Boost Retail Sales With Omnichannel Strategies
Improve customer experience by integrating online and offline channels
Consumers are interacting with brands across multiple touch points. Whether they’re planning a vacation or shopping for grocery, they expect a seamless experience when they switch from one channel to another.
While it’s relatively easy to wrap your head around integrating digital channels, it’s often more challenging for brick-and-mortar merchants to deliver an integrated experience that spans all online and offline channels.
Don’t worry, it’s actually not as complex as you might think.
Here are 4 ways to augment your offline customer experience using online channels:
1. Build anticipation
Build excitement and anticipation by encouraging consumers to plan their experiences ahead of time by using online tools and mobile apps.
Advanced planning also allows your customers to get the most out of their interactions with your brand, creating a positive experience that’ll increase loyalty. For instance, Disney offers a mobile-responsive trip planning section on its website, which allows visitors to plan everything from dining options to Fast Pass purchase.
2. Streamline shopping experience
While some shopping experience should be “attention-grabbing,” others need to be “attention-saving” to maximize customer happiness.
To create a quick and easy purchasing process, use an online tool or mobile app that helps customers streamline their shopping tasks and make it as convenient as possible. For instance, grocery retailers are offering online meal planning tools that also generate a shopping list. Customers can then print out the list or download it to their mobile app to save time and hassle on their shopping trip.
3. Expedite simple transactions
Consumers get frustrated when they have to make a trip to a retail location just to perform a simple transaction, such as paying a bill.
While your retail locations should still be available for handling complex transactions, you can streamline the retail experience by allowing customers to complete simple transactions online, over the phone, or via a mobile app.
For example, Bank of America has developed a robust mobile app that allows customers to complete simple transactions such as paying monthly bills or depositing a check without leaving the comfort of their own homes.
The mobile app not only delivers a better customer experience but also helps reduce employees’ workload in local branches so they can better assist those who are there for more complex transactions.
4. Maintain a consistent brand experience
At least 43% of customers have used their mobile phone while shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
If your brand’s mobile experience isn’t consistent with the in-store environment or if the information shoppers get in-store is different from what they get online, you could risk diminishing the overall brand experience.
To maintain a seamless shopping experience, make sure each of your shopping channels synchronizes instantaneously with one another so that customer information and inventory are updated in real time.
For example, REI employs a robust backend system to ensure that all the information and user experience are consistent on the many customer touch points such as website, mobile app, in-store kiosks, and print catalog.
The key to delivering an integrated customer experience
Designing a seamless omnichannel retail experience can seem complex at first glance, but it’s actually not very difficult when you make creating a customer-centric experience the priority.
The key to doing so is to create a single customer view and have all your customer data stored in one centralized database that gives you the ability to manage customer data collected from all channels and extract actionable insights from the information.
Request a demo to see what our customer database platform and decision engine can do for your retail business.
Sources
//trendwatching.com/quarterly/2017-06/the-future-of-customer-experience/attention-saving/
https://blog.hubspot.com/customer-success/omni-channel-experience
https://www.phunware.com/blog/mobile-statistics/
https://nectarom.com/2017/08/17/single-customer-view-increases-effectiveness-omnichannel-marketing/
