'Seamless Customer Experience' is one term that online retailers emphasize the most, especially in the post-Covid world. The way of shopping is changing over the years but what remains constant is the never-ending demand of the customers. People won't stop shopping. Period. Brands and retailers need to adapt to the ever-changing shopping trends in today's digitally oriented world to stay in the game.
While some brands have dominated the market for ages and still continue to do so by decoding the equation of omnichannel retail, many of the brands are still struggling. The thought of omnichannel used to be a luxury in the past but post-Covid world forced brands to build their omnichannel marketing approach and strategies. So, what is the key to this 'seamless customer experience' that brands wish to understand and implement in their business?
The Answer- Omnichannel Revolution!
As online sales are booming, people expect to have better interactions with brands across channels along with smoother checkouts. With omnichannel experience, shoppers can enjoy a unified experience across physical to digital channels. It is all about making a marketing effort to integrate multiple touchpoints to add extra value and the much-needed dash of personalization throughout the customer journey.
Here's what omnichannel retail looks like
Marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. - Omnisend
Every business needs a unique omnichannel strategy depending on the products, customer data, target audience, customer behavior and several other factors. Let's take a look at some of the big names that have made a significant progress with their omnichannel strategy to increase their online and offline business. Understand what made these brands bigger and how your business can benefit by implementing these ideas with a touch of innovation.
Renowned as one of the best brands for fitness enthusiasts globally, Nike is ruling the market with its physical store as well as online store. Nike's apps boast 250 M+ users which give crucial information about the consumers, their purchase pattern, likes and interests. The real-time data insights and interactive physical stores are the key essentials for Nike's every omnichannel marketing campaign along with its powerful marketing automation.
With a huge number of customers online, Nike offers a variety of clothing, accessories and footwear with customization facility. Around 26% of consumers are actively looking for personalized offers and discounts. Nike utilizes their data to get the attention of customers across channels and convert them into loyal customers with various offers.
Fun Fact about Nike:
Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase endorsed Nike in 1972 after signing a contract with the company. He was the first athlete to promote Nike.
The homecare giant IKEA has a major market share with its omnichannel marketing examples. Customers can easily manage their own experiences with various facilities by IKEA like 'Click & Collect' service for better shopping experience from the comfort of home, 'IKEA' Place with Augmented Reality for easier shopping, IKEA Better living app green advice and point based reward system. The ecommerce website is also helpful to the users in several ways like comparing products quickly, reward points, relevant product recommendations and guest checkout options.
Fun Fact about IKEA:
IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name, Ingvar Kamprad, the farm where he grew up, Elmtaryd and his home village, which happens to be called Agunnaryd.
With the slogan 'Always low prices' in the past to 'Save Money. Live Better' currently, Walmart is one of the biggest omnichannel companies speaking all about affordable products. Just like Amazon and eBay, Walmart marketplace allows third-party sellers to register themselves and sell for various geographies. With the BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick up in Store) trending in the post-Covid world, Walmart is providing a convenient experience with its mobile geofencing technology. Customers can enjoy loyalty programs, timeously alerts and also return items via multiple channels.
Fun Fact about Walmart: Walmart has an official museum in Bentonville, Arizona with a wide variety of exhibits depicting the history of the firm. The museum is in the same location as the Walton 5 & 10, a Ben Franklin franchise that Sam Walton opened in 1950.
What has kept these brands going on for so many years?
We're witnessing innovation and adaptability to change that has kept these brands on top. But how do they make the most of technology to gain better results? Omnichannel is not just the benefit. Omnichannel is the demand and necessity.
While having a multichannel or omnichannel approach is essential, it can result in a bad customer experience if brands aren't geared to manage it. We love to see
omnichannel experience and customer engagement from leading brands, but how can one do the same for their brands?
Here is how Nike, IKEA and Walmart are nailing it in the omnichannel retail approach
- Headless Commerce with mobile-first approach-
Enabling social commerce with a flexible architecture is more convenient with headless commerce rather than the traditional ecommerce platforms. With separate architecture for front-end activities like customer interface till back-end activities including processing payments and managing inventories, everything is simplified. Companies can easily provide payment gateways, products and content on various devices and screens including mobile apps, smart watches, kiosk screens and more. Headless commerce offers an ultimate way to:
- Increase your time to value
- Offer customized experiences
- Makes faster integration
- Virtual Try-Ons for easier shopping:
Customers love the idea of virtually trying on products. People are virtually trying on clothing, footwear, home décor and more products from the comfort of their home. Using virtual reality enhances the ecommerce store presence effortlessly by offering n enriched personal shopping experience. Nike and IKEA are two brands making the most of this 3D projection. One of the top omnichannel marketing examples is Nike. It allows customers to buy the coolest shoes with the 'Nike Fit' service where users can scan their feet and the app will calculate the foot dimensions. They can further buy shoes that fit either online or in-store.
The number of orders placed online and picked up at bricks-and-mortar stores by customers grew 208% during the pandemic. - Adobe Analytics
IKEA allows customers to visualize how the new home décor items, furniture, wall paintings and more would look like in their houses. Brands are using the best ways to offer something out of the box with the blend of virtual reality and creativity. Omnichannel analytics solutions provide great help in getting the essential data and updates with such experiments.
- Using Data with best intent- From inventory management till pursuing customers
Omnichannel customers expect shorter delivery times and being fast is what ecommerce sites are usually known for. Businesses need to have the right technology to manage the back-end processes more efficiently and in a cost-effective way. Crystal clear visibility is essential in supply chains to avoid data silos and include end-to-end visibility with relevant pieces of information.
This visibility plays a vital role for companies in executing omnichannel initiatives. Gathering data depending on customer purchase pattern and economic trends including end-to-end visibility platforms helps in creating omnichannel strategies for better sales. Brands use such data for creating various offers depending on seasonal demands, price sensitivity and other factors.
Keeping a track of the inventory, demands and cashflow helps in inventory management and better customer relationship management across multiple touchpoints.
- Customers come first- Give them what they want
Creating holistic customer profiles with all the information about them can help in orchestrating seamless experiences across channels. Brands have mastered the art of omnichannel personalized marketing by investing in reliable customer data platforms. Companies can collect data from multiple channels like social media and websites to further send personalized offers, discounts and more. Omnichannel marketing strategies vary for every customer segment based on their preferences and a CDP allows you to reach out to them on multiple channels like SMS, emails, search engines, social media and more.
98% of Americans switch between devices in the same day. - Google Research
As a part of the package, if brands come up with such marketing strategies, it also comes with a need for prominent customer service support across channels to gain every potential customer and also focus on customer retention. With the omnichannel approach, customers expect to receive satisfactory support on various platforms. Hence, brands should focus on offering not only products but also end-to-end support with their omnichannel marketing strategy with every innovative marketing campaign
What is stopping your brand from making the most of omnichannel marketing approach?
As omnichannel has become mandatory to grow online and offline in today's market, brands are already aware of what they need to do to achieve success and witness growth. However, investing in the right technology, purchasing the most compatible CMS, CRM and CDP is the most challenging task for businesses.
We at Altudo work to create better customer experiences for every marketing team and achieve brand awareness. Providing the most suitable set of tools and services so that marketers can focus on business and creativity is our prime objective. We can hook you up with the best of breed tools and tech to keep your business growing along with happy customers across different channels.
Let Altudo help you with the best services that makes omnichannel customer experience better and your brand presence stronger. Drop a Hi! At marketing@altudo.co and our team would help you out.
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