Article

Talking With: Liaison SVP Rob Consoli on developing an omnichannel strategy

An omnichannel strategy can be nirvana for the consumer and the retailer if it can be accomplished.

March 30, 2016 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

Retail consumers are increasingly expecting an omnichannel customer experience — a smooth melding of in-store experiences and online experiences that afford them customization, ease of shopping, fast transaction and no bumps in the shopping and services path.

It’s a nirvana for the consumer and a nirvana for the retailer if it can be accomplished. But developing a strategy, investigating what needs to be done, what needs to be fixed and what needs to be pulled into the technology platforms and systems and marketing programs isn’t quick or even easy.

Retail Customer Experience reached out to Rob Consoli, senior VP, sales and marketing, at Liaison Technologies, which plays a partner role with retailers to make it all happen, and asked him for insight that can help retailers get that crucial omnichannel strategy set up and running.

RCE: Given the value of an omnichannel strategy, what do you see as the main challenges and hurdles keeping retailers from moving forward on such a quest?

Consoli: Having an omnichannel strategy is essential today for every retailer who doesn’t want to become a brick and mortar dinosaur.  There’s plenty of evidence to prove how essential this strategy is when you see so many traditional retailers (Circuit City, Borders, Sports Authority, and recently American Apparel) who have been unable to evolve with today’s consumer’s needs.  The main challenges and hurdles that keep retailers from moving forward on such a quest are technology related – lack of clean customer data, siloed applications (POS, Inventory Management, Warehouse, etc.), a fragmented supply chain, and the lack of predictive analytic systems that anticipate a customer’s buying patterns and desires even before they even start shopping. Once you identify the product the customer wants, you have to be able to deliver that product as quickly as possible.

RCE: What is one bit of advice or tip you can share with retailers who do move forward on such a project – insight that maybe isn’t visible until immersed in a project or a misconception that retailers may have about the omnichannel effort?’

Consoli: Don’t overlook the importance of having a comprehensive data integration and data management strategy that evolves with the changing needs of the business. Achieving this can be extremely challenging, particularly for retailers. Retailers implementing comprehensive omnichannel strategy must carefully consider and integrate many disparate data sources including traditional structured data but also unstructured data such as that information captured from social media.  Traditional methods of integration can be resource intensive and have trouble scaling to keep up with this exponential growth in data. Adding to this burden for retail companies is the increasingly difficult task of securing their data and meeting stringent regulatory requirements.  Now with the availability of the cloud, many companies are leveraging cloud based data integration and data management platforms, like the Liaison ALLOY platform to solve these kinds of complex problems.  This managed services approach provides a custom solution that is unique to each retailer yet leverages the cloud provider’s significant investment in technology in a secure, compliant, and multi-tenant environment.

RCE: How do you define a successful omnichannel strategy?

Consoli: A successful omnichannel strategy is simply defined as ensuring that every customer gets what product they want when and how they want to purchase it.  Ultimately, a successful omnichannel strategy can be measured by the increased market share and revenue growth of a retailer.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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