Omnichannel Marketing: What Is It And How It Can Grow Sales
Updated: 08-30-2021
Although omnichannel marketing is relatively a new industry term, it’s one we know well in fulfillment and distribution. Omnichannel, also called omni-channel, is a multi-channel approach to sales where the goal is to provide customers with a great shopping experience no matter how they’re shopping.
This would include all the channels you use to get sales.
- Website
- Telephone
- Brick-And-Mortar
- Social Media
- Marketplace
An omnichannel strategy would refer to the promotion, marketing, distribution and communications amongst channels in the backend of your business.
To give you an example of the power of omnichannel marketing, let’s take one of your customers for example. Her name is Sarah.
Sarah is shopping online in your online store. A customer representative can access Sarah’s customer profile. From here, we can see Sarah’s purchase history. In addition, we can see what she’s bought in the past, what channel she’s used and we can use this data to give Sarah the best customer service experience possible.
Omnichannel Versus Multichannel
Omnichannel and multichannel are often referred to as the same thing.
First, let’s look at the meanings.
Omnichannel refers to every or all channels while multichannel refers to multiple channels.
Now, as a category, omnichannel at its foundation is building multiple methods of promoting and distributing products, such as physical stores or online stores. It gives your customers the multiple pathways to reach you to address problems or concerns.
Omnichannel is much more than just operational strategies of multichannel business models. Rather, omnichannel empowers your customers to do business with you in any manner they want.
Let us give you another example of how omnichannel marketing can help your business. Let’s say Robert is a new prospect. Robert used a chat window online to talk to customer service and he left the chat early. Come to find out, he lost his internet access. With the right software in place, we’re able to get Robert back to a customer representative where he later purchases the product he originally had questions about. This is a small example of the power of omnichannel.
Omnichannel At Its Best
There’s many examples we can use of major retail brands implementing omnichannel marketing and strategies successfully.
One of the most well known companies that leveraged omnichannel is global retailer Best Buy.
Back in 2012, Best Buy lost $1.2B in sales. Why? Their online infrastructure was weak and they didn’t give it the attention it needed. Without the right integrations, Best Buy quickly fell behind other brands that were already using the omnichannel approach.
At this point, Best Buy was in trouble. They later figured things out. They revamped their online presence, began integrating their online stores with their brick-and-mortar stores. In Late spring this year, ZDNet reported that Best Buy’s 7.1 percent growth in sales was due to an omnichannel approach.
Is Omnichannel Marketing Right For Your Business?
Omnichannel marketing has been extremely effective for helping retailers grow sales.
Is omnichannel right for you?
With 2019 just around the corner, if you’re not using ominchannel marketing in your business, you better add it before your competitors are.
Your customers want to interact with your brand the way they want. It doesn’t matter if that’s a brick-and-mortar store, online store, mobile app, Facebook or some other channel, it’s their choice. In short, you just have to make sure you’re giving your customers those opportunities.
