By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
As online shopping continues to ramp up, more eCommerce brands are rethinking their approach to marketing by getting the most out of their digital channels.
With eCommerce on such a steady rise, many brands are turning to an omnichannel retail strategy to boost their market presence and build a more satisfying customer journey.
What is Omnichannel Commerce?
Omnichannel is an approach to lead acquisition where a brand’s products or services can be accessed on all digital platforms and on any device. This gives customers the ability to shop for your eCommerce products by whatever means they prefer.
For example, rather than offer a product or service on a desktop website only, omnichannel allows brands to reach customers via mobile, live chat, social media or by phone. By only offering products on a desktop website, brands exclude potential customers that do their online shopping on mobile devices, or on social media platforms.
Omnichannel retailing creates a personalized customer journey, allowing buyers to access your products in the way that works best for them, giving them a unified and customized experience across all platforms. This way, items related to previous purchases can be pushed to their feed, helping them make decisions with ease and increasing the likelihood of them returning in the future.
Omnichannel vs. Multichannel
In order to provide your customers with the best shopping experience possible, multichannel and omnichannel are equally important. While omnichannel grants customers with cohesive messaging and content across digital platforms, it isn’t possible without a multichannel approach as well.
Multichannel extends that consistency to your brick and mortar store. With these two marketing strategies working in tandem, customers can shop your products via their preferred channel, or have the option to pick up their items from your physical storefront.
Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of omnichannel marketing and how to know when it’s time to embrace this approach and scale your eCommerce brand.
Superior Customer Experience
According to Accenture, 74% of online shoppers reported frustration when served content that has nothing to do with their interests, making them unlikely to complete a purchase and reluctant to return to the store later on.
Whether they realize it or not, customers these days expect an omnichannel shopping experience. Recommendations, price comparisons and personalized interfaces have become the norm for modern eCommerce, and by not implementing omnichannel marketing, you’ll be missing out on potential sales.
This specially tailored content not only encourages customers to purchase products, but the elevated experience means they’ll be more likely to return.
Increase of Traffic & Sales
Rather than waiting for customers to make their way to your store, an omnichannel strategy gets your brand in front of customers where they already are.
This is especially important for scaling eCommerce brands. By expanding your reach across digital channels, your brand becomes much more accessible. Rather than waiting for them to seek out your eCommerce brand directly, customers are provided with a multitude of opportunities to stumble upon your products.
New Marketing Opportunities
If your brand hasn’t already expanded into certain communication channels, getting an omnichannel strategy off the ground might seem like a heavy lift. Setting up, branding and connecting multiple accounts can be time consuming, but rolling out these new platforms can open you up to new marketing opportunities.
Adopting omnichannel for your eCommerce brand gives you the opportunity to build out new channels with a solid marketing strategy behind them. Text messaging, email and multiple social media platforms are all essential parts of modern retail. If you’re looking for new ways to branch out in the digital realm, but want to ensure those initiatives are worthwhile, having an overarching omnichannel approach in place could provide the value you’re looking for.
How do you evaluate omnichannel?
While an omnichannel strategy does involve multiple content channels and lines of communication, it’s essential that the messaging from those channels is cohesive and comes from a single brand identity. Whether your customer engages with a social post, a marketing email or a salesperson over the phone, it’s important that they get the same answer to their question.
The best way to evaluate the quality of your omnichannel approach is how well each of your communication tools tie together. Without consistent pricing and brand information across platforms, you can easily leave customers confused or frustrated, making them less likely to seek out your store in the future.
Conclusion
Transitioning to an omnichannel strategy might seem like a big initiative. Making sure you have consistent marketing communications across all channels, as well as providing customers with a unified experience takes a lot of planning, usually across several departments.
However, with industry trends indicating that eCommerce is the future, and with customer expectations evolving every day, omnichannel marketing helps ensure your brand can stay competitive and in touch with your customer base.
If you’re looking for a partner to help your eCommerce scale to new heights, contact the Software Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
