User:M2sbdav/Omni-channel Retailing
Omni channel selling, whether B2B , B2C and/or B2B2C, has emerged in the last few years and is the logical evolution of multichannel selling which emerged ~20+ years ago when eCommerce surfaced in the mid 1990s and mCommerce, Mobile Commerce , a few years later. Multichannel selling is about selling through a variety of sales channels such as point of sale (PoS) in brick & mortar stores, telephone in a contact center, eCommerce, mCommerce, etc.
These sales channels are generally independent of one another so are not well integrated and as a result rarely provide a consistent customer experience. This is a key point and the primary differentiator between multi and omni channel selling. Often times the eCommerce and mCommerce initiatives were kept separate from the traditional brick and mortar and possibly catalog/contact center business environment because executives were unsure of their value as 98%+ of their revenue came from their historical sales channels. This resulted in little, if any, formal integration between the different channels and the customer is usually the one who feels the brunt of that lack of integration.
Omni channel selling will focus on the customer journey, how they arrive at a buying decision as well as making their purchase. Integrating the sales channels is starting to get more focus from companies as customers now often use more than one channel when making a purchase. For instance, online is heavily utilized to research the buying decision regardless of whether the purchase is made online, in store or through a contact center. Concepts like a 360 degree view of customer activities across sales channels have existed for a while, but its only recently that this is getting emphasized because companies are now realizing they are providing an inconsistent customer experience across sales channels.
And with Amazon and other eTailers delivering a vastly improved customer experience, companies have but no choice to play catch up. The impact of the pure play eTailers can’t be underestimated on the emergence of omni channel selling because as sales keep migrating online, topping $300+ billion in 2014 in the US , existing companies have to stem the tide and knowing they aren’t going to become eTailers, effectively leveraging all of their sales channels to compete is their path forward.
Consider these scenarios which couldn’t have taken place until just a few years ago: • A customer browses and buys via a website on their laptop at lunch, but rather than wait for their purchase to be shipped they pick it up later that day in the store on their way home from work and are recognized as a loyalty customer as they enter the store due to having their loyalty program number stored on their mobile phone • A customer browsing a website on their mobile phone and adds an article of clothing to their cart, but rather than buy right then they stop by the store later to try the item on to make sure it fits first and as they enter the store their mobile phone alerts a representative that someone who has been on their website recently has just entered • A gift is ordered for someone via a contact center and delivered to the recipient where they decided it wasn’t a perfect fit so they go online, print a return receipt and schedule a pickup from a parcel company
These are but a few examples intended to highlight how quickly the customer experience and their expectations are changing. While the transition from multi to omni channel selling is just picking up steam, it’s the logical evolution for companies that expect to meet and exceed customer expectations. And given the eCommerce and mCommerce waves have arrived within the last 20 years, companies should expect shorter cycles for new technologies to emerge that can disrupt their business and how they engage with their customers so adapting to these new business models is worth considering.
Footnotes for specific references in the article
B2B: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-business B2C: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2C Multichannel retailing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multichannel_retailing eCommerce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce mCommerce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_commerce Retail Sales Worldwide Will Top $22 Trillion This Year: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retail-Sales-Worldwide-Will-Top-22-Trillion-This-Year/1011765
Additional References:
• Customer Desires vs. Retailer Capabilities: Minding the Omni-Channel Commerce Gap (Accenture): http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-customer-capabilities-omni-channel-commerce-gap.aspx • On Solid Ground: Brick-and-Mortar is the Foundation of Omnichannel Retailing (AT Kearney): http://www.atkearney.com/consumer-products-retail/on-solid-ground • An Omni-Channel Pioneer Explains His Methods (Forbes): http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2014/10/27/an-omni-channel-pioneer-explains-his-methods/ • The Future of Shopping (Harvard Business Review): https://hbr.org/2011/12/the-future-of-shopping • Why omnichannel retail is more than just a buzzword (Information Age): http://www.information-age.com/industry/uk-industry/123459054/why-omnichannel-retail-more-just-buzzword • 5 Excellent Examples of Omnichannel Retailing Done Right (Multichannel Merchant): http://multichannelmerchant.com/must-reads/5-excellent-examples-omnichannel-retailing-done-right-14052014/