List of key tools and technologies to help drive your omnichannel retail strategy
We all know the role omnichannel customer experiences play in today’s world and how it is almost impossible to make money without offering it. But did you know that customer retention rates for omnichannel are 90% higher than for any individual channel?
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Millennial customers are always looking for the easiest and best experience when browsing online stores, be it navigation, surfing, paying, shipping or returning. The burden rests on retailers to meet these expectations. However, creating such an experience can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t employ the right technologies and tools when building your omnichannel retail strategy.
With that in mind, let’s dive deeper into the realm of omnichannel retail and identify the best tools to help you improve your business operations.
What is omnichannel retail (and why should you care)?
The idea of ​​omnichannel retail is to combine multiple avenues to create a more unified shopping experience as opposed to multichannel which simply offers multiple tools for customer interaction. With an omnichannel retail strategy, your customers can use any device and channel to seamlessly interact with your brand, both online and offline.
This approach brings all of your offline stores, social media campaigns, websites, phone hotlines, emails, etc. together so that the experience goes smoothly. And that has an amazing business impact. According to a Harvard Business Review report, shoppers in an omnichannel ecosystem spend about 4% more in person and 10% more online than customers who only use one channel.
Implementing an omnichannel approach also has a measurable impact on your sales as you add multiple digital touchpoints in your physical branches. Let’s say with endless aisle technology, your customers can use their smartphones in a physical store to order products that are out of stock in the store. Assuming a customer never received the package ordered online, the case could be handled by a smart chatbot or live chat agent.
Live chat support
Live chat fits naturally into an omnichannel marketing strategy, and up to 44% of online shoppers believe it is an essential website feature. As customers expect a more responsive shopping experience online, a live chat application directly improves the customer experience. But it also has a couple of quantifiable benefits:
- Personalization: Customers expect personalized experiences at every touchpoint, a concept introduced by e-commerce giants like Amazon. They expect a brand to already know their preferences based on their browsing and buying trends. While it is largely implemented through marketing emails, live chat goes a step further by involving agents to connect directly with customers in the middle of their buying process.
- Flexibility: Co-browsing via live chat enables customer service reps to access a specific customer’s screen to help them resolve issues on their shopping journey.
- Economical: Traditional customer support is generally a slow process and can burn a hole in your pocket if left unattended. Live chat, on the other hand, allows your employees to serve multiple customers at the same time, reducing your costs over time.
- Positive interactions: Any negative interaction with your customers can potentially lead to the end of your relationship with them. Live chat helps maintain positive customer perception by allowing you to resolve your customer queries in real time and is faster than any other customer support channel.
Source: akquir.io/live-chat
A great live chat software solution can meet your growing needs for improved customer support, sales and service, helping you reform your omnichannel strategy.
Tools and technology trends that are driving the omnichannel revolution
According to a study commissioned by Forrester, 50% of shoppers expect to shop online and pick up in-store, and at least 71% of customers think it is important that they store inventory information for in-products. With that in mind, here are some of the most breakthrough technologies that are shaping the omnichannel retail and e-commerce space as we know it.
Internet of things
The sheer number of IoT devices that consumers can use to interact with eCommerce channels continues to grow. The total number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow to over 125 billion by 2030, bringing an average of 15 connected devices to each consumer.
Products such as smartphones, smart speakers, smartwatches and other wearables have made it easy for companies to pursue an omnichannel strategy. Emerging IoT-based devices enable companies to present their customers with product content and personalized marketing with relevant notifications on relevant devices.
Through IoT solutions, omnichannel service providers can improve their visibility and collect precise data with real-time validation. You have access to networked systems around the world and can interact with them from anywhere. In addition, we have smart offers that are used on audio and video-enabled smart devices to take preventive measures and give customers a comprehensive insight into the product or service offered.
IoT technology holds a lot of promise and potential, and with it comes the challenge of processing and analyzing a mountain of data in order to generate actionable insights.
VR and AR
Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR / AR) are no longer the tricky and futuristic technologies that served no practical purpose. Imagine going into a store, picking up a shopping cart, putting on AR glasses and making purchases through an AI program. With augmented reality technology, your customers can use their smartphone camera to digitally display elements in their visible physical environment. The applications of this technology are improving and closing the gap between physical and digital shopping experiences. Popular brands like Converse and IKEA are leading examples.
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IKEA has done a great job of enabling its customers to easily visualize via a smartphone how their products should fit into their physical space. Similarly, with Converse AR, shoppers can use AR to virtually try on shoes (and share them on social media).
With VR, on the other hand, your customers can shop virtually while they are relaxed at home. All they have to do is get a VR headset and choose from carefully curated items based on their purchase history.
VR / AR offers omnichannel marketers unprecedented opportunities and this has made it really easy to create well-informed and personalized customer experiences.
Marketing automation
Automation is an important element in e-commerce as it enables retail companies to customize the customer journey while developing content that is designed to convert leads. Whenever shoppers visit your online store and browse various products before they leave, your automated marketing program can use this data to trigger campaigns and promote products and services that are relevant to them.
MailChimp, for example, is a popular email service provider that has now developed into a fully-fledged automated marketing machine. It allows you to set up behavioral triggers for your email marketing campaigns and create a single email or a series of emails with preset triggers like welcome messages, abandoned cart emails, etc.
There are also other tools that you can use to plan, coordinate, measure and manage all of your marketing campaigns across all channels.
Recommendation engine
Amazon is perhaps the first thought that comes to mind when we think of e-commerce, and that’s because it has managed to get customers to come back. And all because of their solid recommendation engine.
Source: amazon.com
A recommendation engine uses a set of pre-defined AI algorithms to predict and recommend products that a buyer might like based on their previous interactions, and sets preferences and filters. Bring this into your omnichannel strategy and you can increase the stakes by merging data from online stores and in-store purchases.
Not only will it personalize a customer’s experience with your brand, but it will keep them loyal for a very long time.
Final thoughts
Introducing an omnichannel retail experience puts customers at the center of your business strategy and offers them a smooth shopping experience across all of your offered channels. However, implementing it can be a daunting task, and with all the data flying around, it can get extremely complex.
The best way to get around this solution is to incorporate modern technology into your company’s vision and use tools that take advantage of it. With a small initial investment, you will change the way your customers see your brand forever.
