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Seven Omnichannel Initiatives Your Customers Love
Omnichannel is the ultimate customer service. It makes it easier for customers to interact with their preferred brands - exactly the way that suits them. It encourages them to shop more often with you, creating a high customer lifetime value. But which omnichannel initiatives do customers love the most?
1. Integration of data from physical and online stores
Okay, it may not sound like something a customer would express themselves, but that doesn't make it any less true. The integration of data is the prerequisite for guaranteeing customers the same good prices online/offline. It lays the foundation for personalization in both physical and digital stores and enables all the huge omnichannel benefits.
2. Returns regardless of place of purchase
Customers think they are dealing with the same company, whether they shop online or in the store. This is not always the case. Business units can have widely different pricing models, ERP systems, or other business logic that makes it difficult to handle customers who switch between online and offline. But try explaining that to a customer who shows up in a physical store with a defective air fryer they bought online. They should be able to exchange or return their kitchen appliance without convoluted explanations about franchising and system logic.
3. Check stock status of items
It's Saturday morning and you remember that there's a dress code for the party you're going to later in the day. You grab your phone and find a store that's on the way to the venue. Fortunately, they have light blue shoes in stock and in your size. You send a thank you to the strong integration between the warehouse system and the webshop's frontend, while you curse your high school friend's fascination with pastel colors.
4. Click & Collect
During the corona lockdowns, click & collect really got up to speed. And it hasn't slowed down again. For example, our customer BabySam experiences that every fifth click & collect customer adds extra items to the basket when they are in the store and that click & collect now drives 14% of the turnover in the physical stores. It's a feature that shows that customers like to visit the store when, they are sure they can take their items home right away.
5. Customer Club Across Online/Offline
If there's one thing better than seeing points ticking into your customer club profile, it's seeing more points ticking in. And the merging of online and offline allows for this. The customer gets their points no matter where they shop, but it also means you can collect valuable zero party data, which helps you create better personalization, better campaigns, and can give your salespeople better opportunities to guide in the store.
6. Endless Aisles
If only there was infinite space on store shelves or that all goods were the size of matchboxes, the warehouse wouldn’t be overflowing with cardboard boxes,. But that's just not reality. You can never have everything in stock, but with a webshop at hand, you're closer than ever before. Instead of customers having to go home empty-handed, you can extend your shelf meters with your entire online range. This means you can offer the customer either to send the desired goods directly to their home or offer to come back tomorrow and pick them up as click & collect.
7. Lightning Delivery
In 1989, Queen wrote the theme song for omnichannel: I want it all. And I want it now. It's not just about speed, it must be instant. Therefore, shorter delivery is an essential part of the omnichannel experience. In the larger cities, it is now often possible to deliver the same day and at least day-to-day. This means that customers can go to a store in the morning, not find the product in the desired color, but have it ordered home, so it is placed on their doorstep while they are making dinner. It almost lives up to Queen's anthem.
Much More Omnichannel
That was the article about seven omnichannel initiatives customers love. But if you also love omnichannel, we have much more reading material for you. You can dive into our Recipe for the Perfect Omnichannel Experience, which covers all the most important things in omnichannel and even reveals the secret ingredient in the biggest successes.
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