Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Lazar Bošković, Creative Director, AgitPROP
Omnichannel, omni-channel or omni channel – even Anglo-Saxons themselves can’t decide how to write it properly. In Serbian it is simpler – Svekanalni marketing, although some mistakenly translate this as “multichannel”. Serbians could also call it “omnikanalni marketing”, which does happen in practice. That is why it is good to explain how we, through the development of marketing, sales and technology, come to this omnichannel.
Customer at the center – regardless where and how they buy
Once upon a time, there was only a single channel on a given market or market segment, where the company would decide, for example, only for retail, or catalog sales, or telemarketing, or whatever existed back then.
Later, through development of technology, the multichannel approach to sales was born, in which, you cover different markets and market segments through multiple channels in parallel. But all those existing individual channels (brick and mortar stores, web shops, social networks, catalog sales …) were treated separately. Individual channels of the same company often competed with each other in sales, creating opposing goals and business problems in relation to customers. As an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, cross-channel sales approach was designed where multiple channels complement each other, rather than compete with each other, because the customer uses a combination of several different channels for the same shopping.
Today, the omnichannel approach has taken the stage, as a strategic, comprehensive concept, focused on customer needs. Omnichannel approach eliminates the boundaries between the various sales and marketing channels and creates a unique integrated whole where the customer is at its center, not the brand. It also means overcoming the separation of offline and online sales, marketing and customer service, because all channels are synchronized with each other. Customers not only easily switch between sales channels, but also use all channels to improve their experience and increase product and purchasing knowledge.
Example of omnichannel experience of a customer with the brand
Imagine you are a loyal customer of clothing and footwear retailer “Budy&Legs” at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. If the omnichannel marketing of that brand has done its job properly, all the barriers between the many channels through which they communicate with you are removed. So you get a seamless consumer experience that becomes more tailored to your needs every day – thanks to the abundance of data you leave behind whether you want it or not.
For a long time you’ve known that the e-store of your favorite “Body&Legs” brand, or rather the e-commerce platform behind their site, has a bunch of information about your preferences, because you agreed to collecting of this data when you signed up for this e-store. They know the sizes of your clothes and shoes, your gender, your location, and a variety of things about your interests (clicks, page views, and time spent on the page …) so the marketing of this brand, after every visit you make to the site, has a more accurate picture of you thanks to the analytics. Up to this point, everything already sounds familiar to you, because e-stores have been operating that way for a long time now. But now, the omnichannel marketing takes the stage, with all the new technologies that follow it.
You go to your nearest “Body&Legs” brick and mortar store, which has been recommended by their site, mobile app or social network, or you’ve simply scanned the QR code on one of their billboards near the store. All you have chosen and put into your list of desired items in the e-store can be adjusted in many ways later at the store. First, you can use your smartphone to look at changes to this wish list and payment methods. Also, a retailer can use the NFC technology to download your wish list from your phone, and help you decide whether or not to bring the goods to you immediately. But perhaps you don’t want to be bothered by the seller in your decision making process, as it is more pleasant for you to interact via NFC with a huge interactive touchscreen display, somewhere in the corner of the store, which shows you your wish list with additional product information, numerous other options of similar products and methods of payment. Or, if you don’t have your smartphone with you, you can take one of the tablets for customers, scan a bar code from one of your loyalty cards, or enter some ID number, and then complete all of these final steps in your product selection. By selecting any of the four ways (your mobile phone, mobile phone of the vendor, interactive display, customer tablet), you will get what you want and the data will be stored in the same place – your profile at the “Body&Legs” e-store. Of course, you could do almost all of this completely anonymously, because you received a friend’s e-mail or SMS message with a recommendation (maybe even a discount) for the store which you never heard of before, but in that case none of the four devices could offer you the wish list and other predefined information about you.
However, the merging of the physical and digital world of commerce, that is, the omnichannel marketing, doesn’t end here. Using the mobile app of your favorite brand, you can upload a photo of some shoes you’ve taken elsewhere, and then a similar shoe model will be presented from a database, thanks to intelligent image recognition. It’s just one of the ways of applying artificial intelligence in the omnichannel marketing, and new technologies such as Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality, enable brand new business models and contribute greatly to a unique user experience. The story about these will follow later.
Omnichannel marketing for overall customer experience
Omnichannel marketing is a strategic marketing approach that, through coordinated and integrated work of all channels of communication with the consumer, provides a continuous and consistent consumer experience. Each channel is familiar with the interactions that have occurred on other channels, and each receives valuable information about consumer behavior.
Consumers in the omnichannel world expect to be connected with the brand at any time, anywhere, across devices. They value comprehensive, consistent, personalized shopping experiences and want to migrate interaction from one channel to the next. They don’t care where they saw or ordered something – they only want to get it ASAP.
The omnichannel approach provides consistent consumer experience, regardless of their path through the purchasing process. Finding products or services is now possible across all channels (Google, social media, TV and radio, press, peer recommendations …). The sale also takes place over all existing offline and online channels (physical store, website, phone order, social media …). And payment is made available in all the usual ways (cash, card, etc…). Of course, the delivery of the product is also possible in a number of available ways (personally, express mail, courier delivery…). Moneyback or replacement of the product must also be enabled through all channels (personally, in-store, via mail…). Customer service is available through all communication channels (phone, website, social media …). And finally, or actually at the beginning of a new shopping cycle, there is a need for post-sale communication over all possible channels that the customer chooses (e-mail, phone, SMS, mail…).
Read us tomorrow, when we bring the continuation to this in the: Omnichannel Marketing – Overview of Channels and Trends