Not so long ago, one of the most important things retailers had to worry about was the location of their brick-and-mortar shops in order to attract the most customers.
However, now that consumers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy, the mantra “location, location, location” is taking on an entirely new meaning.
Retailers now have to be present anywhere that consumers want them to be, and at any given time. “This doesn’t mean that you now have to literally fling open the doors of your brick-and-mortar shop 24/7, 365 days per year, or going door-to-door to sell your merchandise or service,” says Simon Campbell-Young, CEO of Phoenix Distribution, South African distributor and supplier of many of the top software brands in the world.
“It simply means adopting and embracing the omnichannel – a multichannel approach to sales, communication and marketing – so that customers can enjoy a seamless experience with your business, while using the channel that they prefer – for example browsing and buying online via your e-commerce store, or in-store, or via their mobile devices.”
Campbell-Young notes that the omnichannel is not to be confused with the multi-channel. “Multi-channel is when you make your goods available via various channels, which for most businesses meant creating an e-commerce presence with an online and, for the really progressive, a mobi-store as well. Omnichannel is making your brand available on every single channel, and having all those channels work together so that consumers can use it however they wish, without a hitch,” he says.
“This means perhaps using a barcode scanning app to check a product’s price in-store, then going online to purchase it. Or vice versa: browsing online and then going to the shop to buy it. Omnichannel is a perfect merger of the physical (brick-and-mortar shops and businesses and marketing materials such as brochures) and the virtual (websites, online stores, mobile websites, social media, and apps).”
With consumers who are becoming increasingly impatient (they want it NOW), sophisticated and digitally-empowered, coupled with the proliferation of mobile devices and the constant evolution of web connectivity in terms of speed and availability, the omnichannel is becoming a necessity if you wish to stay abreast of the competitors and turn a profit, Campbell-Young advises.
“Research reveals that web-influenced retail sales are expected to reach $1.856 trillion next year, beating out traditional in-store retail sales of $1.780 trillion. And according to research, omnichannel consumers are likely to spend up to 15% to 30% more than traditional shoppers.”
No wonder it is already being implemented by major corporations, such as the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Yet despite the recent spike in its e-commerce revenues, the retailer revealed that it still only accounts for 3% of their overall sales. Thanks to adopting and implementing new strategies, including a few omnichannel initiatives like the ship-to-store service, Wal-Mart believes that it can deliver 30% e-commerce revenue growth this year, jumping from $10 billion in fiscal 2014 to $13-billion this year.
“The one omnichannel strategy of Wal-Mart that we think is truly genius and which might just work extremely well in South Africa too where many people are still unbanked and still transact with cash only, is its “pay-with-cash” facility, which allows customers to order products online and then pay with cash at their nearest store,” Campbell-Young says.
“This new service is a concession to those consumers who do not have credit or debit cards, allowing them to still have an online shopping experience, thus boosting the retailer’s online traffic. But they’re hitting two birds with one stone. Not only has Wal-Mart drastically expanded its e-commerce client base, but once the customer goes to the shop to pick up their order and pay for it, they will quite likely buy something else as well – which is why this strategy is so clever.
“In the end, this is exactly what a great omnichannel plan will do: benefit your brand, increase your bottom-line, as well as appeal to the consumer by making interaction with your brand as easy and pleasant an experience as possible,” Campbell-Young concludes.
