Omnichannel experiences: Insights from business leaders

Offering omnichannel experiences is rewarding for brands of all sizes, with this study by Harvard Business Review reporting revealing insights. As many as 73% of customers use multiple channels in their shopping journey in various combinations. These omnichannel customers were  increasingly loyal towards their brands of choice in the longer term, accounting for 23% of repeat trips to retail stores. Another study shows that companies with omnichannel marketing strategies retain 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement.

At #RESHAPE21, we had an insightful conversation with business leaders from around the world on how they have adapted omnichannel marketing to their business needs, the challenges along the way, and their measures of success. Read on to know more about this transformational trend in marketing strategy and practice.

Getting started with omnichannel experiences

We asked our panelists about how they got started on building their omnichannel experiences. Did they go all-in? Or did they take it step by step? 

Here’s what they had to say:

Vincent Lootens, Studio Moderna: “The most important thing for us was to first identify what value we would be able to add for the customer. We started by defining the vision and what kind of key customer experience we wanted to deliver. We were able to identify these elements through customer journey mapping. Then, we defined the KPIs we wanted to monitor, followed by prioritizing tasks based on execution. We started with the least harmful but which would give us the best reach, and by demonstrating the value gained from this transformation and by communicating with all stakeholders and teams, we were able to get their buy-in for a full transformation.”

Coen Tijof, Adyen: “I think brands have to go all-in when creating a vision, and identifying the north star for the type of experience they want to deliver. Then, understanding the capabilities and how to use them to achieve the vision will determine the approach.”

There are many ways of going about implementing an omnichannel strategy. This varies depending on a number of factors. Consider the vision, the approach, current capabilities, and resources at hand, and formulate a unique strategy that is best suited to your business needs.

Challenges: Omnichannel experiences

From mindset change to executive buy-in, the road to a successful omnichannel strategy is fraught with challenges. It differs from brand to brand and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. However, understanding potential challenges can prepare you to navigate them successfully.

Our panelists have faced a good deal of  challenges, and this is what they shared:

Coen Tijof, Adyen: “The first part is building a vision that’s strong and able to create a mindset in the organization that the customers seek omnichannel experiences; the second part is the cost associated with investing in digitization. When these hurdles are crossed, there are definitely rewards down the line for retailers.”

Brandon Proctor, MadeiraMadeira: “For brick and mortar retailers, the biggest challenge is to convince offline customers to adapt and engage with the online experiences we provide them, and to keep them coming back and becoming repeat customers. Providing the same kind of service and experience as an offline store is the biggest challenge when going online to offer omnichannel experiences.”

Pawan Gadia, Ferns N Petals: “Being spread over 400 stores in a number of countries, a big hurdle for us was standardization across these stores and our online channels, and marrying these processes to our technology which would then enable us to gather information and understand our customers so that we can improve our services.”

Some challenges may be more difficult to overcome than others, but there is enough proof that getting through them will bear fruit. For instance, the study by HBR also found that omnichannel customers spend an average of 4% more on every shopping occasion in the store, and 10% more online, than single-channel customers. 

These numbers make a strong case for omnichannel experiences, and we’re all for it! Continue reading to learn how you can quantify your efforts in omnichannel marketing.

Measuring the success of your OCX

The father of modern business management, Peter Drucker, said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” This concept is applicable to even the smallest aspect of running a business. When dealing with a full-fledged digital transformation to enable omnichannel marketing, measuring progress against goals is extremely important in being effective.

Here’s how our panelists measured their success:

Brandon Proctor, MadeiraMadeira: “Our true omnichannel experience allows us to track repeat behaviors of customers that are already known to us, through their experience with the stores, comparing it with customers who are new and online, and tracking it over time. We discovered a tremendous increase in value per customer, with repeat rates consistently growing.”

Pawan Gadia, Ferns N Petals: “We use NPS to measure the customer experience, along with customer surveys carried out in our call centers which give us a good idea of how their experience is. We also track our repeat rates, along with a few more metrics, to gain a sense of how our omnichannel experience is for the customer.”

Vincent Lootens, Studio Moderna: “Identifying KPIs from the beginning is very important, because it gives you an understanding of what you need to do to maximize business impact at first, and then gradually zoning in on the smaller, more specific elements that contribute to the experience of the customer, which will help you improve their loyalty.”

Measuring omnichannel marketing success or failure depends on each unique business channel, tools, and many other factors that contribute to the omnichannel experience. Tools like Insider help bring data from all these different sources to one place so you can measure, compare, analyze, and improve your campaigns easily.

For an in-depth guide to omnichannel and multichannel marketing, read our comprehensive omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing guide.