Spring is officially upon us, and for many people, the season signals one thing: a chance for new beginnings. Nature aficionados and those taking part in yearly spring cleaning aren’t the only ones who should take advantage of this opportunity to renew, however. Your brand can also use this changing of the seasons as an opportunity to refresh its omnichannel strategy.
It’s no secret that providing omnichannel capabilities can boost your brand – in fact, a survey from Aspect Software found that businesses with an omnichannel framework in place experienced a 91 percent increase year-over-year in customer retention rates.
However, as customer tastes and available technological solutions change, so too should your omnichannel strategy. Let’s take a look at a few tips and best practices you can take advantage of to refresh your company’s omnichannel approach:
1) Leverage data-driven insights
In order to improve your omnichannel capabilities, you must have a deep understanding of your clients, as well as the retailers they turn to within your seller marketplace. Gleaning details about past transactions, top-performing products and overall conversions is imperative, and this information should span the different merchants your brand works with.
Currently, there’s only one service that provides this level of insight: PriceSpider’s Where To Buy. This offering works to enhance the view you have of your customers and your seller partners, providing an in-depth look into consumer traffic, purchase tracking as well as real-time pricing. Where To Buy doesn’t just give your customers every reason possible to convert, but also supports the granular insights your brand needs to manage its omnichannel presence.
Overall, CMO Council found that a main hurdle to omnichannel success is a lack of resources provided to omnichannel marketers – 64 percent of businesses deal with this issue. Where To Buy can help address this pain point specifically, offering the insights marketers need to optimize their advertising spend while supporting the demands of consumers.
2) Personalize, customize and tailor
There’s no understating the importance of personalization in the current e-commerce environment. In fact, omnichannel and personalization often go hand-in-hand, and not just because customers expect a tailored experience across every device they use.
Statistics underscore the criticality of customized service, especially as it relates to omnichannel:
- A study from Zendesk found that 64 percent of customers now demand real-time service assistance, regardless of which channel they leverage.
- Thirty-five percent of consumers want to be able to reach the same customer service agent on any channel, according to Zendesk.
- Harvard Business Review found that the majority of shoppers – 73 percent – prefer to buy from companies that provide an experience that feels individually customized.
In this way, providing the same experience for all of your customers simply won’t cut it anymore. Your brand must be able to tailor the interactions shoppers have with your company, and using data to inform these customizations is one of the best ways to achieve success.
Analyzing interactions across the different channels customers use can help you provide product recommendations, custom email content and other tailored touch points to cultivate an individual experience for your customers.
“Your brand must be able to tailor shopper interactions.”
“Today’s connected consumers are bombarded with marketing messages,” CommerceLens noted. “Personalization enables you to cut through the clutter and engage with them when, where, and how they want to hear from you.”
3) Take a cue from the experts – and the competition
It can also be helpful to take note of the omnichannel strategies that have proven successful for other organizations. For instance, Hubspot recently pointed to several omnichannel success stories from businesses in a range of industries, including:
- Disney covers all the bases: The entertainment powerhouse provides an array of avenues for its guests to interact with the company and book a trip to its renowned theme parks. From a responsive website that displays on small and large screens, to an interactive mobile app and even a wearable Magic Band device, Disney leaves no stone unturned in its omnichannel strategy.
- Oasis arms employees: The U.K.-based fashion retailer looks to eliminate common brick-and-mortar shopping pain points with the use of mobile devices by store associates. With iPads in hand, employees are able to provide real-time information about products, inventory availability and beyond. And if a particular item isn’t in stock, a store associate can place an online order for the customer right there in the store.
- Chipotle makes ordering easy: Chipotle has joined the ranks of other restaurants that enable customers to order ahead. However, the company takes this a step further with a mobile ordering app that instantly provides real-time information to employees preparing the food in-store. This helps ensure that orders are made correctly and ready for pickup when the customer arrives.
Borrowing from winning strategies like these can support your brand’s omnichannel strategy while making sure you’re on the right track with your customers.
The omnichannel approaches that may have worked in the past may not necessarily be as successful today. As consumer demands shift, so too should your company’s strategy. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, by 2020, customers won’t just be demanding an omnichannel experience, but will also expect perfect execution. Tips like those discussed here can put your organization on the right path.
