Omnichannel Retail Business: Strategies to Multiply Online, Offline, and On-mobile Sales

Ever wondered about the experience of customers while buying products from different channels? No matter whether it’s online, offline, or through phone, it’s very pivotal that clients receive all the advantages equally from all these channels. If they get holistic information online, they should also get the same information if they purchase products from brick-and-mortar shops. Maybe, you are selling products in Amazon, eBay, personal web store, or in brick-and mortar-shop. But if you wish to flourish with your retail business, you have to go omnichannel, that is, you have to keep up with the clients.

Earlier, snapping up products from the retail shop was a walk in the park. Customers visited a shop, purchased a product that lured them, and headed towards checkout if they thought a particular product to be a good fit. But nowadays, the retail journey isn’t so easy as people are researching in one channel, checking and comparing prices on another channel, and then buying from a third channel. On top of that, lightning Internet speed, mobile devices, and social networks have altered the way they shop.

In the past, the term “omnichannel” was just a buzzword but now retailers are thriving enforcing omnichannel tactics in their businesses. This is because shoppers have cravings to wander from one channel to another channel and then, decide to buy their desired products. Hence, it’s very crucial for you as a retailer to make sure your presence in all the platforms let it be online or offline. Otherwise, not only user experience will be poor but also your bottom line will be derailed.

In this write-up, we will take a deep dive into the tactics you can adopt to successfully sell your products in-store, online, and on-mobile and provide your customers with a snazzy and smooth shopping experience.

Generate Social Media Page:

Today, the busiest media platform among all the media is social media, especially, Facebook. If you want to nail your omnichannel selling, you have to create social media pages. But only having social media pages are not sufficient, you have to also design them exquisitely and provide all the necessary information. On top of that, you have to answer customer service questions and retweet messages posted by visitors. Don’t forget that social media is a go-to platform for you to mesmerize your potential clients.

Identify the Customer-Experience:

If you wish to nail your business, you have to look at the bigger picture rather than just focusing on the trend. Technology is surely changing the way business is conducted but you should take advantage of this technology more to sort out genuine customers’ issues. When your goal is to multiply sales, you have to concentrate highly on customer-journey. You have to figure out the drawbacks they encountered while buying their preferred products. Based on that, you can utilize the tech tools to further their shopping experience.

No Way to Avoid Focusing on In-store Monitoring:

Customers after making entry into the store, you have to observe their behavior. You have to note how they spend time in the store. Are they busier in window shopping or they have real intention to buy items? Are they looking at the price tags or they are looking for the price on mobiles? Are they asking plenty of questions? All these queries will provide you an insight into the customer’s retail journey.

Conducting Customer Surveys and Interviews are Key

This is also another way to talk and question your customers. Ask them how do they decide to snap up an item or what are the factors they emphasize before they buy their desired items? You can also ask them about their virtual way of buying products like which app or tool they utilize to purchase items and how they intend the delivery system to be? All these queries will help to apprehend your clients’ approach. Get the answers and encompass them into your tactics of omnichannel retail selling.

Peruse Customers’ Reviews and Comments

Giving reviews and posting comments on the purchased products are very common and easy things to do. Customers are prone to giving reviews and posting comments online through various platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Yelp, Quora, etc. Build a team that will regularly go through these reviews as well as comments and get insight from them. Mind you, customers can be explicit in their words online and you have to value their words to nail your omnichannel selling.

Creating Logs of Customers’ Complaints and Concerns are Handy:

Keeping written records of customers’ issues and complaints are crucial to succeeding in the omnichannel business. Whatever issues or complaints may be fielded by your customer service departments, they are actually a goldmine for your retail business.  They will give you insights into the deficits you have in your business. So, you have to take their feedback positively and incorporate that into strategizing your plans for the omnichannel retail business.

Carry out Competitors’ Analysis:

If you want to outstrip and stand out from your competitors, there is no alternative to competitors’ analysis. You have to keep track of the tactics your rivals are employing in their marketing and selling campaigns. You have to know the channels they are using the most to connect to the clients. Besides knowing, you have to also utilize those channels for your business to pick up customers’ shopping experience.

Existing Channels, Services, and Technologies Need Evaluation:

When you are engaged in a business, there is always room for improvement. It’s your job to figure out the shortcomings in your sales channels and work on them. Your customer research data may show that people are more inquisitive to purchase products online but pick them up from the shop. But you may not have the facility in your business system yet. So, you have to take the step so that your customers can enjoy the click-and-collect facility. Do some scrutiny of your existing channels, services, and technologies, and based on that you can the necessary course of action to go omnichannel.

Shopping your Brand is Crucial:

In order to offer an omnichannel retail service, it’s pivotal to have the first-hand experience of your brand. Evaluate the performances of your channels and services. Take note of the positive and negative factors from the shopping experience. Don’t forget to cover all the channels that you are selling on. If you are selling on the brick-and-mortar shop, visit the shop and complete your shopping. Do the same for the online store if you are conducting an e-commerce store.

Connecting both Physical and Digital Stores are Vital:

After you are done with the evaluation of your existing channels and scrutinized the platforms you are not using, it’s time to focus on connecting the different components of your omnichannel operation. You can conduct this in two different ways. Either go for one omnichannel retail solution where all your inventory, customer, and sales data will be in one platform or merge different solutions so that data flows from one platform to the other. Remember that inventory management should be your first priority while connecting your sales channels as having real-time inventory visibility is key to running an omnichannel operation. Additionally, don’t forget to do a stock count to see if the numbers in the system match with the inventory in-store.

Twenty years back, no one thought about offering retail services utilizing multiple channels surely, and thinking about it would also appear ludicrous at that time. Looking at the preferences of shoppers, we can assert that having an omnichannel retail service is indispensable for businesses to thrive nowadays. The majority of the buyers now tend to hit multiple touchpoints before snapping up their desired items. Hence, it will be unwise for retailers to restrict themselves to a few platforms. Rather, they should take advantage of multiple channels and incorporate them to achieve the desired growth.

We anticipate these crucial tips will come in handy for your omnichannel retail business. Our last piece of advice for the retailers would be to always look for connecting and merging sales channels with one another. The goal should be to create a shopping experience so that customers don’t get any room to complain about.

Till next time, just chill and stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic taking all the necessary precautions. Avail of photo editing services to scale up your conversions and sales.