Summary

• Customers are no longer shopping via just one channel. Retailers who want to keep up must implement an omnichannel approach. 
• The omnichannel experience entails a customer-centric approach to create a unified shopping experience for customers. 
• Brands can develop an omnichannel retail experience by implementing an AI-driven visual merchandising platform like EDITED. 
• With EDITED, you will develop a better understanding of your customer’s shopping journey, increasing business success and customer engagement.

What Is the Omnichannel Experience in Retail?  

Your customers no longer shop through just one channel. They might try on a dress in a store, but purchase it online. They might browse online, but run to the nearest department store to pick up a few things they saw to avoid shipping costs. They might search for concealer and blush products on Google, get ads for these products when scrolling through Instagram later that day, and purchase from their social channel.  

There are hundreds of ways omnichannel customer engagement takes place, but the main takeaway is that, with the rise of customer-centricity and continued advancements in technology, customers are demanding a seamless experience across multiple touchpoints – an omnichannel retail experience. Now, retailers face the challenge of providing a frictionless journey for their customers while ensuring growth and profitability.

Definition of Omnichannel Experience

Mckinsey & Company defines omnichannel as, “…a customer-centric approach in which all channels are integrated so the customer has a unified and consistent experience whether they are at a physical store, using an app, or on a website.”

Building a Successful Omnichannel Experience Strategy

To cater to diverse customer preferences and behaviors, implementing omnichannel solutions is vital. Historically, sales were thought of separately for each channel. For instance, someone was responsible for selling dresses online, and someone else for selling dresses in the store. Today, to be aligned with the shift in consumer behavior of shopping across channels, roles are being changed at retailers to be omnichannel focused, meaning someone is now responsible for dresses across all channels.

With the ability to look across channels, you develop a more holistic understanding of an item’s performance. For example, if an item was a top performer on the web, but not in stores, you can determine whether this should be an online exclusive going forward. 

Achieving this level of personalization requires access to connected internal data and metrics. By utilizing AI-driven omnichannel solutions, you and your team get access to valuable metrics and data insights to enable customer-centric localized assortment, pricing, and marketing strategies.

Omnichannel Challenges You Might Be Facing

One of the primary challenges retailers face is connecting data across channels to understand what is happening holistically within the business. Retailers need to determine which promotions are most profitable across channels. Similarly, they need insights into products that perform well online, but struggle to sell in physical stores, and vice versa. Furthermore, understanding which products experience higher online purchases, but are frequently returned to the store, is crucial for reducing return rates and improving customer satisfaction. Lastly, knowing which products drive “buy online pick-up in-store” (BOPIS) allows retailers to optimize the fulfillment process. Without access to omnichannel data, retailers would be looking at each channel in isolation, missing the influential connections taking place.

EDITED’s AI Omnichannel Experience Solution for Retail

EDITED’s platform bridges the channel gap and allows retailers to integrate both in-store and digital data, providing a holistic view of product, category, and SKU performance as well as the true customer journey. This transparent and comprehensive data streamlines the management of omnichannel and helps teams foster collaboration and synergy amongst different aspects of retail operations. 

Some of the main omnichannel use cases include:

1. Holistic Dashboard for Omni-Level Insights: The comprehensive dashboard enables retailers to easily analyze performance across channels. For instance, a merchant can monitor the overall performance of women’s dresses, comparing online and in-store metrics side by side.
2. Basket Analysis: Retailers can gain insights into customer behavior across channels by analyzing customer shopping baskets. They can compare the basket of a new customer in-store versus an online shopper to understand differences and preferences.
3. Price Mismatch Detection: By identifying discrepancies in pricing strategies among channels, retailers can ensure consistent pricing and avoid customer confusion.
4. Order Waterfall Visualization: EDITED’s order waterfall visualization feature enables retailers to understand revenue breakdowns from full-priced orders to net order values. This insight aids in gauging the true demand for each product.
5. Promotion Performance: EDITED software allows retailers to evaluate the success of promotions in both online and in-store environments. This analysis can lead to more targeted and effective campaigns.

Conclusion

The days of analyzing your retail business through siloed channels are over. To remain competitive and drive success in the increasingly customer-centric retail environment, it is essential to take an omnichannel approach and connect your data across all channels. With the help of an AI-driven merchandising experience platform like EDITED, you get access to crucial omnichannel experience analytics and insights. By embracing EDITED’s omnichannel-enabled software, you will develop a better understanding of your customer’s shopping journey and be able to make adjustments to your assortments, promotions, and marketing strategies accordingly. 

Request your demo today and see the ways EDITED can optimize your business’s omnichannel retail experience.