Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Retail: The best option for modern retail owners

Many modern businesses use multi-channel marketing to reach out to customers, interact with them, and share company and product-related information. The issue with multi-channel marketing is that there are

• Style inconsistency across channels
• Channels often create miscommunication if not updated promptly
• Customers become agitated due to the miscommunication if a deal they saw on another channel expires due to information inconsistency

Modern retail owners are often trying to overcome these and other unrealized problems

• Style inconsistencies majorly affect brand image, creating mistrust in the customers,
• Miscommunication affects the proper working of their employees, and
• Agitated customers can cause higher customer churn rate, negatively affecting brand revenue prospects

The experiences omnichannel and multi-channel retailing provide are entirely different from each other. Why? Both of them have a focus on distinct aspects. Multi-channel retail focuses on the passing and availability of information via multiple channels, and omnichannel focuses on the customers.

Omnichannel is the magic keyword here for retail brand owners as it allows them to keep their channels on the same page by unifying their brand style and information. Omnichannel marketing keeps the customer at the center of their brand strategy; it successfully creates a seamless and unified customer experience.

The most crucial fact modern retail brand owners must remember is that even the customers want to have a seamless experience across channels. So, when a customer uses your brand’s Facebook page, he wants its style to be at par with your website, other social media pages, and even your email newsletter.

The current state of retail

Here is the report from CB Insights that highlights the current state of the retail market.

NRF forecasts sales will grow between 10.5% and 13.5% to more than $4.44 trillion in 2021. — National Retail Federation

The detailed report by National Retail Federation can be accessed here for a thorough reading. Now that we know about the retail industry’s current state, let’s jump right into how retail brand owners will make the best of omnichannel retail in 2021 and beyond.

Differentiation between Omnichannel retail and multi-channel retail

When retailers opt for the omnichannel approach in their retail business, it helps them integrate individual business components. Be it the marketing efforts, cross-training staff, or delivering seamless customer experience across varied platforms. Multi-channel retailing offers many sales channels, but they are misaligned and disconnected from each other.

Omnichannel Retailing

Omnichannel retail is a disruptive business strategy that enables retail brand owners to deliver a seamless experience to their customers. This experience is delivered via customer interactions on brand websites, in-store, mobile apps, and email communications.

You must know this. If you are selling your products using multiple channels, you are not creating an omnichannel experience. Your sales channels, payment methods, and other business aspects must be unified and in sync, if you want to create a proper omnichannel strategy for your retail business.

By doing so, you will create a seamless interaction for your buyers, no matter which channel they are using for interacting with your brand.

Retailers must

• Create a central data hub that syncs all their marketing and sales activities and channel
• Shift to a customer-centric approach in all areas
• Deploy data analytics and big data tools at every level

For instance, you own a natural foods specialty brand. You use a brick-and-mortar retail store, an ecommerce shop, and a mobile app for selling your products. You are also using weekly email newsletters for marketing your upcoming products, sale, and discount events. You are omnichannel retail if your customers can

• Place an order online and pick it up in-store (BOPIS),
• Log in to their mobile app to view past in-store purchases
• Track their loyalty points no matter where they made the purchase

When all your sales and marketing engagement points are interconnected, you create a seamless customer experience.

Multichannel Retailing

In multi-channel retail, you are selling your products via “multiple” yet disconnected sales channels. You use your website, a mobile-enabled site, a Facebook Shop, and Amazon in multi-channel retail. Multi-channel retailing makes the sales process much more challenging for buyers.

For instance, once an order is placed online, the customer cannot opt for pick up and will have to wait until it is delivered. As mentioned above, the same scenario would have been different for omnichannel retailers due to BOPIS (buy online pick-up in-store).

Why is Omnichannel the best option for modern retail owners?

The retail industry is experiencing constant change, and leading retail brand owners recognize the competitive state of the market due to

• technological disruptions
• demanding customers
• changing shopping behavior

If retailers fail to adapt and respond to these challenges, it can become challenging to thrive and survive.

Retailers need to respond strategically to the rising challenges, and omnichannel retail is their best bet for creating a lasting retail experience for their customers. Omnichannel allows retailers to

• Achieve more availability
• Drive sales and traffic
• Integration of digital touchpoints

Omnichannel customers spend 15 to 30% more than single or multi-channel customers

For thriving in the competitive retail industry, retailers need omnichannel retail strategies that look beyond having an online- or store-only presence. Multiple digital touchpoints disrupting the retail sector, including

• Interactive kiosks
• Smart shelf technologies
• Self-serve tablets

1. Digital touchpoints affect approximately 49% of total U.S. retail sales — Forrester
2. Stores with digital signs near checkout lines witnessed increases in sales of up to 33% –Nielsen

These statistics prove that an excellent omnichannel retail strategy works when retailers complement their approach with the latest digital touchpoints.

Role of technology in omnichannel retail

From the day online shopping became a reality, retail boomed on the rise of digital and internet-driven technologies. Brick-and-mortar stores did adopt digitally disruptive technologies to keep the footfall high, yet offline retail took the most hit when the pandemic hit businesses with the mandatory lockdown.

Omnichannel retail is the solution best suited for both online and offline retail brand owners. Digitalization is getting the top priority of C-level executives. It is essential to know that AI (artificial intelligence), robotics, IoT, extended reality (an amalgamation of AR and VR) will help retailers achieve a better customer experience.

The fusion of the technologies mentioned above enables online retail to bring the conveniences of offline shops and stores to online shopping. It is also allowing the transition of interactively rich offline experience to the world of ecommerce.

Some worthy mentions are Amazon’s famous cashier-less stores opening in the US and Walmart’s experiments allowing customers to order and pay in-store and have goods delivered to their homes.

Pros of omnichannel retailing

Let us get acquainted with the benefits of omnichannel retailing

1. Superior customer experience

When customers make an online purchase, they can return the product in-store while appreciating the flexibility provided by omnichannel retailers. They can also use the coupons and track loyalty programs across varied channels.

2. Enhanced analytics

With tracking of buying behavior and its integration across all platforms, modern retailers can make data-driven decisions.

3. Increased sales

Based on the purchase behavior, retailers can market products to customers that they’re more likely to buy. Online shopping statistics show that while shopping online, customers make impulse purchases more frequently.

Conclusion

We hope this article was able to portray this message successfully to you,

“Omnichannel retail is a multi-channel sales approach where an integrated shopping experience is the end goal.”

Yes, the end goal. The goal is to create a seamless experience for the customers by using a desktop or a mobile device or visiting the brick-and-mortar store. So the question we want to ask here is,” Are you omnichannel ready?”

Keeping up with the dynamic nature of retail is impossible if you are not yet equipped with digital transformation. As an increasing number of retail brands try to or want to exploit the benefits of omnichannel, shifting from a legacy retail system can be a daunting task.

Rapidops can assist you in developing a plan of action for your next digital disruption as it has helped others in various other industries. All you need to do is get in touch with us, and we can help you discover the key to digital success in an increasingly competitive market.