Digital and brick and mortar sales channels do not carry out their operations in separate vacuums. Many consumers prefer shopping via multiple channels.
We live in a world where customer expectations are becoming higher by the day. These consumers select retailers based on products being in stock and the reliability of delivery. Thus, optimizing the customer experience is important if you’re to stay on top.
According to Google, Omni channel shoppers have a lifetime value that’s 30 percent higher compared to those who shop via one channel. Getting your omnichannel CRM strategy right is important if you’re to create a customer experience that drives profitability. That’s how Omni channel trends come into the picture.
Using Omni channel contact center software enables you to provide a seamless customer experience. It also makes it easy for your team to seamlessly switch between communication channels without losing context. Additionally, an omnichannel contact center enables you to provide a great customer experience through multiple digital and traditional channels. These channels include voice, email, text, video, and website chat.
Interactions on the Omni channel call center are then transferred to other supported channels. This happens as your team maintains the context of the communication. The Omni channel contact center software enables brands to give clients a more meaningful and personalized customer experience.
Omnichannel Trend to Consider
Omnichannel trends have provided a window into the future of the business environment. It’s a window where traditional boundaries between channels, and the physical and digital worlds don’t apply.
These trends have changed the rules of the game. Thus, it’s only the brands that can pick up on and respond to them that will stay ahead of the competition. If you’d like to offer the kind of seamless customer experience across your sales channel, here are the trends to keep an eye on.
- Virtual Shopping
As innovative retailers strive to bring the in-store experience, real-world access to informed sales has become more important. Live chat, for instance, and social media engagement enables salespeople to guide clients through the buying process.
Video chat is one of the fastest emerging technologies for online shopping. It can be used to connect online shoppers with in-store sales assistants. Video chat also brings all the interactive benefits of an in-store experience to the comfort of their home.
The other technology that has changed how we shop is visual search. Customers can upload a photo of the product that they want and find it at the click of a button. A client may be walking by and an item catches their eye but they have no idea of how to get it.
With visual search technology, you can instantly tell them where to find that particular item. You can compare this to having a personal shopping assistant on a mobile device.
- Multi-Channel Attribution
Every marketer wants to know whether their campaigns are generating a return on investment. The challenge is that a customer’s journey isn’t exactly linear. As such, a single channel cannot give you the complete picture of your sales success or lack of it.
That’s why you must get the most out of omnichannel marketing strategies through multichannel attribution. Organizations adopting multiple sales channels are required to look for analytics that inform a holistic view of a customer.
The bottom line is that multi-channel attribution enables brands to collect data across all channels in real-time. They are then able to deploy multichannel analytics to study consumers’ behavior holistically.
Digital marketers have long been familiar with the multichannel attribution trend. What is new is the emergence of this well-known digital strategy with offline channels.
Direct-to-consumer brands take advantage of data and customer relationships. As such, integrating this framework into other channels leads to increased conversions. It also leads to more effective promotion, the development of better-informed products, and stronger customer relationships.
- Better Personalization
A lot of consumers prefer making purchases from brands that offer personalized experiences. However, organizations must note that true personalization is only possible with the integration of an omnichannel contact center.
Collecting data from all the interactions with customers enables you to have a full picture of their behaviors and interests. It also enables you to offer high-quality customer service.
With all the data running through a centralized location, it’s guaranteed that service representatives will always have access to any information. This will ensure a continuous flow of conversations with customers. The flow will be obvious even in cases where the interactions are broken up across time and devices.
- Inventory Visibility
Today’s retailers have embraced inventory visibility as it enables them to streamline operations in their Omni channel center. They can connect their systems and utilize a single source of truth for operational inventory. Also, they can get real-time data on how transactions affect levels of inventory across locations.
Inventory visibility gives retailers the ability to reallocate items when required. It also causes an improved shop-by-store experience for customers.
Providing customers with real-time inventory insights is important for retailers globally. Research shows 71% of customers think it is vital to be able to view inventory information.
The statistics increase with younger generations as they always check the availability of in-store inventory before making a purchase in-store.
- The Rise of Buy Online Pick-Up In-Store (BOPIS)
This strategy has taken the shopping experience to new heights. It has enabled customers to get the best of both worlds with its unprecedented convenience. This is thanks to online browsing with filtered searches and the instant gratification of in-store pick-up.
The Covid-19 pandemic gave rise to the BOPIS trend due to the need to limit contact with others. But even with the lockdowns behind us, people continue to enjoy the convenience of curbside pickups. It’s a trend that’s here to stay and one that continues to drive results.
Providing BOPIS services is now a must-have for businesses. However, the underlying technology constraints may contribute to inaccuracies in inventory and delays in the data processing. These are some of the challenges that retailers face when implementing this trend.
To avoid these challenges, you need a central source of inventory data that can enhance location awareness. This will lead to an improved BOPIS experience, one that drives more in-store sales. Above mentioned pointers are to be considered while you’re into sales. But, logistics also plays a vital role in physical sales. Here you are supposed to provide your customer a smooth experience of delivery and shipment assured with quality. This is only possible with advanced and professional shipment providers such as Auctane ShipStation. It is an online e-commerce shipment providers that helps retailers to make their delivery process smoother and efficient.Â
Conclusion
Some trends such as buying online and picking up in-store are obvious. Others like virtual shopping may have come as a surprise. Regardless, we hope that we have highlighted some trends that you hadn’t thought about.
FAQ
- What is the impact of omnichannel trends?
Omnichannel trends have provided a window into the future of the business environment. It’s a window where traditional boundaries between channels, and the physical and digital worlds don’t apply.
These trends have changed the rules of the game. Thus, it’s only the brands that can pick up on and respond to them that will stay ahead of the competition
- Are there challenges to omnichannel trends?
Providing BOPIS services is a must-have for businesses. However, the underlying technology constraints may contribute to inaccuracies in inventory and delays in the data processing. These are some of the challenges that retailers face when implementing this trend.
To avoid these challenges, you need a central source of inventory data that can enhance location awareness. This will lead to an improved BOPIS experience, one that drives more in-store sales
- What are the success factors with omnichannel strategies?
According to statistics from Google as indicated earlier, omnichannel trends drive an 80 percent higher rate of incremental store visits.
- How have omnichannel trends improved customer experience?
An omnichannel contact center enables you to provide a great customer experience through multiple digital and traditional channels. These channels include voice, email, text, video, and website chat.
Interactions on the omnichannel call center are then transferred to other supported channels. This happens as your team maintains the context of the communication. The omnichannel contact center software enables brands to give clients a more meaningful and personalized customer experience.