Omnichannel Commerce and the Future of Retail

Even before COVID-19 struck – consigning us all to our homes for weeks at a stretch, turning town centres into ghost towns and generating immense profits for certain online-only retailers – the way we were shopping had already been shifting for the previous 25 years.

Needless to say, the introduction and rapid development of the internet and (mostly) safe online payments were the main driving force – all that the pandemic did was speed up the process. Nevertheless, those prophets of doom proclaiming the death of the traditional high street are still going to have to wait a while yet.

Part of the reason behind that is the rise in independent, even quirky, traders offering something different that the consumer can’t find online – or if they can, would still rather experience in person.

The other main factor is that some of the bigger players are recognising that putting all their eggs into one basket, by committing themselves wholly to one channel, whether that be online or bricks-and-mortar, may not be such a wise idea. 

Not that operating on multiple channels is a new idea – we’re all used to the idea of researching a product online before heading to a physical store to make the actual purchase. And many businesses have been doing it for years, although it has to be said that they have been doing so with varying degrees of success. And those enjoying more success today are doing so not by taking a purely multichannel approach – but by using an omnichannel commerce model.

There are various ways of describing omnichannel, one of which is that it’s multichannel done better. More specifically, it involves taking all the elements of the multichannel approach but fully combining them so that it offers an entirely seamless approach across all channels. 

But what does that actually mean? From a purely marketing point of view, it’s about maintaining a consistent brand across all channels, including social media – after all, consumers are discovering products in all kinds of places, from Facebook to Google Shopping and from Amazon to online reviews. Making those different platforms work together is a key factor in the omnichannel commerce approach.

It’s also about recognising how the consumer has become king in the world of retail. Along with the permanent factors of price and choice, convenience is now perhaps the most important thing we look for in a retailer – someone that might allow us to order online, collect in-store and return via doorstep collection, for example. The omnichannel approach allows the retailer to meet all these needs without any discernible difference between who is carrying out the separate operations.

But is it all really worth it? Well, research has indicated a number of factors that suggest how successful an omnichannel approach to commerce can be, including:

• More sales – customers using multiple channels from the same retailer spend more than those who use only one
  Improved loyalty – being able to engage with the retailer across multiple channels also encourages customers to stick with the brand, with one study reporting that customers made 23% more return trips to the retailer’s stores in the six months following an omnichannel shopping experience
• Better data – engaging consistently with your customers across multiple platforms allows you to accrue valuable data about those customers’ shopping habits, helping you to tailor your future plans 

Anyone confidently predicting where the next 20 or 30 years will take us in the retail world hasn’t been learning the lessons from the last 20 or 30 years. In other words, how can we know? Future technological advances may change everything again, rendering all we’ve just learnt meaningless. 

Having said that, from our current vantage point, omnichannel commerce seems to tick all the right boxes for the average consumer, offering all the advantages of the different shopping channels in one go, combined with the ability to mitigate individual streams’ disadvantages by using the others.

In other words, omnichannel offers consumers the best of all worlds while also offering them the chance to swerve the worst. 

Anyone confidently predicting where the next 20 or 30 years will take us in the retail world hasn’t been learning the lessons from the last 20 or 30 years. In other words, how can we know? Future technological advances may change everything again, rendering all we’ve just learnt meaningless. 

Having said that, from our current vantage point, omnichannel commerce seems to tick all the right boxes for the average consumer, offering all the advantages of the different shopping channels in one go, combined with the ability to mitigate individual streams’ disadvantages by using the others.

In other words, omnichannel offers consumers the best of all worlds while also offering them the chance to swerve the worst. 

While retailers operating an omnichannel commerce approach may be able to offer the best shopping experience for consumers, you can count on Morplan to offer the best shopping experience for retailers – we’re the one-stop shop for retail supplies with everything you need available at the click of a button from our massive online store. Contact us today to find out more.