Implement a smooth cross-channel path to purchase

An omnichannel customer experience is one that is provided through multiple channels of communication while having the needs and characteristics of a particular client in mind. A customer and a company may interact through different media or devices. Whether it can be considered a truly omnichannel experience depends on the way the information is directed to the person. This should always be relevant. Also, each channel must be harmonized with each other in order to form a cohesive message. A good omnichannel experience is always seamless.

In an omnichannel strategy, the client should experience a consistent shopping experience. To achieve this, the company representative must identify the opportunity and be proactive to seize it. This involves learning which channels your customer uses and in which way. People don’t act the same way in every channel. Therefore, companies should not address them with the same message at all touchpoints, such as email, in-store, smartphone app, etc. That means that before you can have an integrated omnichannel experience, you have to develop your cross-channel capabilities.

Some business are focusing on providing a seamless omnichannel experience through all their platforms: for example, they want customers to be able to fill a shopping cart using their smartphone and finish the purchase at home on their laptop. This kind of optimization of the purchase path is important, but the omnichannel experience is of course not limited to online.

Smartphones and the internet are reshaping the world of commerce. Classic retail companies must adapt to survive. The offline world of retail must also be integrated with the online world. A good example of this kind of practices would be a retail brand that allows its customers to combine the possibilities of their physical stores and e-commerce websites. The integration of connected and in-store stocks is still difficult, but some stores are already implementing pretty efficient ’shop online pick up in store’ systems.

This kind of delivery system is based on the benefit physical stores have compared to e-commerce retailers. Namely, they can use their locations (usually found near people’s homes instead of out-of-town central warehouses) to sell online with shortened shipping times. This gives physical stores an important advantage since 30% of customers don’t buy online, because they want to get the item immediately after purchasing it.

‘Buy online, pick up in store’ is not the only novelty as lots of online and offline combinations are emerging, such as ‘click and collect’, ‘buy online, ship from store’, lockers for anytime pickup, etc. Returns are getting improved as well with more convenient ship-back options.

It’s easy to talk about the importance of providing a seamless path to purchase for your customers, for example in different sectors, such as omnichannel in telecommunication or omnichannel in automotive. Yet it is not so easy to establish a well-working omnichannel strategy within the space that the possibilities of a particular business allow.

To transform a previous multi-channel strategy into an omnichannel one, it is necessary to coordinate a great number of resources and be able to analyze a big amount of data. To operate an omnichannel strategy, all functional areas of the company must adapt to it. Some of these have to be ranked as high priority and become the foundation for the rest, see IT, supply chain and organizational structure.