Omnichannel

Navigating the evolving retail landscape: Meeting consumer expectations

To remain competitive, retailers must provide a smooth omnichannel experience, allowing customers to transition effortlessly between websites, apps, and in-store visits.

Photo: Adobe Stock

November 26, 2024 by Jason Ten-Pow — CEO, OnrCX - BespokeCX - OnResearch

Retailers today are navigating a complex and rapidly changing landscape, with one of the most significant challenges being the shift in consumer expectations. Customers now demand a seamless integration between physical stores, online platforms, and mobile experiences.

To remain competitive, retailers must provide a smooth omnichannel experience, allowing customers to transition effortlessly between websites, apps, and in-store visits. This requires synchronized inventory systems, personalized customer journeys, and consistent service across all touch points.

At the same time, rising customer expectations for faster delivery, more tailored interactions, and superior customer service put additional pressure on retailers to balance these demands while managing operational costs.

How Is seamless integration progressing?

When examining customer experiences across seven key channels — physical location, website, phone, text/chat, email, mobile app, and social media — we found brands are struggling to meet customer expectations for seamless and effortless transitions between platforms.

Overall, customers rate websites as the easiest to use, while mobile apps and social media channels are seen as the most difficult. The gap between the top-performing channel (website) and the lowest-performing channel (social media) is a striking 16 percentage points.

Top brands focus on website experience

For brands with the strongest reputations, a seamless website experience is a critical differentiator.

Top brands focus on ensuring that their websites are the best-performing channel, a strategy that sets them apart from middling and failing brands. In fact, 57% of customers shopping with top brands report their website experience was "very easy," compared to just 27% for middling brands and 18% for brands with failing reputations.

This highlights the importance of a strong online presence as a cornerstone of customer satisfaction.

Brands fall behind as mobile-first shopping surges

Mobile-first shopping is on the rise, with consumers increasingly relying on smartphones for browsing, purchasing, and customer support.

This shift has prompted brands to optimize their mobile apps for smoother, more engaging experiences. However, many brands have been slow to respond to this trend. Customers report that mobile apps rank sixth in terms of ease of use, with only social media scoring lower.

Brands with poor reputations, in particular, struggle to deliver effective mobile apps — only 7% of customers find these apps easy to use. Even among top brands, just 33% of customers say their mobile app experience is very easy, highlighting a significant opportunity for improvement.

Phone remains the preferred method for problem resolution

When customers encounter an issue with a product or service, the phone remains the number one channel for resolving problems.

A total of 33% of customers report that they prefer using the phone in these situations, underscoring its unique importance in customer service.

Top brands excel in this area, with their customers being nearly twice as likely to report that the phone channel is "very easy" to use. In contrast, only 16% of customers shopping with failing brands find the phone channel easy to navigate, indicating a significant service gap.

Physical locations as a key differentiator

For customers, a store represents much more than a place to make purchases. It embodies experiential and emotional factors that shape their overall brand experience.

Brands with poor reputations tend to offer the least effective in-store experiences, with only 8% of their customers reporting that shopping in-store is easy. In contrast, customers of top brands are almost six times more likely to report that the in-store experience is easy. In essence, a well-executed in-store experience is a crucial differentiator, with top brands using ease and engagement to foster customer loyalty.

Brands that fall short in this area risk damaging their reputation and losing trust.

Are social media brand interactions the future?

As customer expectations evolve, social media has emerged as an important channel for brand interaction. Customers appreciate the convenience of reaching out for support, product inquiries, or updates via social platforms, and they highly value personalized, engaging responses. Because social media interactions are public, customers also expect brands to handle issues promptly and professionally, recognizing the potential impact on brand reputation.

Despite this, many brands are slow to prioritize social media as a customer communication channel. Overall, only 21% of customers report that interacting with a brand on social media is easy. Failing and middling brands are especially likely to under invest in this area. However, top-performing brands recognize the importance of social media, making it the third-highest-rated communication channel among their customers, trailing only websites and phone as the easiest channels to use.

Conclusion

To succeed in today's competitive retail landscape, brands must adapt to the evolving expectations of their customers.

This means focusing on delivering seamless experiences across all channels — especially websites, mobile apps, phone, and in-store environments — while also recognizing the growing importance of social media as a valuable point of customer interaction. Brands that prioritize ease, personalization, and engagement in these key areas will set themselves apart, building stronger customer loyalty and driving long-term success.

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Data source: In August 2024, bespokeCX and CX4ROCKS conducted a comprehensive online survey working in partnership with OnResearch – a market research company to investigate how consumer's preferences toward a brand shift based on their interactions across different touch points throughout their journey. The research focused on identifying the preferred channels and touch points for customer-brand interactions and determining which channels are perceived to offer quicker resolutions. The data in this article was collected by surveying 547 customers, across U.S. and Canada, who had visited a physical location of a brand.

About Jason Ten-Pow

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