)
The global retail industry has grown significantly due to factors like globalization, increased GDP, and rising consumer spending. This growth creates opportunities for all players, from small proprietors to large chains. The market is evolving rapidly with investments from developed and developing markets. Retailers are embracing new trends in marketing, distribution, supply chain management, and technology to stay competitive and adapt to changing consumer behaviors. Despite the rise of e-retailers, the future of retail lies in Omni-channel retailing. This strategy allows consumers to shop anytime, anywhere, integrating online, physical stores, and mobile devices. Retailers worldwide are adopting Omni-channel retailing to meet evolving consumer demands, challenging the notion that e-retailers would dominate the future of retail.
Define Omnichannel Retailing
Omnichannel retailing is a consumer-centric approach that deals with the marketing of multi-channel retailing and is considered to be its evolved form. It refers to the adoption of strategies, a variety of engagement tools, and a seamless approach to the consumer experience through all accessible shopping channels including versatile mobile internet devices, computers, brick-and-mortar stores, TV, radios, direct mail, catalog, and so on. It allows retailers to integrate all the channels of retailing & reaching customers simultaneously so as to enable them to track down the consumers across all channels.
Moreover, today consumers have access to a range of innovative technologies, numerous kinds of online resources, multiple sources of product information which they utilize while shopping & are generally well informed about the various aspects products while entering the brick and mortar stores hence they expect the store employees to know more than what they do. Hence omnichannel retailing allows retailers to deal with these informed consumers by offering them consistent experience at all platforms and catering to their demand based on a central & common database of products, offers, prices, etc. It allows the consumers to experience the brand by providing merchandise and promotions consistent across all retail channels rather than offering an assortment of touch-points of the same brand. The brick-and-mortar stores, in this case, turn into an extension of the supply chain where purchases may be made in the stores, yet are researched through other “channels” of communication. With omnichannel retailing, marketing is made more efficient and consumer-specific by providing offers determined by consumer purchasing behavior, its social network affinities, website visits, loyalty programs, and other data mining techniques.
Benefits of Omnichannel Retailing
The benefits of omnichannel retailing include improved sales, higher margins, better brand building, enhanced data collection, and increased productivity. This strategy allows consumers to shop anytime, anywhere, ensuring a seamless experience across online, mobile, and physical stores. Retailers can meet evolving consumer demands, improve customer satisfaction, and drive greater sales through integrated retail channels.
Omnichannel Customer Service
Improvement in Consumers’ Perception & Satisfaction
Five major advantages of omnichannel retailing,
- Improving Sales
- Higher Margins
- Building Brands
- Better Data Collection
The omnichannel retailing not only helps organizations in realigning their business operations and implementing infrastructure changes but also provides a pathway & vision to attract, retain customers, and driving greater sales.
- Improvement in Consumers’ Perception & Satisfaction
There is an emergence of a new generation of customers or shoppers known as millennial’s. These shoppers are always online whether it’s social networking sites or skimming the most recent products from their most loved retail stores. Thus retailers need to develop and implement strategies that permit these shoppers to flawlessly switch or move between online & brick and mortar store shopping. These customers can get to be restless and if their experience is everything except for simple, they will move on.
Thus these consumers expect integration and will get annoyed waiting for it to turn into a reality. Moreover, the blurring of channels isn’t simply a retail marvel. It is progressing into different aspects of shoppers’ lives like entertainment, where two-screen viewing is turning into a behavioral standard. Retailing is passing through a transitional time where the pace of implementation can be differentiating and brand-building or meek response can be disappointing & damaging.
- Improving Sales
The omnichannel retailing set up allows shoppers to make a purchase from wherever they please. It gives retailers’ stock visibility and accessibility in the customers’ favored channel. Moreover, it provides convenience to the customers and substantially increases the buying opportunities for various products offered by retailers. Lastly, it provides shoppers with a wider selection and numerous ways of accessing and purchasing that selection thereby enhancing sales.
- Higher Margins
An intelligently outlined online sales framework reduces the incidence of numerous schemes related to discounting. On the other hand in conventional retailing, only those products are sold on heavy discounts which are proving hard to sell through particular stores. However, omnichannel retailing nationally based sellers can sell products to anyone across the nation at full price as it provides an effective efficient online and offline sales framework.
- Building Brands
Building the virtual brand from scratch is considered to be tough and difficult by the retailers as compared to building a real brand. Retailers having brick and mortar stores while offering their products online for sale find it less demanding to control & regulate pricing power as well as sales volume as physical stores are considered to be the custodians of the brand-enhancing the brand value of the retailers through their highly noticeable presence in various centers of the city as well as their outlets.
- New Income Streams
Multi-channel retailing has enabled various convenience stores to develop and generate new revenue streams by providing innovative by easy to implement payment infrastructure to numerous small enterprises involved in the business. A good example can be a small online tuition firm based in Hong Kong which collects payment from its students using 7Eleven stores. Thus clearly indicates how small enterprises can save money & time by not creating their own payment systems and utilizing and adopting a multi-channel solution.
- Better Data Collection
Visibility across multi-channels implies a more personalized experience. Retailers who are able to track their customers over different channels & comprehend their preferences can serve their consumers better. Thus omnichannel retailing allows a business to additionally gain insights into creating offers that persuade customers to get out from behind their screens & engage themselves in shopping from physical stores, where the likelihood of impulsive buying is more noteworthy.
- Enhanced Productivity
An omnichannel strategy allows the store associates to arm themselves with tools that expand their access to information and promotes efficiency. Various tools like tablets have turned into the front line defense against customers who are equipped with more information than employees at the stores and are proving to be an incredible offense for transforming customer information into loyalty-building services so as to improve customer retention and increase productivity.
Thus omnichannel retailing concept is offering a 360-degree view of all the purchases made by the customers in order to serve them better. However as hot as this concept is numerous retailers are unable to adopt and implement it fully because of various challenges associated with it.