Commentary

Multichannel is not enough: Creating a true omnichannel customer experience

It's critical businesses not assume today's online purchasing experience is the same as what consumers experienced years ago. As companies seek to bring the best of what they have to offer to customers, bringing together insights and tools for a unified experience across channels will create a happy customer base, and a healthy bottom line.

Photo: iStock.com

May 30, 2017

By Doug Heise, VP of global marketing, CoreMedia

In the 1990s it would have been difficult to predict just how much retail would change when the first online stores were developed. Even today, when virtually any product can be researched and purchased anywhere on a dizzying array of devices, it's easy to think that we have arrived at the ultimate customer experience. And yet we're still in the transformation process, as an ever-greater variety of goods and services are available for today's customers.

Like an ancient city that has grown over time and added neighborhoods haphazardly, the online shopping experience has branched out in ways that early Internet marketers might never have anticipated. From the first online shopping experience to dedicated shopping apps on the latest smartphones, there has been a continual series of paradigm shifts. And just as navigating one of those old cities can be challenging for a newcomer, the online shopping experience can be disjointed for a customer who is presented with a loosely interconnected series of channels that feel different depending on how and when the user is accessing it.

Over the past decade, the multichannel experience was the ad hoc way to market to people online, as businesses worked feverishly to develop different strategies for individual customer touch points that served as discrete experiences. But the evolution to always-on mobility means customers can swiftly evaluate all their options across retailers, accessing reviews and detailed product information to make an informed decision. In a mobile-focused world, they may cross several touch points as they move throughout the sales process, and a consistent, unified experience is essential. This is the omnichannel experience, and today's retailers are investing significant resources into creating the next generation of shopping that seamlessly blends the physical and digital experience.

Obstacles impacting the omnichannel experience

Developing a true omnichannel experience requires evolving beyond the limited thinking that online and physical stores are separate, competing entities. As this evolution takes place, there are three main obstacles to address.

The first challenge is limited information based on a narrow view of a customer's behavior in a single channel. A customer might conduct in-person product research and then finalize the purchase via an online retailer for one category of product such as a new smartphone. But when it comes to purchasing goods like clothing or groceries, they might use a different process to find what they need. A lack of contextual information can hinder marketers.

The second challenge is a lack of unification among sales and content management platforms. Many companies have gradually built a series of different channels and brands, each with its own e-commerce system and content management teams that operate independently. Different content and shopping sites, as well as mobile browser and app development, frequently lead to a disjointed experience. Making matters more complex is the expense of replacing these different pieces with a single, unified marketing platform.

Finally, there is a lack of alignment between marketing and e-commerce. The marketing team is typically devoted to developing and executing impactful individual campaigns whereas e-commerce looks for increasing conversions with simple changes. This results in a jumble of structured and unstructured content that can lose customers at different points in the sales process.

3 factors needed for a true omnichannel experience

Overcoming these challenges can seem daunting as a company seeks to modernize its shopping experience. But by following a series of logical steps an organization can create a unified, truly omnichannel experience for all customers, regardless of where or how they shop.

The first step is to implement a hybrid solution that combines the best of both e-commerce and content. When staff have both branding content and the latest marketing data available for a unified view, the result is a seamless customer experience that is based on complete data, leading to a robust return on investment and healthy, sustainable sales.

Allow for flexible, dynamic content that speaks to the individual customer. Their purchase history, mobile device, user profile and social engagement should be utilized to deliver a personalized online experience that creates a sense of brand loyalty and comfort with the company.

The final step is to manage the transition to an omnichannel experience wisely. Moving from separate legacy solutions to a truly omnichannel experience will take time, and making the change too quickly can overwhelm corporate resources or introduce an unacceptable level of risk. Taking a long-term view on the transition is essential for sustainable growth that increases the level of customer satisfaction.

It's critical that businesses not assume that today's online purchasing experience is the same as what consumers experienced 10 or even five years ago. They are comparing products and prices, researching reviews and going through every step of the sales process via many different channels. As companies seek to bring the best of what they have to offer to their customers, bringing together insights and tools for a unified experience across channels will create a happy customer base, and a healthy bottom line.