How does an Omnichannel Strategy offer a Competitive Advantage to Retail Brands?
The days of a "one size fits all" marketing strategy are long gone, as consumers are now more demanding than ever when it comes to the retail experience. A study revealed that over 85% of consumers prefer interacting with brands using both digital and physical channels a preference that is consistent across all generations.
It means that to remain competitive, brands need to develop an omnichannel strategy that provides customers with a consistent and personalized experience regardless of where or how they choose to interact with the brand.
However, many companies are yet to recognize the full potential of this approach and the potential gains by implementing omnichannel in delivering seamless customer experiences.
How does Omnichannel Strategy offer a Competitive Advantage to Brands?
1) Omnichannel personalization offers a rare competitive advantage to brands
Omnichannel personalization is more like empowering the customer to shop on his preferred channel based on his preferences, interests and convenience. A SAAS report says brands that prioritized customer experience pre-pandemic are already at an advantage.
Companies with a mature customer experience strategy are over six times more likely to exceed customer retention targets than those that failed to prioritize the customer experience.
An omnichannel personalization strategy can help grow sales and boost customer experience, brand loyalty. Here are some crucial findings of the same.
- Omnichannel boosts brand loyalty, showing a 90% higher omnichannel retention than a single channel. Customers who engaged with the three or more channels were 90% more likely to return for another purchase.
- Brands get the advantage of additional insight into customer actions like interaction with different touchpoints, customer behaviour, favourite products, frequency of purchasing, allowing them to serve relevant products, content and offers.
- Nine out of 10 customers prefer to shop with brands that provide personalized offers and content.
- 40% of companies say personalization has directly impacted sales, specifically basket size and profits in direct-to-consumer channels such as e-commerce.
Neiman Marcus is providing omnichannel personalization in these impactful ways:
Website: There's an automatic search function on the company's website when you search for a specific size of clothes, such as a shirt or shoe. Using geolocation shows which brick-and-mortar stores near you have the product in stock.
In-store: "Memory Mirrors" has been installed by Neiman Marcus on its stores. Customers can utilize these mirrors to record themselves as they try on items, and they can share the videos with loved ones via text message or review them on a Neiman Marcus app. Customers can use Memory Mirrors to compare two products side-by-side and see how they look on their bodies rather than on a model's shoulders.
App: Neiman Marcus "Snap. Find. Shop" app is one of the most innovative tools which can be used by customers on the go whenever they see an outfit or item they like, whether it's at another store or on a person. Just launch the app and take a picture of the item, and the software will then scan Neiman Marcus stock to find something as comparable as possible and show it up to the consumer, who can then save it across several channels.
2) Enhancing the customer experience
Brands must capture and engage their customers while also providing them with a consistent experience across their channels. As customers, we are always looking for a unique and personalized experience.
We no longer want to feel like just another number or faceless entity, this is where omnichannel personalization comes into play. By delivering a personalized experience across all customer touchpoints, retail businesses can create an intimate relationship with your customers that they appreciate and value.
For example, if a customer walks into a Superdry brand store looking for tapered jeans in grey colour, preferring a slate grey shade wearable but couldn’t find one in the store. The customer was disappointed as his order remained unfulfilled, and he planned to go for a competitive brand.
Here’s something special for the customer. The store representative approaches the customer and helps him fulfil his order using the Endless Aisle Solution on his tablet. The customer is happy to know the availability of his selected product, pays for the order and gets his order delivered at his home.
Result! The customer is thrilled to experience a never-before-seen shopping experience that compels him to shop in-store again & again. It is a win-win situation for the retail brand as they can fulfil the customer's wish, thwarting the competition's attempt to drive away customers and boost their in-store walkins.
3) Connects digital touchpoints
The most crucial step in building an omnichannel personalization strategy is to connect the digital touchpoints that have the key to valuable & scattered customer data.
The retail brand must focus on connecting all the digital touchpoints like mobile apps, social media sites, brand websites, chatbots, and Point Of Sale (POS), which can be useful for analyzing the customer journey on all touchpoints. Once digital touchpoints have been connected, the consumer journey is now digital.
Here is how?
Digital touchpoints like web, mobile, and social media help retailers identify who customers are and what they want before they even enter the store. It allows for tailored marketing and messaging that draws shoppers in and encourages them to buy.
4) Offers support to new engagement strategies like gamification & mobile commerce
Gamification: nine out of ten retailers are looking to apply gamification to engage with their customers. And what this means is as a retailer, if you are not using gamification or innovative new ways to engage with customers, you will risk losing business altogether.
Sephora used in-app gamification and created a unique "Ang Pao" campaign in the Malaysian market to achieve a 132% increase in purchases from customers who participated in the event. It helped the company cut through the noise of a crowded, highly competitive market and capture consumers’ attention.
Mobile Commerce: Mobile commerce is observing massive traction these years with the greater adoption of smartphones. More and more customers are shopping on their smartphones, making it even more critical for businesses to ensure a positive and consistent experience across all channels using chatbots, AR apps & more.
Conclusion
With new technologies and increasing competition, retailers and brands need to deliver more than a great experience. They need to find ways to have the right experiences and in the right place with the right customer. Omnichannel offers a competitive advantage to brands that can successfully adopt it.
Brands can quickly transform into an omnichannel brand using Fynd's omnichannel solutions. They can understand customer actions, predict shopping behaviour, roll out special offers, automate inventory & Order Management System (OMS) and a lot more.
Not only that, they can easily fight rapid customer churn and grow brand loyalty in no time. Fynd is trusted by over 600 brands and 10000 retail stores all over India for its omnichannel expertise. Book a Free Demo or Contact us to learn how a retail brand can transform into a unicorn omnichannel brand.
