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Customers nowadays are different from those ten to twenty years ago. They are considerably tech-savvy and quicker to adapt to multi-channel platforms to browse and shop online. The average customer wants consistent interactions across all channels, and one method to achieve this is to establish an effective omnichannel marketing strategy.
Did you know that 86 percent of consumers regularly switch between two channels? Yes, they shop through a variety of channels in addition to visiting different stores. On rare occasions, they find themselves utilising their cell phones as shopping assistants in physical stores or placing online orders while waiting in line. Because of this, 87% of merchants believe that their business must have an omnichannel marketing strategy and are aware that they need to offer clients a consistent experience at all of their touchpoints if they want to succeed.
In the interest of not falling behind, it's time for you, as a retailer use omnichannel marketing to maximise your return on investment while providing your customers with a unique experience.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Creating a smooth purchasing experience for your customers across all channels and points of contact with your business is known as omnichannel marketing. Whether a consumer interacts with you through your website, app, social media channels, email, SMS, or real brick-and-mortar store, their experience must be individualised, customised, and satisfying.
Customers now frequently use numerous channels and devices to engage their retail therapy; in fact, the typical consumer owns 10 digital gadgets and shops online at least once each month. Omnichannel customer experience is now required for a successful business—it is no longer an option. Brands must reach consumers where they are and on their preferred channels and devices if they want to maintain their loyalty. And the game is over if they don't.
It is insufficient to merely establish a presence on these channels. Your customers want a smooth, completely customised experience, and 83% of them say they want to communicate with brands across several platforms. With an omnichannel strategy, you can connect your marketing platforms for easy communication and tailor your messaging to meet the particular requirements of each customer. With so many options, it could be difficult to know where to start.
How can we design an ideal omnichannel experience?
In order to develop the ideal omnichannel experience, start by having a thorough understanding of your customer (probably more than their best friend). To truly understand your consumer, you must pay close attention to their buying habits, the platforms they frequently use to shop on, the challenges they face when shopping, how they interact with your company at each touchpoint, and the devices they use. With the use of this data, you can identify the crucial touchpoints and concentrate on connecting them so that your customers have a seamless and personalised experience. Additionally, it will help you identify the typical issues that clients have and create practical solutions for them.
How to successfully create an omnichannel experience by incorporating offline and online touchpoints
With all the discussion of "digital transformation," it's simple to assume that omnichannel marketing only considers digital platforms and channels like social media, email, websites, and apps. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the case.
Surprisingly, nearly 70% of customers predicted that their purchasing behaviours will change from recent years in some way. Over 40% of customers projected a decline in in-person shopping as the most often anticipated shift.
Retailers have struggled to draw more customers into their physical storefronts. With the addition of events and the use of floor space as a brand showcase, they have altered the function of the modern storefront. By displaying brand values and giving customers a memorable, tactile, and sensory experience, physical stores assist in bringing a brand to life.
As part of your omnichannel strategy, take into account other offline channels as well, such as direct mail or outdoor advertising, as they continue to be significant brand extensions.
Examples of omnichannel brands
- Hot air balloon above France from L'Occitane's 555 Fifth Avenue location in New York
L'Occitane is a French beauty and skincare company that realised early on that in order to stand out from the competition and adapt to a "phygital" world, they needed to create an immersive in-store experience that would delight customers, boost foot traffic, and enable a highly "instagrammable" brand experience.
The experiences that L'Occitane developed gave customers a fresh, thrilling new way to engage with the company. Take, for instance, a virtual reality hot air balloon flight over the lavender hills in Provence, France, which served as the inspiration for many of their scents. The addition of haptic components, such as a soothing hand massage while in the hot air balloon, served to enhance the experience and make it even more memorable. Another installment encourages viewers to take pictures of the area by positioning vintage motorcycles in front of a digital display of French scenery. Following that, customers could post these images on social media increasing the online buzz and production of user-generated content for the store.
- Absolute Vodka employs direct mail to entice people to buy a limited-edition bottle online.
Certain consumer items also struggled and needed to figure out how to reach customers online during the epidemic, not only retail brands who relied on foot traffic.
Absolut Vodka adopted an omnichannel strategy that incorporated mail to advertise a limited-edition bottle. In-store promotions were discontinued in 2020 due to safety precautions prompted by the pandemic. Absolut required a fresh strategy to pique interest in the release of the bottle.
Young, downtown professionals make up the bottle's core demographic, so Absolut targeted neighbourhoods where they were concentrated and sent out a high-end, eye-catching mailing. Three perforated gift tags, vodka recipe cards for inspiration, and a QR code to direct customers to a retailer carrying the bottle were all included. The mailing was amplified through social, digital, and out-of-home media, enhancing its impact.
Benefits through omnichannel retailing
Brands that invest in omnichannel marketing stand to benefit in a world where customer involvement is a valuable resource. Although developing an omnichannel strategy can take some time, brands that make the investment can see significant returns.
Customer experience is improved because omnichannel shopping frees you from mass messaging and enables you to produce content that anticipates the demands of your audience. You can create a seamless, more individualised consumer experience across all channels by putting frictionless engagement ahead of invasive advertising.
Increased customer retention: You can enhance the likelihood of first-time sales and keep customers coming back for more by engaging them across many channels and actually adding value to your content.
Increased brand loyalty: When you engage customers with personalised content and connect with them across numerous touchpoints, you demonstrate to them not only that you understand them but also that you are prepared to invest the time to get to know them. By doing this, you'll foster brand loyalty that raises average order value and customer lifetime value (CLTV) (AOV).
Increased foot traffic: By integrating your product, sales, and customer data, you create a smooth, linked omnichannel customer experience that merges in-store and online shopping.
You can only offer your clients a seamless experience across all touchpoints by using an omnichannel marketing strategy. If you succeed in doing this, you not only increase user affinity for your brand but also consumer engagement.
If you consistently provide them with pleasurable experiences that are appropriate for whatever communication medium they use, they will love you more. All of this ultimately results in increased sales.
Maintaining a strong presence across several channels and getting them to work together to give each of your clients a smooth experience could seem burdensome. But all it actually needs is the assistance of the appropriate tool.
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