – shopping from the comfort of their houses. However, the future of shopping is neither an offline store nor an online store – it is a mix of both. Thus, it only makes sense for a brand to have omnipresence across channels. Conclusively, we can say that omnichannel retail strategy and good customer experience go hand-in-hand.