Omnichannel Retail: How digital and physical are converging to redefine the customer experience

Image: Cadillac Fairview

By Sean Keith is the Director of New Business Development at Eagle Eye

The path to purchase in today’s retail environment is increasingly complex and omnichannel-oriented – which challenges the delivery of a superior retail customer experience. Even across different retail categories, each customer journey is different and not always conducted end-to-end on a single channel.

Let’s not diminish the value of a single channel, as each lends itself to different types of interactions. But real value can be harnessed when multiple channels work together most effectively throughout the purchase cycle to enhance the customer experience. It is only possible using a data-driven and digitally-enabled engagement strategy.

As the convergence of digital and physical sales channels is already redefining the customer experience, here are several ways that retailers can capitalize on the wealth of data these omnichannel journeys generate in order to create a winning retail store and compete more effectively in a digital world.

Image: Cadillac Fairview

Data Power: Attracting Online Customers into the Store

In an omnichannel environment, there is real opportunity for retailers to connect up online shopping data and get customers into physical stores. Digital channels are a rich source when it comes to collecting data on customer behaviour and it’s where consumers spend most of their time researching products to buy. Our recent survey data shows that consumers now collectively browse and discover products more on desktop (68%) and mobile (48%) than in physical stores (67%). But our research also shows that consumers still prefer to complete purchases within a physical store (69%) compared to online (54%).

Attracting consumers into a physical location is a crucial differentiator for retailers looking to build emotional and trusted customer connections that can be hard to achieve through online alone. The physical space is a platform for customers to experience the brand, get expert help, touch or trial products, and purchase them instantly. That’s why brick-and-mortar stores play an important role – despite retail industry naysayers – in many consumers’ shopping journeys. It’s also why attracting online customers into the store should be a non-negotiable strategy for retailers to continue driving revenue and keep up with (or even overtake) their e-commerce only competitors.

Clever Data Capture = Smarter Retargeting Across Channels

Equally important to having customer data is having the right technology to identify customers when they’re in-store. This allows retailers to track customer engagement and their behaviours more effectively offline. Take, for example, a customer who visits a retailer’s physical store to redeem a digital offer for makeup. While in-store, the customer decides to purchase some perfume. The retailer has the right technology in place to capture the customer’s identity at the till and attribute the makeup and the additional purchase to that unique customer ID; and, because the till was connected into the retailer’s wider marketing platform, the retailer retargeted that customer with a digital offer for future perfume purchases. Our research shows that, after price, timely and relevant promotions have the most influence on a consumer’s choice of retailer. So, understanding what customers buy across channels, and delivering them highly relevant promotions based on those preferences, can be both a successful customer engagement strategy and revenue driver.

Image: Cadillac Fairview

Creating Better Experiences Starts with Better Data

Retailers can also use customer data to learn more about their customers and build on a promotion’s effectiveness over time – whether that’s delivering a better in-store experience or a more highly-targeted digital offer. The right technology and performance marketing platform can help retailers target the same customer who responded positively to a previous promotion, via whichever channel that customer likes to engage with most. The retailer can be confident that the customer is more likely to respond to the promotion, because they know they responded to a similar one in the past. Our findings show discounts and rewards that recognize a customer’s loyalty are the third biggest influencer (60%) in purchase decision-making, after relevant and timely promotions and price. Retailers who put these types of rewards at the forefront of their engagement strategies will be best placed to drive more frequency, repeat visits and ultimately, stronger customer loyalty.

Now that retailers and their customers live in an omnichannel world, optimising their performance marketing to drive conversions and grow their audience starts with having the right data and technology strategy.

Is your business ready to reap the rewards of omnichannel retail? 

Connected data, connected tills, and digital offers that are relevant and reward customers for their loyalty are profitable solutions for your business. These solutions all help you to see your customer clearly, know who they are, what they did and importantly, what they bought. This is the big advantage of omnichannel retailing: it represents a way for digital and physical channels to work together seamlessly to grow the business, create a better customer experience and generate more loyal and valuable customers.

Want to learn about building a winning retail store in the digital world? Why not join us at STORE Canada next month where we’ll be discussing this topic and more during our session, “How to Build Winning Stores in a Digital World.”

Sean Keith is the Director of New Business Development at Eagle Eye, a leading SaaS technology company that enables businesses to create real-time connections with their customers through digital and mobile promotion solutions. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper, Sean helps brands in the retail, food & beverage and hospitality industries implement digital transformation initiatives to better understand customer behaviors and drive revenue growth among Canadian businesses.