Omnichannel Benefits: 7 Reasons to Adopt an Omnichannel Strategy

Businesses implementing an omnichannel strategy experience a boost in sales. This growth can be attributed to the following:

• Customers shop however they prefer.
• Customers do not lose progress or experience friction when switching channels.
• Merchants use personalization to target customers with relevant offers via their preferred marketing channels.
• Every step of the customer journey is designed with the customer’s experience and best interests in mind.
• Merchants give customers access to all the information impacting their purchase decisions (product descriptions, return policies, exclusive offers).

The more marketing channels a company uses, the more people it can reach with its campaigns. However, any brand’s prospective customers are not a uniform group and differ in the following:

• Preferred marketing channels.
• Favorite social media platforms and reasons why they use them.
• Time spent online.
• Part of the day they dedicate to screen time.
• Likelihood they will follow trends, etc.

The essence of the omnichannel experience is to allow customers to choose how they want to achieve their goals. For this to work, it is crucial to ensure that across all channels customers are given:

• Consistent information.
• A uniform customer experience.
• The ability to switch from online to offline and vice versa at any point.

Offline and online are not only connected by data and similar customer experiences. A typical example of connecting the physical and digital in omnichannel are digital coupons and interactive mobile applications designed to be used in physical locations.

An omnichannel strategy entails connecting all marketing channels, business departments, and customer touchpoints into a single unified ecosystem. This holistic approach results in improvements in the following areas:

• Inventory management. Merchants supervise their inventory in all retail and storage locations in real-time and via a single system. This allows them to improve restock planning, anticipate customer demand and shopping trends, and ensure better overall inventory management.
• Order fulfillment. Merchants have real-time access to order information, while customers can track their orders. Giving all participating parties access to order fulfillment information ensures orders are completed in the shortest amount of time, reduces the chance of friendly fraud, and enhances shopper safety.
• Internal communication. In omnichannel, information is collected and stored in a single database that all departments can access. This database gives all employees a single and true source of information, making communication easy, efficient, and accurate.
• External communication. Customers can choose from numerous options when they wish to communicate with a brand. While this is true for multi-channel as well, the benefit of omnichannel lies in channel connectivity. If a customer’s journey is interrupted for whatever reason, then can move to a different communication method to continue where they left off. Instead of losing a customer, the business retains them.
• Human resource management. Omnichannel treats the customer experience as a system consisting of dozens of interconnected pieces. The same applies to the company. Employees achieve optimal performance because they understand how the ecosystem they are a part of works. In the case of human resource reallocation, employees require less additional training because they continue to use the information system they are used to.

According to Harvard Business Review:

• 73% of customers prefer shopping through multiple channels.
• 80% of customers prefer omnichannel strategies over single- or multi-channel due to the seamless shopping experience they provide.

Given these numbers, it is little surprise that 90% of retail leaders agree that adopting an omnichannel strategy is crucial to a business’s success.

Omnichannel customers purchase more frequently and increase purchase value over time, according to Omnisend. In fact, omnichannel customers have a 30% larger customer lifetime value than single-channel customers.

The loyalty of omnichannel customers can be attributed to the following:

• Omnichannel businesses are customer-centric and focus on providing outstanding customer service.
• The seamlessness and convenience of omnichannel shopping invokes positive feelings in customers, turning them into repeat customers.
• Omnichannel customer journeys cater to customers’ needs and expectations.
• Personalization, a marketing strategy associated with omnichannel marketing, makes customers feel listened to and cared for.
• Omnichannel businesses often feature a well-designed loyalty program.