Modern-day B2B buyers are more aware and empowered when we talk about customer experience. Omnichannel retail refers to a multichannel approach to marketing and sales that focus on offering a smooth customer experience whether the client is making a purchase online from a laptop, mobile device, or a brick-and-mortar store. According to the State of Commerce Experience 2021, nearly 58% of B2B customers and around 44% of B2C customers say that they often or always research a product on the internet before heading to a physical store. Sometimes, they even search when in the store.
The focus of omnichannel operations is the whole customer experience instead of their individual experiences on multiple channels. Omnichannel commerce offers immense benefits to marketers, such provides a better customer experience, increased traffic and sales, and more.
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Mitali Pattnaik, Sr Director of Product for LinkedIn Sales Solutions
However, B2B sellers need to consider certain things, which shall walk you through here.
Omnichannel Commerce Experience: Things B2B sellers should keep in mind
It takes immense effort, resources, and time to create a solid omnichannel or multichannel experience. However, in the end, it’s all worth it! Now, you must regard the following steps to create an omnichannel selling experience. Read on!
- Know your customer: Don’t make the mistake of relying on your assumptions. Instead, take some pain to research your target audience, their interest, needs, and behavior. Ask for customer feedback and their questions, and leverage social listening tools and social media.
- Choose the right channels: Know where your customers are and what they are busy doing.
- Pick a clear objective per channel: Assign a channel for interaction mainly and let others be for news updates and other things.
- Connect the channels: You will find this step a tad challenging, and it only works when implemented properly. You will need the appropriate technology to track your customer access throughout the touchpoints, starting from going through reviews on your site to window shopping at the eCommerce marketplace, seeing social ads, and eventually, purchasing at the brick-and-mortar store.
- Maintain the channels: Once you have connected all your channels, you must focus on testing and enhancing your strategy. Enlist the touchpoints well to provide the best experience to your customers. This would help you set up a loyal customer base that keeps reverting for more.
Benefits of omnichannel commerce
It is definitely not easy to keep up with the ever-evolving world of commerce. Thus, brands are increasingly shifting from multichannel or single-channel to omnichannel selling. For sure, you will have to invest a lot of time, effort, and resources into it. So, are you ready to explore the benefits of omnichannel commerce? Head on!
- Enhanced customer experience: A modern customer expects a unified and remarkable experience. UC Today reveals that 9 out of 10 customers crave an omnichannel experience with seamless communication. One must strive to integrate touchpoints smoothly, whether it is an email newsletter, social ad, a mobile push notification, or one-on-one chat with store staff. Eliminating walls between different business channels empowers the customer to interact with the firm in a natural way.
- Increase in traffic and sales: It isn’t so straightforward to create an omnichannel-proof sales strategy. However, when you invest resources, time, and effort into it, you will realize its worth in the end. A survey that studied about 46,000 customers indicated that compared to single-channel customers, omnichannel shoppers spend more money.
Customers who employed more than four channels were found to spend 9 percent more on average in the store as opposed to those who relied on a single channel.
- Better data collection: Retailers who can monitor their customers across diverse channels tend to serve them better and avail them splendid, personalized, and more satisfying experiences. Businesses can get their hands on worthy insights about content creation and offers, which stimulates customers to go more on a shopping spree!
- Increase customer loyalty: As you just saw that omnichannel customers have the proclivity to spend more. In addition, these customers tend to be more loyal as well. In the same survey, omnichannel customers did 23 percent more repeat purchase visits to the retail stores. Furthermore, they will more likely refer to the brand to friends and family compared to those employed by a single channel.
Continue pushing mid-sale campaigns, discount coupons, and other conventional marketing tricks with an engaging brand story. To ensure your brand’s success and safety, prioritize customer loyalty.
So, an omnichannel commerce strategy will not only get you high sales, but your brand will experience remarkable customer loyalty. Great, isn’t it?
So, in a nutshell,
With the omnichannel approach, businesses get the ability to gain insights about content creation and offer to encourage customer engagement in online as well as brick-and-mortar stores. Moreover, omnichannel commerce experiences aim to provide personalized experiences to customers. And when it comes to business, personalization has raised itself onto the scaffold of must-haves nowadays.
Read More: How to Build ‘Smarter’ AP Systems That Do More with Less
