Omni-Channels
Story 2 - Omnichannel Data
What is Omnichannel Retail?
Omnichannel retailing refers to transacting across multiple channels, which may include marketplaces, social channels, in brick-and-mortars and more. Omnichannel has become a popular buzzword, but it’s not just another way of saying that you sell on multiple channels.
Let’s look at the sometimes-subtle differences among omnichannel, multichannel and single-channel commerce:
Omnichannel retailing.
A genuine omnichannel approach must deliver a consistent brand experience everywhere you sell to meet your customers where they are and build relationships that transcend channels. It should include an emphasis on optimizing your business model through channel diversification and comprehensive integration of your data and systems.
Within the retail space, there are growing expectations from customers that can only be solved through omnichannel retailing. According to a study by UC today, nearly 90% of consumers want an omnichannel experience. Even more indicative of this shift is that 15 years ago, the average consumer used two touch points when purchasing an item. That number today?
Almost six touchpoints.
The benefits of an omnichannel approach are not only immediate, in that you are able to open your business to multiple channels, but have become something customers desire — and even demand.
Multichannel retailing.
Like omnichannel, multichannel commerce refers to selling across multiple channels. However, multichannel experiences are often disparate, thanks to marketing efforts happening in silos, lacking a defined cross-channel message. Multichannel philosophies focus on optimizing by touchpoint rather than by journey.
In an article from McKinsey, analysts write, “While companies can be tempted to focus on optimizing individual touchpoints, believing that the whole will automatically be greater than the sum of its parts, such targeted intervention can magnify variations in service and inconsistencies in other interactions.”
Single channel retailing.
Unlike omnichannel and multichannel sellers, other retailers choose to sell via a single channel only. Some sellers limit their activities to their own ecommerce storefront, while others rely on the Amazon marketplace, for example.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is the integration and cooperation of the various channels organizations use to interact with consumers, with the goal of creating a consistent brand experience. This includes physical (e.g. stores) and digital channels (e.g. websites). The goal of an omnichannel marketing strategy is to create a convenient, seamless user experience for consumers that offers many opportunities for fulfillment. An omnichannel strategy may give consumers the chance to find and purchase online, in-store, or a combination thereof - such as “buy online and pick up in-store”. Today, organizations across industries are leveraging omnichannel strategies, including healthcare, retail, finance, technology, and more.
Thanks to online channels, modern consumers have more options than ever and expect information in real-time. Omnichannel marketing enables them to engage with brands on their own terms, leading to a better customer experience overall.
What is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing is the seamless integration of branding, messaging, and online and offline touchpoints as consumers move down the sales funnel, enabling a more impactful customer experience.
Omnichannel marketing takes a consumer-centric view of marketing tactics. Consumers can now interact with brands on innumerable channels, from social media to customer service hotlines. An omnichannel approach ensures that the consumer has a positive, consistent experience on each channel, by offering a few key elements:
An identifiable brand simplifies brand recognition, while personalization based on interests and shopping history makes consumers more likely to interact with branded content across channels.
What's the Difference Between Multichannel vs. Omnichannel?
While omnichannel and multi-channel are both concepts based on the idea of engaging consumers across multiple platforms, they are not interchangeable. Multichannel looks at the specific channel and how the transaction will be completed there. Alternatively, omnichannel takes into account that the customer journey may span multiple channels - and looks at how to create the best experience as consumers move between them. Each interaction is a touchpoint on a path, leading to a conversion. Let’s take a deeper look at the differences between the two:
Multichannel
Multichannel is much simpler in its intention, which is to distribute content and advertisements across various channels. A multichannel strategy makes an organization available to consumers online, in print, in-store, etc. The consumer can choose where they want to interact with the brand, however, content and engagements within these various channels are often very siloed. With this in mind, multichannel is more reflective of operations, reaching as many channels as appropriate, while omnichannel is more reflective of the overall customer experience.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel also makes brands accessible across online and offline channels, however, it goes a step further to ensure an integrated, seamless experience across each one. As consumers move across devices and online and offline platforms, transitions are seamless and messages are informed by prior encounters. An omnichannel approach enables organizations to truly take a consumer-centric approach that keeps the comprehensive customer journey top of mind.
