Why Omnichannel Retailing Is the Secret to Success in Digital Commerce

Customer experience, consolidated data and unified process, are core to success for Digital Commerce !

No, this is not an overstatement. Multi-channel retailing or Omnichannel retailing is the Key. Now, consumers engage with businesses and communicate with brands through diversified sales channel like websites, online marketplaces and physical stores. Isolated customer information for different sales channels, prevent businesses to get a holistic view of business trends and customer behavior, to be more specific. Fragmented processes do not allow businesses to provide a consistent experience to customers and unified presence of the brand. Multichannel retailing consolidates data and takes personalization to the next level.

It is all about customers

Customers are always on the lookout of a personal experience while shopping across different channels. Personalization helps in establishing trust among the customers, which makes them feel valued, increases the sale and helps them in generate more revenue. Real-time business insights help retailers to understand the need and trends of customers like the segments, geographical area and align business strategies based on it. Once the target market and segment is defined retailers can effectively optimize the strategies to enhance the customer engagement. Thus, it helps the retailers to shift from product-centric to customer-centric approach.

Why a holistic business strategy?

Both Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customers (B2C) companies need to implement Omnichannel retailing to improve the engagement level of consumers, shopping experience and add value. Customer engagement is of paramount importance for businesses to boost the brand image. A connected technology is essential for digital commerce as it will link customer data with inventory, order processing, shipping and accounting across different channels and help in improving the sale. The unified channel management will be a boon for both the e-tailers and retailers. It will reduce the cost of operations and expand the brand presence simultaneously.

A giant leap for Digital Commerce

Entrepreneurs leverage the potential of Omnichannel Retailing to transform their business operations as it integrates the different sales channel into a single platform and makes operation seamless. Synchronization of data from different channels is easy and increases the conversion rate through various touch points. Aim of multi-channel management is to maximize the conversion rate, drive sales and reduce the rate of shopping cart abandonment. The comprehensive and client-centric approach has turned out to be a big leap in the arena of digital commerce.

Important capabilities of Omnichannel

From browsing an inventory to order fulfillment, Multichannel retailing provides a seamless experience for customers. Important capabilities that make operation easy for retailers are

• Product/Catalog management
• Centralized stock management
• Improved navigation and search filters
• Order management
• Integration of different sales channel into one platform
• Single login for all platforms that saves time for retailers
• Logistic integration that automates the shipping process
• Automatic invoice generation that makes the process fast and reduces scope of human error
• Centralized customer management console or dashboard
• Advanced Analytics
• Big data implementation

Easy management with a Centralized system

Retailers and e-tailers will get real-time insights about inventory and order fulfillment process with this centralized process. Accurate data of stock, orders and shipping status, improves the efficiency of delivery. For the retailers dealing with large consignments in peak times or days will be easy. Since it is a centralized system, customers can purchase products from any location, have it delivered to any location and return it as per their wish. Supply chain management is a key factor to determine the success of a business. Multichannel management ensures that warehousing, distribution and delivery will be as per customer needs.

Boon to the Physical Stores

The digital intervention has resulted in growth of sales through online channels, and less footfall in the physical stores. Many retailers emphasize on increasing online capability and redesign brick-and-mortar stores as they still consider the physical stores an important sales channel. The sole aim is to cater customers what they want. Salespeople can get a real-time update of the inventory, and help customers to place order for goods that are not present in the store currently. The centralized system provides a real-time data about the trends and footfall of customers in particular physical stores. Based on the insight collected from the unified management system, retailers can downsize few physical stores or open a few in strategic locations to expand their operations. Thus, multichannel retailing adds value even to the physical stores.

Tap the power of Multichannel Management

Omnichannel retailing is a crucial strategy to ensure success of any digital commerce venture. It is important for businesses to adopt the strategy soon, as the expansion depends on it to a great extent. Just adopt few steps and your business can reap the benefit of this technology. First connect your customers with the back office operations, share customer-related data generated through the different sales channels and consolidate it one platform and thirdly align the operations according to the expectation of the customers. After all, a relevant, consistent and personalized experience is the secret to the success of digital commerce.