Firstly, what is omnichannel retailing?
Having the ability to deliver seamless, consistent, and high-quality customer experiences on both online and offline channels, while factoring in different devices that consumers are using to interact and engage with your business is Omnichannel retailing.
And the truth is that this is a new reality.
A few years into the revolution, many omnichannel retailers still struggle to sync multiple aspects of omnichannel smoothly, making profitability or even a break-even proposition challenging to achieve. There are a few common omnichannel retailing mistakes that one should avoid. A recent study by Periscope says, 78% of retailers admit their consumers do not have a unified brand experience. 45% of retailers also say that progress isn’t happening fast enough.
What are the primary obstacles with delivering really great omnichannel experiences?
1. Unable to be Consistent at every touchpoint
Repeatedly filling out the information when being transferred from one channel to another, is one of the most negative experiences that a customer can have. The customer doesn’t care if he is interacting on whatever channel. They expect the company to know who he is and what all have been discussed in the past no matter when and where he chooses to interact. It is crucial for brands to remain consistent across all points of contact by integrating the relevant data on all the channels well.
2. Half-ass Implementation
It’s the worse situation when a retailer tries to deliver omnichannel customer experiences but doesn’t properly follow through. If you find it challenging to offer true omnichannel features like in-store availability, ensure that your implementation is all-but foolproof.
3. Customer Service plays a crucial role
According to an Accenture consumer report, 67% of customers would abandon the cart and leave a business for one of its competitors for a bad customer service experience.
Often consumers choose to visit the physical store locations to have a personal experience with sales staff, and that experience should not be lost online. To improve your connections with customers and increase sales across all platforms, you need to have an excellent customer support in place that allows consumers around the world meet their expectations across all the platforms. So, if you think customer service doesn’t matter, think again!
4. Not Leveraging Automation & Technology
In the age of AI and VR, automation is not at all the factor to underestimate. More and more of your customers are buying or visiting your site through tablets or smartphones every day. And guess what? 38% of companies reported that personalization is a top digital customer experience priority, according to the “2017 Digital Commerce Benchmark Survey,” from Boston Retail Partners (BRP).
Leverage artificial intelligence to understand your customers’ entire omnichannel journey and streamline how brands sell with more relevancy. This acts as a conduit to merging the online and physical touchpoints and deliver better customer experiences.
5. Not Having Cross-Channel Measurement Strategy
It’s good to start planning your measurement strategy way before you implement any of it. How do you overcome data hell and connect the dots in omnichannel retailing? Have a cross-channel measurement strategy to aggregate, standardize, and compare data across all the operating channels.
Omnichannel is not just having esteem presence on multiple channels or offering your customers a choice to shop at various places. If you vow to be a robust omnichannel retailer, you need to consider mobile, merchandising, marketing, fulfillment, marketplaces and all aspects of these channels.
Whether you like it or not, omnichannel is the new norm and not too far anymore. It’s already here.
What is your organization doing to embrace omnichannel? Want help developing your own omni-channel retailing experience?
With a dedicated team of product managers and ecommerce’s largest ecosystem of technology partners, Krish TechnoLabs is the omnichannel solution provider that brings the future of commerce into the present.
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Minal Joshi is a content marketer at Krish with a flair for eCommerce and Digital Commerce aspects. She is a MarTech fanatic with a knack of writing with which, she helps brands to curate, create, & commence digital brand positioning. Sharing insights via articles, case studies, eBooks, Infographics, and other forms of content creation is what she lives for. Being an ardent traveler, when not writing, you'll find her sipping coffee into the mountains or petting a stray.
21 December, 2022 After WooCommerce, Shopify is the 2nd most loved and used eCommerce platform worldwide. Shopify is an entirely feature-rich eCommerce platform. It offers many drag-and-drop options, and its apps work tremendously for store owners. In addition, Shopify is easy to use as it doesn't require depth coding.
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