“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping,”- Bo Derek.
The modern-day purchase decision and shopping experience is much more complex with the shopper having multiple options to choose from online store to teleshopping sites. To address this challenge and provide shoppers a seamless shopping experience across the channels, retailers deploy Omnichannel retailing solution.
A distinctive feature of Omnichannel retailing is the integration of various sales channels including retail stores, mobile stores, online stores, mobile app and telephonic sales. This provides a unified customer experience starting before the sale and continuing even after the sale is complete.
However, it’s essential to differentiate from a multi-channel experience. Essentially, this differentiator is the depth of integration of all sales channels. Most companies in today’s business invest in different engagement platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, website, etc. but still the customer lacks the seamless experience due to lack of integration.
So, businesses investing in Omnichannel approach should focusing on aligning the objective, goals and messaging of all the different channels and deliver a seamless experience to the customer.
Companies considering to implement an Omnichannel approach should involve all the stakeholders of the organization such as front end executives, marketing, IT, sales, etc. in strategizing to ensure that transition to the new model happens smoothly. Ultimately, this translates to providing a superior customer experience and better satisfaction.
One good example of Omnichannel approach providing a great experience for customers is the entertainment giant Disney. The approach begins with a very well designed website having a good user interface. It has a real experience not only on a desktop but also on mobile devices which lacks in many other cases. After booking the trip, the user can use My Disney Experience tool that allows the user to have a complete view of the future experience. The customer can plan the entire trip starting from picking the pass to identifying the rides and deciding what to eat at which eatery. Disney’s unique customer experience offerings don’t stop here. The company provides Magic Bands or cards that can be used to do a gamut of activities including unlocking the door of resort hotel room, enter the water park, check in at fast pass entrances, connect Disney photo pass images to the account and also charge food and merchandise purchases to the Disney resort hotel room.
Such a seamless integration of multiple channels to provide a comprehensive user experience is the key to the success of Omnichannel retailing. This exercise might seem out of reach to companies of small sizes. But, technology has come a long way over the past few years helping reduce the cost involved in customer engagement. So, it can be said that commitment from the company’s management, predefined strategy and working with different organizational stakeholders in tandem will surely help organizations achieve a successful Omnichannel approach implementation and thus provide a significant customer satisfaction. Implementing one such strategy, in turn, leads to customer retention and contributes to better revenue prospects.
