Omnichannel eCommerce is a comprehensive marketing approach that includes a combination of online and offline marketing techniques. It refers to the synchronization of traditional and online marketing efforts.
This includes SMS, mobile app and website marketing, customer retargeting, social media marketing, email marketing, and so on.
Omnichannel marketing promotes the use of multiple digital channels for brand promotion. The more channels you use to advertise your brand, the better exposure you will get.
Why Use Omnichannel Marketing Solutions?
The 2017 research suggested a major recession in the retail industry. According to these reports, 25% of the shopping malls in the US were expected to shut down in the next five years.
But, that’s not how things turned out.
Contrary to this research, the retail sector reported growth. The global projection suggests the retail industry will touch $28 trillion by the end of 2020. While it gives some sort of relief to the retailers, businesses are still unable to cater to the large demands and changing consumer behavior.
The lack of omnichannel marketing strategies is affecting the growth of the retail industry. Today, approx 31% of customers use multiple social accounts and devices to engage with their favorite brand or connect with people. Customers want to engage with the brands. Just buying from a company isn’t enough for them to find out the reliability of the products and services they sell.
That is the reason why omnichannel solutions as BigCommerce are necessary. Amidst the retail recession period, Ulta Beauty managed to generate total revenue of $4.85 billion in 2017. The company reported a $3.9 billion annual revenue in 2016. So, how did it grow the revenue by approx 1 billion in a year?
Ulta Beauty believed in unified brand experience across multiple marketing channels. The company figured the importance of omnichannel solutions. They tapped into this unified marketing strategy to bridge the gap between online and offline promotion.
Tips for Selecting Omnichannel Marketing Solutions
Retailers like Ulta Beauty survive the competition and an unfavorable economy while other retailers that focus on traditional marketing strategies fall. To match customer’s buying behavior, omnichannel marketing is a must.
Multi-channel listing
Multi-channel selling is one of the crucial ingredients of a successful marketing campaign. Do you allow your customers to shop from their preferred channel? Do you have your retail store set up on every marketing channel?
A multi-channel marketing strategy increases your ROI. Here are a few tips for successful multichannel marketing:
- Mobile-compatible eCommerce stores
- Join reputable marketplaces like Amazon and eBay
- Develop a Facebook advertising campaign
- Geo-targeting
- Instagram marketing
- Local SEO
- Email retargeting
These were only a few channels you could include in your multichannel marketing campaign. The options are countless. To develop the best campaign, learn more about your target audience, and select the channels they prefer.
Point-of-sale Integration
Smooth transaction through all marketing channels should be your first priority. POS integration into your retail store allows fast and secure transactions.
The system does not only accept payments from customers, but it monitors all transactions. It also tracks employee performances i.e. the number of hours they worked, leaves they take every month, and so on.
The point-of-sale integration streamlines your business operation by tracking inventory, employee performance, and daily transactions. For a successful omnichannel marketing strategy, POS integration is a must.
Inventory Management
A unified brand experience is possible when you sync your brick and mortar store with the digital business. An important element of your business is inventory management. You need to update your customers with the inventory info.
For example, users shopping from your eCommerce store as BigCommerce must be informed when a particular product is out of stock. If the item is not available in your warehouse, then this latest information should be updated on all your online marketing channels. Logistics and inventory is a sensitive issue for your customers.
You can integrate the ERP software into your retail store for smoother inventory management. This automated inventory software will sync your brick and mortar store with eCommerce stores and marketplaces. Any change in your inventory will be updated on your online marketing platforms automatically.
Marketing Integration
According to the research, businesses that opt for integrated marketing enjoy 89% of customer retention. Retailers with ineffective marketing integration have only 33% of retention.
An important element of omnichannel marketing is high customer retention. After all, this marketing solution focuses on before, during, and after purchase experience.
Conclusion
Many startups and SMEs are struggling to adapt to the customer’s changing buying behavior. Research suggests that 78% of the retail business owners accept that they are unable to provide their customers with a unified brand experience.
The retail industry isn’t facing a recession. It is rather the old marketing tactics that fail to catch the customer’s attention.
