Four Strategies to Achieve Omnichannel Success
Modern entrepreneurs, myself included, have grown to realize the value of having omnichannel presence for their business. Making this move is essential to compete in the modern retail landscape and to create a sustainable business model that meets the needs of customers.
When you successfully integrate online and offline sales channels to create a cohesive customer experience across different touchpoints, your business becomes optimized for growth. You’ll also be in a better position to overcome unforeseen commerce crises, such as black swan events like a global pandemic.
Now when I say “omnichannel,” I’m not just referring to the practice of selling in multiple channels (which is what you should definitely be doing). It’s also about meeting customers in their platform of choice and making sure that you deliver a consistent brand experience.
Managing different facets of your business across every touchpoint can be challenging. It requires a holistic approach to sales channels, marketing and advertising, operations, and shipping and fulfillment — the pillars that make up the omnichannel success.
1. Identify Your Sales Channels
Sales channels are the platforms where consumers interface with your brand. That could be through ads, website forms or chatbot, e-commerce sites, social media, or offline channels (eg. retail and pop-up stores).
When I develop an omnichannel sales strategy, the first thing I do is identify the channels where my customers are present. Then I figure out the best ways to market through those channels so I can set my business up to gain more traffic, sales, and loyal customers.
My experience as an entrepreneur has taught me firsthand that putting all your efforts in one sales channel at the expense of others isn’t wise. This can cause problems for your business when that channel suddenly becomes unavailable. However, that being said, spreading yourself thin over every possible sales channel in an effort to diversify is also not the best solution.
Instead, train yourself to choose the right sales channels for your business — this is the foundation of a strong omnichannel strategy. With the right mix of channels, you can expand your customer reach, increase awareness for your brand and offers, and ultimately, increase your revenue.
To make sure that you’re choosing the right sales channels, you need to know who your target customers are. Analyze the data you have from your existing channels (eg. your website, online store, and social media pages) and look for common factors among your audience. These could be details like the time and day when they engage or buy more, which platforms your audience spends a lot of their time and money on, and what products or services they purchase most often.
1. Develop and Implement Marketing and Advertising Strategies
Marketing and advertising play an important role in driving brand awareness and sales to your business. In fact, 87% of shoppers now begin their product searches online. This consumer behavior is something you can leverage for your business.
Omnichannel success is more attainable when you deliver what your target audience needs at their current stage in the buyer journey, and you meet them in the right touchpoints. You can achieve this through strategic marketing and advertising.
One of the most valuable things I learned from my business is that I need to make an effort to create a specific marketing and advertising strategy for each sales channel I have. So this is the same advice I’ll share with you. Be purposeful and intentional in what you deliver, as our goal is to meet the specific needs of the consumers we’re targeting.
Take note that the more marketing channels you have, the more complex your campaign management and budget allocation can become. You also have to consider the ever-changing algorithms of the platforms you use. That’s why it’s important to have a dedicated marketing and advertising team, and to invest in the right tools that will help you reach your goals.
2. Optimize Your Operations
An accurate, reliable, and connected operational process is key to an efficient, end-to-end omnichannel approach. Your product catalog data and inventory should always be aligned, and each sales channel must reflect these accurately, along with the shipping information (turnaround time and cost).
If you want to have efficient and optimized operations, you need to automate your systems, integrate your processes, and create a streamlined workflow for your business.
Invest in software solutions that allow integration and give you complete visibility over multichannel inventory. Take it from one entrepreneur to another — it really makes your business easier to manage.
For instance, using a listings solution, you can automate your product publishing to new sales channels, optimize the product content you show for each channel, and unify order management. With an inventory and order management system, you can manage complex workflows around order routing, inventory, shipments, and procurement, as well as support third-party logistics solution integrations.
3. Strengthen Your Shipping and Fulfillment Capabilities
To complete your customers’ experience and succeed in your omnichannel efforts, ensure that your entire operations is able to properly support every step of the buying process, including shipping and fulfillment.
If you think that shipping logistics are challenging, you’re not alone. One study revealed that 53% of retailers identified shipping and order logistics as a significant challenge.
If you’re leaning towards providing in-house shipping and fulfillment, make your work easier by using a shipping software that provides customers with delivery options and takes care of calculating shipping costs. There are also third-party logistics solutions available for outsourcing which handle everything from inventory management, warehousing, and fulfillment.
Other omnichannel strategies worth looking into are:
- Creating an excellent mobile experience for your customers
- More than 50% of all internet traffic comes from mobile
- 50% of eCommerce revenue is from mobile users
- 57% of consumers say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly-designed website on mobile
- Providing self-service options for your customers — Organizations realize the advantages of automated customer self-service, so they’re now investing in virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels.
As you plan for and navigate the omnichannel sphere, always keep in mind that your goal is to deliver a satisfying customer experience. Remember, a seamless and convenient customer journey leads to conversion.
Expanding to new channels drives growth for your business, but to ensure that you manage them all well and gain ROI from each one, you need a comprehensive plan that addresses each omnichannel pillar. The four tips I shared with you will help you create a unified channel strategy that meets the needs of your customers at the right time and place.
Always be Prepared
Let’s talk about how we can use omnichannel to bring even more success to your business.
About Jeev
A serial entrepreneur with a rich history of launching disruptive online businesses and taking them to the top, Jeev owns dozens of “go-to” reviews and rankings websites. Jeev has invested more than 20 years researching human behavior and how to leverage different sales methodologies to effectively influence decision-makers.To find out how Jeev can help you, visit jeevtrika.com.