Why Omni-Channel Strategy in Ecommerce?

Why Omni-Channel Marketing in Ecommerce

Why Omni-Channel Marketing in Ecommerce Business models have evolved over time moving from the traditional brick and mortar store to an e-commerce landscape where customers shopped online to a multichannel experience where shoppers are spoilt for choice due to the availability of assorted platforms. The drawback of the multichannel experience is that these platforms are not integrated. Addressing this gap is Omni channel retailing that provides an integrated and seamless approach to marketing allowing collaboration among diverse channels.

Traditionally, shoppers used to visit brick and mortar stores to make their purchases. With time, online shopping evolved through ecommerce streams where the customer was able to make purchases online. The next transition was into multi-channel shopping which was opportune in that it gave shoppers diverse channels to shop from. But, there was still the hopping from one channel to another, without a consistent flow or relation. Omni channel grew out of necessity - an obligation of servicing customers with a cohesive and smoother purchase cycle that paved the way to customer satisfaction and quicker deliveries.

Brick & Mortar

Ecommerce

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Omni channel

Omni channel marketing is a channel-agnostic approach to manage and optimize customer relationships. It promotes awareness, interest and response by integrating informational, transactional and service platforms like television, videos, online and physical display advertising, email, mobile, ecommerce portals, POS systems etc.

Ecommerce vendors are sure to have a presence across various marketing channels such as websites, smart phones, tablets, social networking etc. Omni-channel marketing synchronizes and orchestrates these to understand buying behaviour and personalize it, so that customer revenues and loyalty are assured. As individual entities, these channels may not provide the anticipated outputs. But, in collaboration, one channel makes up for the drawbacks of another. The data collected from these channels can be used to make purchases more convenient, provide personalized experiences, more detailed product descriptions and faster delivery options.

An example will make this clearer to understand. Macy’s, multinational chain of department stores, is intensely focused on integrating stores, internet, mobile, social and local components, and leveraging its many operational assets to offer new services in an on-going Omni-channel strategic initiative. If the consumer needs the product immediately and finds the product on Macy’s website, he/she can head to the nearest store to make a purchase and if it is out of stock, can order it from an in-store kiosk and have it delivered to his/her local store or doorstep. In addition, consumers are increasingly making purchases through online/mobile channels or making spontaneous buying choices and Macy’s has established a strong online and mobile presence to service these consumers. This is fast becoming a requirement especially in today’s interconnected environment. Macy’s makes sure that there is inventory available in-store with alternative purchasing options so that it does not miss out on a sale, jeopardizing a customer’s loyalty or brand perception. Additionally, Macy’s is also enhancing in-kiosk experiences blending physical inventory with a virtual interactive display of product information via touchscreens so that consumers actually have a close look at a product before purchasing it online or physically.

Consumer behaviour across channels has predictability and design and if data such as the most used channel for a search, the channel that most buyers frequent, kind of purchases made, options of up selling and cross selling etc. can be tracked, the retailer can retain customers for a lifetime and stay ahead of the competition. With customer data at his disposal, a retailer can create strategies to attract customers at every touch point, whether online or in-store, resulting in revenue growth by capitalizing on previously untapped opportunities.

Planning the Omni channel Scenario For firms that wish to be an Omni-channel success, there has to be a plan and suitable execution for selling and servicing across multiple channels, a strategy that measures customer touch points at every step. The plan has to be a blend of branding, messaging, offers and pricing.

For example, here is how Starbucks leveraged the QR code mechanism as a part of its Omni-channel strategy to enhance the brand experience. To promote its new line of signature roasts, Starbucks flagged off a customer engagement program called “Roast they Love the Most”. Additionally, it wanted customers to have easy access to information on the various flavours of bagged coffee to make better choices. To achieve this, Starbucks placed QR Codes on millions of coffee bags with links to videos on their products and demonstrations on “How to Brew Coffee”. Subsequently, the company distributed bookmarks in and around its outlets to enable customers to scan, vote and share their favourite flavour of coffee roast. More than 50,000 customers voted from the mobile site alone. Further, this code was customized with coffee beans to enhance the brand experience for Starbucks customers.

Further, Waterstones (www.waterstones.com), a leading online and high street bookseller, provides free Wi-Fi connectivity in its stores to enable customers to buy and download content onto an electronic device. By offering consumers the option of buying an eBook while browsing books in a traditional store, this strategy improves customer experience.

The above examples clearly indicate that the advent of Omni-channel marketing is creating a more intimate connect between brands and their loyal followers, personalizing their experiences. Brands are trying to understand customers, respond to their needs, serve them at every interaction point and empower and equip them with appropriate information and more buying power. With the multiple channels stitched together, brands make it easy for a customer to purchase and own desired products or services in the shortest time possible. It creates trust and a satisfied customer becomes a loyal follower. Omni-channel is about operational excellence, quicker processes, increased accuracy, consistent retail execution and deriving actionable insights from constant customer interactions. With Omni-channel, each channel is aware of what the other channels are doing and are in sync with the others.

The website is directly related to the activities on a social networking platform or an in-store experience and vice versa.

Firms have to delve deeper into customer intelligence and understand why conversions and non-conversions occur. From search to sale, traceability and where the purchase cycle stopped and why – was it because of a competitive offering or because the product features did not meet the standards set by the customer? Did the conversion cycle complete? Data analysis estimates where the search started and where it ended, which medium is used more for different phases and where a vendor can attract the customer more and outsmart competitors. With mobile apps that trace data based on usage, firms are strengthening relationships with their customers.

Ecommerce is already making use of performance marketing models like site optimization, monetization modelling, SEO, paid search etc. To make the customer experience seamless and create awareness and interest, retailers need to use these models to profile the customer and create a tighter reporting and tracking mechanism by adding data on each activity to the profile. The IT and the marketing teams have to closely work together to make this a reality. Delivering well-thought out content needs an integration of analytics, measurement and marketing. It requires a cross-functional approach across marketing, IT and customer service incorporating marketing automation, analytics, customer experience management, point of sales systems, CRM, web content management etc. Due to the assortment of media, the management and integration of interdependent data has to be planned and structured well.

Big Data in Omni-channel The dawn of Omni-Channel marketing is bringing about a tectonic shift - consumers armed with smart phones, mobile apps, online reviews and who can simultaneously navigate in-store and online retail environments are driving the consumer space. Hence, smartphones and big data analytics are influencing the technology changes in the Omni-channel scenario. Digitization of retail is seeing more and more consumers downloading mobile retail apps. There is now more clarity and uniformity in customer data and understanding customer needs. With data accumulated from different channels, there is predictability in addressing the customer like never before.

In summary For ecommerce firms, Omni-channel strategy advocates a synergy of varied marketing platforms for positive outcomes.

For consumers, it is all about convenience and fulfilment.

About Unilog Unilog is a global technology and services company that specializes in Big Data Analytics and Product Data Management for e-commerce. Headquartered in Bangalore, Unilog is an ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 8000 certified company that employs over 300 people in its local offices at Mysore and Philadelphia. Unilog’s comprehensive, end-to-end data management services cater to the requirements of leading brands across industry verticals including Retail, Telecom, IT, Manufacturing, MRO and Electrical & Electronics among others.

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