Beyond being able to buy from you online and through digital channels, shoppers are looking for a seamless and consistent experience across every channel and device. Therefore, the price they find on your website should be the same as the one they find in your store. The information they view on your YouTube channel should be the same information they find on your website. And most important, their shopping process must be seamless and consistent across all channels. That is what is called an “omnichannel experience” — and that is what you want to achieve.
Dealernews Research By Dr. Paul Leinberger
TOMORROW NEVER DIES Omnichannel: The Key to Your Future
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emember when James Bond took on media mogul Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies back in 1997? Carver was using his omnipresent media reach to control the news, not just report it. Your mission as a retailer is to master the omnichannel marketplace. Last month I talked about the importance of having a digital strategy and I said that “having a digital strategy means more than selling online; it means developing a detailed understanding of how consumers want to connect with you – online and in-store, across devices, and through a variety of channels.”
This month, I want to take the importance of having a digital strategy one giant step further – because even an excellent digital strategy is not enough… in fact, The World Is Not Enough (to purloin another 007 reference). Oh, great, I can hear you saying. Isn’t developing a strong digital strategy enough? That’s going to take time, money and the patience of a saint (two of which are probably in short supply). You know, already, that just like you, your customers are using multiple channels to shop – and that’s why you are building a strong digital strategy. In fact, the newest research reports that 73% of all shoppers are using multiple physical and digital channels before making a purchase (20% in-store only, 7% online only) Forbes, February 2019.
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Note: Omnichannel marketing is not the same as multichannel marketing. Until recently, developing a strong digital marketing strategy meant having a digital presence across multiple channels – hence “multichannel.” You developed a website, a blog, a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, a Facebook presence and Instagram stories. It didn’t matter so much that what you were doing on Facebook was different from what you were doing on Instagram. Your goal was simply to be everywhere your customers might be and a multichannel strategy achieved that goal. However, a multi-channel marketing strategy puts the emphasis in the wrong place. Instead of focusing on the customer experience, it focuses on what you are selling. What customers want, however, is a seamless shopping experience with consistent messaging across all channels.