What is the Omnichannel Experience?
The term Omnichannel refers to the integration of multiple sales channels which come together to create a seamless shopping experience for the customer. In today’s world of advanced technology, one no longer has to drive to their nearest mall to purchase a pair of shoes- or anything for that matter. A customer can pull up a store’s website while sitting at home on their couch and make their purchase just as easily as they can grab it from the shelf in a retail store- perhaps even more easily.
Today’s tech filled world is full of options when it comes to how a customer chooses to purchase a product. Desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets are among the many ways you can shop without leaving your home.
How does a business communicate the brand and experience of in-store shopping to customers who chose to shop via their mobile device?
That is the challenge for businesses when it comes to the integration of multiple channels. Something to pay attention to is the option to let a customer pick up where they left off in their shopping experience. For example, say they are browsing through an online store on their desktop computer when they become distracted by daily life and quickly leave the site. Was there anything in their shopping cart? Will the site remember which products the customer had been looking at and clicking on? The customer is much more likely to finalize a purchase if he or she returns to the site- possibly from another device- and is able to pick up in the same place they left.
Engaging Customers Through Social Media Platforms
Engaging with customers goes beyond having the actual store website available on multiple devices. Social media platforms are also an important way for businesses to engage with their customers. Whether it’s questions about a product, concerns, or even great reviews. It’s important to keep up with all of these platforms to remain in the public eye. It also makes for great customer service when a customer knows all they have to do to get a response to their concern is to reach out to a business’s facebook page.
Seamless Integration
Between all versions of the online store, and all social media platforms being utilized, it is important that all have the same things in alignment:
Objectives
Goals
Messaging
Design
These many elements are still part of one brand and one experience, that shouldn’t be forgotten by the consumer.
How to Succeed?
So how does a business build their Omnichannel strategy? One must get all teams together to create an integration of all that is important within the company. Product development, marketing, sales, and customer success teams will all be involved in creating this Omnichannel experience.
What Businesses are Doing to Make This Possible
The main goal of creating a successful Omnichannel experience is to have integrate all of the channels in which customers can engage with the business. Whether it’s making purchases, requesting customer service, engaging on social media, or any other way that a business connects with it’s consumer, everything needs to flow smoothly and be organized. In order to integrate as many channels as possible, a lot of businesses are now enhancing their current ERP systems and revolutionizing the way they manage orders and inventory. This is a big part of succeeding with Omnichannel, as things can get confusing when there are orders coming in from many different avenues. Instead if having separate systems to help them manage things, businesses are revolutionizing the way order management is organized.
Finding a System That Works for You
When it comes to finding a system that will keep your business organized at a time when many channels are coming together, nothing beats the order/inventory/warehouse management system, SkuNexus. SkuNexus is unlike any other system because it is 100% customizable. As Omnichannel integration becomes a significant factor of a business’s success, the workflow of the employees and the architecture of the way things are done will inevitably evolve. As these elements evolve, you need to make sure that you have a system which can cater to those changes, rather than changing your business’s workflow to fit a standard inventory management software. Only SkuNexus can integrate with your business at it goes up in scale. To hear more about how SkuNexus fits right into your business, schedule a demo.