The Benefits of Using an Omnichannel Approach
Today, most brands will agree that an omnichannel approach can yield the best results. While implementing an omnichannel approach is far from simple, when done properly it offers a host of benefits. Today’s consumers are accustomed to being bombarded with messaging from various brands, and as a result, they have become increasingly selective of which brands they choose to engage with. Creating omnichannel customer engagements can act as a brand differentiator, bringing the following benefits:
What is Omnichannel Attribution?
In a world where there are now multiple touchpoints across channels, which should get credit for the conversion? That can be difficult for marketers to answer, without the appropriate attribution model in place. Marketers often rely on multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling (MMM) to understand what led to a conversion, however, these models are not perfect.
Attribution models no longer have to rely on outdated practices and can now give a more holistic view of the marketing funnel and the buyer’s journey. Just as omnichannel tactics combine online and offline channels, omnichannel attribution removes silos between campaign measurements to understand the role each touchpoint played in the journey.
Leveraging omnichannel attribution offers a host of benefits to brands, allowing them to correlate online and offline measurements, and gain visibility into both person-level insights and aggregate, historical shopper trends.
Steps for Leveraging Omnichannel Marketing
As noted, creating an omnichannel experience needs to take into account how the individual interacts with your brand. It focuses not on the channel, but the experience as a whole. With this in mind, there are a few essentials when it comes to creating an omnichannel experience:
1. Data Collection
Collecting accurate, timely data about your consumers is essential to the implementation of an omnichannel strategy. This data will allow you to understand when your target audience prefers to interact with brands and on what devices, which type of messaging they are more likely to engage with, what products and features they are looking for, etc. This data will be the driving force behind an omnichannel strategy.. Brands need to make sure they have the tools in place to effectively collect this data across online and offline channels. A smart way to do this is with Unified Marketing Measurement (UMM), an attribution model that combines the person-level metrics of multi-touch attribution, with the historic, aggregate measurements of media mix modeling. This way, touchpoints can be informed by individual preferences as well as historical trends such as regional or seasonal elements that affect engagements / conversions.
2. Data Analysis
Data collection is only the first step. Without a team and platform that can translate all of this big data into actionable insights, it is useless. Brands need to deploy an analytics platform that can distill all of this data in near real-time so that teams can course-correct while campaigns run, to meet consumer needs in the moment.
3. Customer Journey Mapping
Before launching an omnichannel campaign, organizations should be sure to create customer journey maps for each of their audience segments. The customer journey map evaluates the steps taken between the customer discovering the brand and purchasing from the brand. Outlining these maps allows brands to create more targeted campaigns by considering individual interests, the user experience and interface, and factors outside of the brand’s control that may impact the path to purchase, such as economic factors.
4. Brand Guidelines
It’s important for organizations to develop a brand identity with clear guidelines for messaging and creative. These guidelines should be adhered to across each channels to help facilitate brand awareness and recognition through a cohesive message. Another way that organizations can help facilitate an omnichannel experience is by leveraging brand tracking tools that can help measure and predict their brand’s health in the mind of the consumer
5. Testing / Optimization
One of the most important components of an omnichannel marketing strategy is to continuously test the efficacy of your omnichannel approach. This enables the marketing team to determine ways to optimize campaign spend, messaging, creative, and more. Today’s organizations should utilize media planning tools that can run “what if” scenarios that take budget, target audience, multiple KPIs and media mix into consideration and in turn provide a highly granular media plan that can maximize ROI and inform future decision-making.
Examples of Omnichannel Marketing
When building an omnichannel strategy, take a look at these brands who have done so successfully:
1. Starbucks
Through its mobile rewards app, Starbucks is able to better integrate the mobile experience with the in-store one to put consumer convenience first. Users can reload their cards from their phone or desktop computer. By using the app to pay, they are rewarded with points that can be applied to a free coffee. Additionally, they can skip the morning line by ordering in advance.
2. Walgreens
Walgreens created a custom mobile app that makes it easier for customers to refill prescriptions, which they can then pickup in store. Their app also showcases store specific inventory making it easier for customers making a trip to decide which location they should visit.
3. Timberland
Timberland is combining the convenience of online with the experience of the in-person customer experience through the installation of near field communication (NFC) technology. Timberland created Touchwalls in their store, which leads to further information on their shoes. Customers can then add these to their online shopping list or purchase in-store. In addition, Timberland utilizes a product recommendations engine to gain exposure to lesser-known products based on user preferences.