How to optimize your omnichannel marketing strategy?

Omni-Channel Retailing is a strategy that uses all media, whether online/offline, such as shops, e-commerce websites and SNSs, to create touchpoints with customers and promote sales without knowing the buying journey. In other words, it is a new form of shopping that eliminates the boundary between physical shops and online shops. "Omni" is derived from Latin and means "everything". "Channel" is familiar to all marketers and means "route, medium to attract customers".

The omnichannel marketing's background

The popularity of smartphones is one of the reasons why omnichannel marketing has attracted attention. They allow consumers to connect to the Internet without a personal computer. As a result, consumer behaviour has become much more diverse. You can now collect product information from websites, compare prices and services from multiple shops and buy the same product at the lowest possible price with a single smartphone. In addition, consumers can now shop efficiently, regardless of location or time. As a result, companies are adopting a so-called omnichannel strategy to improve customer satisfaction and differentiate themselves from their competitors. We advise you to find out more about production experience management at goaland.com.

Benefits of the omnichannel strategy

It improves customer satisfaction

The first advantage of omnichannel is that by connecting the offline (real shop) o the online (webshop), it is possible to offer a new customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. By embracing the omnichannel strategy, customers can get the products they want more easily as they will have the stock of the products they want and don't have to search and buy by themselves in the online shops.

Consistency in marketing towards each customer

The second advantage of omnichannel is that you can optimally market to your customers. Below is an overview of the type of marketing that can be achieved through omnichannel based on two examples, one when the right marketing is not achieved and one when omnichannel is achieved.

If you don't have the best marketing for your customers

If you are not marketing optimally to your customers, your effort will be counterproductive. For example, if each sales channel is independent as in the past multichannel will be a different approach to a customer, which will put the latter under pressure. For instance, for users who were looking for a black hoodie on their computer, the mobile ads would show a one-piece yellow ad and the direct mail would send an unrelated sales invitation to the user, but the approach would be inconsistent. This often annoys them.

Omnichannel consistency

Omnichannel integrates all sales channels, including online and offline, and desktop and mobile, so you can continuously optimise marketing for individual customers. For example, if the hoodie you see on your desktop is the same one you saw in your Facebook ad on your smartphone some time ago, and the sales invitation email you received three days later also included that hoodie, then your sales channel is different but consistent, no matter the device used. Therefore, with omnichannel, users can buy products and services without acknowledging the difference between sales channels.

Can reduce the risk of a missed opportunity

The third advantage of omnichannel is that it can reduce lost opportunities. This is because proper inventory management will be possible by establishing a system that can manage each sales channel in an integrated way. This can prevent customers from buying a replacement item in another shop or from abandoning the purchase itself. By linking inventory management between physical shops and online shops via the omnichannel way, you avoid the risk of not being able to supply products while they are in stock.

The key to a successful omnichannel strategy is the app in use

As mentioned earlier, the widespread use of smartphones has led to the involvement of apps in every customer touchpoint. Therefore, it makes sense to consider introducing an app when implementing omnichannel strategies. The biggest benefit of using apps is that they can drive customer visits and purchases. They can also actively communicate with consumers by providing new information and coupons with push notifications. In addition, by incorporating check-in and scorecard features to enhance functionality, customers will be able to use these apps more frequently.