Omnichannel Retail Is the Key To Delivering Outstanding Customer Experience
Increase engagement and conversion with these 5 essential omnichannel retail components
As a “click-and-mortar” retail business, you’re uniquely positioned to take advantage of the omnichannel retail trend, deliver a seamless online/offline experience, and meet the expectations of today’s consumers who prefer to use both traditional and digital channels simultaneously while shopping.
Whether customers are interacting with your brand via an eCommerce website, mobile app, print catalog, call center, or physical store, they want to have the ability of pausing and resuming their shopping experience at any point and across all channels without interruption.
An omnichannel shopping experience is customer-centric. It focuses on shoppers’ holistic interaction with a brand instead of disparate channels within the brand.
Here’s how you can deliver a highly engaging and personalized experience across all channels to create a seamless customer experience:
1. Set up a 360-degree customer profile
A single customer view is the foundation of an effective omnichannel retail strategy.
It allows you to leverage the information you have gathered about a customer from all his interactions with your brand across different channels so that you can deliver the most compelling and relevant experience, such as targeted content or special offers, to drive conversion and increase loyalty.
2. Store all customer data on a centralized platform
A unified backend system is the key to harnessing the power of the single-customer view.
A robust centralized system allows you to manage and extract insights from your customer data while making sure all employees have access to all pertinent information, such as a customer habits, location, preferences, and purchasing history, so that they can deliver a seamless shopping experience no matter when and where they’re interacting with the customers.
3. Offer different fulfillment options
Shoppers want to order and receive merchandise through the channels of their choice; sometimes they want the products delivered to their doorstep while at other times they need an item right away and prefer to pick it up at the store.
As a brick-and-mortar merchant, you have the unique advantage of meeting the various fulfillment needs of your customers through various options, such as buy online and pick up in-store, ship from store, buy in-store and ship to the doorstep.
4. Integrate mobile technology with in-store experience
Consumers are inseparable from their mobile devices, which provides a great opportunity for delivering a seamless online/offline experience via a mobile app to augment their in-store experience.
For instance, with the geofencing technology, you can drive traffic to your store by using push notifications to deliver special offers to customers who are in the area.
In addition, store associates can use mobile technologies to access customer’s purchase history, preferences, and profile information to deliver a personal and engaging experience.
5. Deliver a unified omnichannel brand experience
An outstanding customer experience is consistent, cohesive, and reliable. This implies that every single touch point needs to meet the highest standard and deliver an on-brand experience.
From brand identity and visual designs to user experience and customer service, you need to ensure that shoppers are interacting with your brand consistently across all channels.
Omnichannel experience: the future of retail
A customer-centric experience is the key to brand engagement and conversion.
The expectation of a seamless omnichannel shopping experience is the new normal and brands are realizing the need to stay ahead by making sure that they meet their customers where they are.
Thankfully, with the help of advanced customer data management technologies, building a solid foundation for your omnichannel retail strategy is easier now than ever.
Request a demo to see how you can harness the power of omnichannel personalization in the retail industry.
Sources
//www.mytotalretail.com/resource/top-10-best-practices-for-omnichannel-retail-success/file/
https://nectarom.com/2017/08/17/single-customer-view-increases-effectiveness-omnichannel-marketing/
https://www.r2integrated.com/r2insights/be-customer-centric-not-brand-centric
//www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/using-retail-mobile-apps-enhance-store-shopping-experience
