Shopping journeys are changing and brands that are responding with winning strategies are seeing incredible levels of success. This article examines why brands are making a concerted effort to enhance their omnichannel presence with consistently great experiences, as well as the tactics they are using to increase conversion, revenue and customer loyalty.
We’ve moved beyond the days of single-channel commerce – and it’s not just the world’s biggest brands that are seeing the benefits of an omnichannel commerce strategy.
Shopping behaviour is changing, but it’s not just because of new technology. The growing convergence of platforms, the complex buying journeys shoppers take and new drivers of shopping inspiration are affecting the way retailers need to cater to their shoppers.
For example, a survey by Google found that 56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to research products before purchasing elsewhere, and that omnichannel strategies drive an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits. It is clear that in the modern world of commerce, omnichannel strategies are necessary to connect with customers, drive traffic and boost conversions/sales. The leading retailers are not treating each channel in silo or as its own business unit: they are changing their approach to encompass all channels that contribute to shopper journeys.
Develop market-leading customer insight using better intent signals and personalisation
Brands with omnichannel presences have a unique opportunity to develop a stronger understanding of every single customer.
Personalised experiences aim to grow brand loyalty and increase conversion. Enhanced by greater, deeper understandings of customer intent and shopping journeys, elements of personalisation can be made that extra bit more relevant and inspiring.
The true power of omnichannel personalisation comes from connecting siloed data. Signals and touchpoints recorded within a single platform can be shared, allowing you to ‘connect the dots’ to create more powerful experiences. There’s limitless possibility in this – you could, for example, use data from touchpoints recorded on your website or Instagram store to inform how shopping assistants approach and advise in-store shoppers.
It’s not just about making your personalisation greater through better data, but it’s how you can harness this data throughout each of your channels – boosting your performance holistically.
Create connected experiences that makes merchandising more powerful
Complex shopping journeys are difficult to account for. Merchandisers cannot expect every shopper to follow the same path, meaning carefully prepared and curated experiences can be enhanced with extra insight about shoppers.
|KT Using the power of omnichannel commerce, in the hands of the right tools, shoppers can access promotional pages, merchandised pages and offer pages at the right point in their journey – based on the touchpoints they’ve interacted with your brand at every point prior.
It’s this that allows brands to create experiences that convert more and are much more relevant to shoppers. It’s a win-win for shoppers and brands alike.
Use data and A/B testing to feed and continuously improve the algorithms that serve each channel.
Data is an all-important lifeblood to an ecommerce business. Omnichannel strategies that focus on data, testing and algorithmic optimisation are provably effective. This works for a number of goals:
Omnichannel enables brands to collate data from each individual platform to provide a holistic view of customer experience and behaviour. It also saves brands time and resources when compared to individual teams recording analytics at every touchpoint. These analytics can then be implemented in testing to further improve the customer experience through personalisation, merchandising, or other factors, giving businesses greater perspective to grow.
Recommend, bundle, cross-sell and up-sell more intelligently
Building a base of loyal, satisfied customers can be even easier using omnichannel strategies. Post-purchase touchpoints and interactions are just as important as ones at the early stages of product discovery for a brand seeking to increase customer LTVs (lifetime value).
Cross-selling and upselling also provides an opportunity to increase conversion and order value. However, harnessing data captured across every channel can make these cross-selling and upselling options much more relevant to shoppers.
Automatically orchestrate experiences that are guided by real-time performance insights to generate value
AI models offer brands the ability to create remarkable experiences for customers at scale. It allows brands to personalise experiences to the individual, with minimal human interaction to create connected, cohesive experiences that assist shoppers through their customer journey.
It can help throughout every touchpoint, from the early stages of discovery, to inspiring purchase intent and even nudging a shopper to purchase. What does this mean? It – for the first time – allows brands to unify shopping experiences, be data-driven and exploit the latest technologies that measurably generate a return.
Omnichannel is not an approach exclusive to the biggest brands in the world: ecommerce brands and retailers of all sizes can benefit from the approach.
Attraqt brings all of the features, data science knowhow and technology used by the world’s biggest brands into an easy-to-use, quick to implement product discovery platform. It allows you to increase conversion, all while increasing merchandising efficiency and improving shopper’s product discovery experience.
Ready to see why more than 300 of the world’s leading brands trust Attraqt to deliver their shoppers an exceptional omnichannel experience? Book your demo.
