As a brand or business, you want your customers to follow you through thick and thin. The reality, however, is that it is equally – if not more – important for you to follow your customers; EVERYWHERE they shop or browse. This is the essence of omnichannel ecommerce.
Whether your target audience is a mobile browser or a regular online shopper, you need to be where they are in order to be relevant, accessible, and most importantly, successful as an ecommerce retailer. You need to be in a position to give them exactly what they are looking for, when they look for it. Providing a fully integrated approach to ecommerce is one way of achieving this, which is why omnichannel selling is becoming increasingly important.
What is omnichannel selling?
As the name suggests, omnichannel ecommerce depends on the successful integration of a number of key channels. For example, if a customer shops or buys your product from Etsy, the landing page will then create a tracking code that will prompt related ads to appear on your social media feed or a website you may be browsing.
Subsequent purchases encouraged by these retargeted ads may then lead to the customer opting in for updates about your brand or subscribing to your newsletter. This allows you to not only to keep them in the loop with brand activity, such as upcoming sales and store openings, but also to continue a new line of communication with your customer via email.
Each touchpoint works together to create a unified experience that feels natural to the customer. The cycle continues, as does the seller/buyer relationship.
Benefits of omnichannel selling
Through nurturing this relationship by ensuring you adopt a successful omnichannel strategy, you have the potential to generate close to 200 percent more revenue than single-channel merchants. This staggering statistic aside, why is omnichannel so important for ecommerce retailers?
For starters, your core aim as a retailer should be to give the customer what they want, and research suggests that 9 out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel service. The reasons customers prefer this approach are valid. For one, it can often be a money-saving avenue. Savvy omnichannel shoppers will browse for their desired item across multiple sites in order to find the best price. In fact, 75 percent of shoppers admit to using this method to bag a bargain.
Peace of mind and customer satisfaction relating to the delivery of goods also plays a key role in both the importance and success of an omnichannel approach. From next-day delivery options or free shipping for regular customers, many marketplaces offer a courier service that is reliable and efficient – an integral caveat for consumers.
Furthermore, in a study based on a survey of 305 companies, Aberdeen Group Inc. found that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retained an average of 89 percent of their customers, compared to a 33 percent retention rate for companies with weak omnichannel strategies.
With customers spending far more time on mobile than desktop, your brand’s presence across multiple channels is essential. And if your customers are mobile browsing, you need to be everywhere they browse – especially considering that 47 percent of shoppers who engage with their favourite brands on 10 more channels are more likely to purchase from them at least once a week.
The existence of geolocation and geofencing also improves omnichannel functionality, with Bluetooth and GPS mobile alerts making brands privy to your physical proximity to their stores at any given time.
All things considered, in our ‘always on’ society, it would seem that a move to omnichannel ecommerce is one entirely worth making.
Examples of omnichannel selling at work
While household names such as Starbucks, Disney and Topshop have been leading the charge in their omnichannel approach, Irish companies have also experienced huge success in their efforts.
One example is Irish jewellery brand Oscar Graves who, using a mix of influencer outreach, paid digital ads, user generated content and video ads and email list building, garnered over one million impressions within the first four weeks of their launch, thanks to a successfully executed omnichannel strategy.
Although the benefits of omnichannel ecommerce are clear, it can be a daunting prospect to know where to start, but there is help at hand.
How to implement omnichannel selling?
If you wish to begin omnichannel selling with immediate effect, it’s worth considering an order fulfilment partner like ParcelPlanet. Through our seamlessly automated Marketplace Integrations, we empower our clients to roll out omnichannel selling solutions that allow them to sell across a vast range of marketplaces while allowing them to focus on their brand and delivering excellent customer service.
As well as providing access to multiple sales channels and courier services, our system also allows you – and your customers – to track all of your orders across the entire process, from the warehouse to its final destination. But wait for it – there’s even better news.
Once you have completed the onboarding process, it will take just 24 hours for you to be connected to this new world of possibility. In addition, once your stock is on site you can trade immediately, ensuring your customers can get what they want, when they want it, from the marketplace that they prefer.
After all, isn’t that what omnichannel is all about?
