Top Reasons Why Retail Customers Want an Omnichannel Experience

Retailers often talk about the importance of omnichannel retailing, but what can customers get from it? Here’s the precise answer: as technology has progressed, it has empowered customers with complete information and fueled demand for the products & services they want.

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Our modern world is full of impatient, busy customers who quickly want to fulfill their demands using any channel and demand a fluid and personalized shopping experience. Omnichannel is a proven strategy widely adopted by retail brands to offer the best service, convenience, and unique brand experience and boost customer loyalty.

Why do Retail Customers Desire an Omnichannel Experience?

1) Shop and interact with brands with confidence

Customers want to buy authentic, high-quality products directly from the brand, no matter where they are: at home on their computers, on the go with their smartphones, or in a physical store. They have multiple options to shop–physical stores, online marketplaces, apps, and brand stores—but don’t want to miss the genuine brand experience.

They want their favorite retail brands to connect, engage, interact, and pamper them at every stage of the omnichannel journey by offering personalized offers across channels.

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Omnichannel is the proven strategy adopted by retail brands to deliver a stellar customer experience across all touchpoints, boost brand awareness, win consumer trust, and enjoy more customer attention.

2) Desire for seamless in-store experiences

Customers increasingly want to link their digital shopping experiences with in-store shopping experiences. For example, a customer may wish to order a product online, pick it up in-store, and use the virtual in-store inventory to shop online, while others may prefer to visit a store to learn about things that can only be purchased online. 

Crucial retail industry research says 68% of shoppers buy online and pick them up in-store, while 45% of shoppers in-store expect sales associates to be knowledgeable about online-only products. That's why the digital and in-store experiences must be smoothly integrated. 

An omnichannel retailing strategy can fulfill the customer's desire for a seamless in-store experience by providing buy-online-pick-up in-store (BOPIS), contactless payment methods, endless in-store inventory, and other quick solutions. The in-store shopping journey of the customer with the omnichannel retail brand is optimized for ease, convenience, and safety.

Retail brands like Ruosh and Spykar, powered by Fynd omnichannel solutions, enjoy integrated inventories using StoreOS, an in-store omnichannel tech solution by Fynd. It helps in fulfilling customer demands for products that have gone out of stock or are unavailable due to limited in-store inventory space.

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The underlying idea of any omnichannel business is to please the visiting customer and ensure they exit the store with the desired products in their hands or delivered at their footsteps. So, a visiting customer enters a physical brand store with the intention of offline shopping but leaves as a transformed customer who has had the opportunity to engage in online shopping with the same brand.

3) Offers customization and personalization

Customization and personalization are critical attributes desired by today's demanding customers and are one of the key strategies of a successful retail brand. They offer an unmatched shopping experience to customers who shop in-store and online.

For instance, Pepe Jeans Custom Studio lets you design & create bespoke Pepe Jeans pieces with in-store custom artists. The brand's latest customization service puts customers in the driver's seat and allows them to customize their jeans easily.

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The brand offers six unique tools like lasers, rips, studs, cuts, patches, and colors that let you make a truly unique finished product. To begin with, select a laser print from the catalog for denim. Following that, customers can choose three different levels of customization: 'The Experience', ‘The Club’, and ‘The Total Handcraft’.

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Additionally, a Denim Expert will always be accessible to advise customers. Check out how customers use the Pepe Jeans custom studio.

4) Enhance the shopping experience at different touchpoints

Customers want enhanced shopping experiences at different touchpoints to make them feel good about your product, brand, business, or service. The omnichannel strategy provides the right technological stack to deliver a seamless experience across all channels, which is essential for an omnichannel experience.

Some key tools to enhance the customer shopping experience across touchpoints:

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1. Chatbots: Retail brands can deploy chatbots to engage with customers 24×7 and provide real-time answers to simple queries in the quickest possible time.

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2. Live chat: It provides real-time assistance to sales and support related queries and improves customer satisfaction by fulfilling the need for face-to-face customer queries.

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3. Social media: Social media is the front-runner in omnichannel strategy for social selling. Here, the brands enable customers to share reviews, comments, likes, tweets, and pins, which generates brand trust and drives sales. 

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An omnichannel strategy effectively transforms these customer touchpoints to support brand services, promotions, and marketing strategies.

5) Save time

These are a few critical circumstances in which an omnichannel approach can bolster the customer experience and save their time. The customer goes shopping in-store, but the desired product is unavailable.

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The preferred order is delivered to the customer's home by the in-store endless inventory solution offered by the omnichannel partner. Customers can purchase and return items through multiple channels.

Buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) and buy-online-return-in-store (BORIS) are excellent examples of omnichannel strategies to save customers' time when transacting across channels and prevent them from considering alternative retail brands. Thereby significantly boosting customer loyalty for the concerned retail brand.

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‍Conclusion‍

By offering an omnichannel experience, retailers can surpass customer expectations, better meet their needs, improve customer loyalty, and improve their bottom line as well.

With our assistance, you can transform your retail business to make it more appealing to customers. To discover more about how Fynd's omnichannel solutions can offer immense benefits to retail customers and businesses, book a demo with one of our experts today or reach out to us for more information about our unique services.