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5 Fundamental Benefits of Going Omni-channel

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While the debates about retail apocalypse and the demise of physical retail continue, one thing is for sure, these are merely exaggerations based on certain instances, as the big picture depicts otherwise. At this juncture there is one truth only – retail as a business is being re-imagined, re-invented and re-engineered and this is happening because of technology.

Technology has been the principal driver and the enabler of the retail revolution process, leading to the modern day retail scenario where omni-channel is the new norm. All this has been possible because technology has found its place in almost every aspect of retail – right from production to supply-chain to distribution to sales to post sales services. Moreover, it has also influenced various stages of the customer journey, consequentially leading to changes in consumers’ behavior and preferences.

Omni-channel is the offspring of technology. Omni channel thrives on technology and this is one of the major reasons why, from being a mere buzzword about a decade ago, today it has become the ‘way of life’ for retail businesses and brands. Omni-channel fundamentally offers 5 highly desired abilities – reach, convenience, speed, collaboration and unified commerce.  And in-turn these abilities are the basic benefits of going omni-channel.

In order to be omni-channel ready, retail businesses must use multiple retail touch-points to interact and service their customers. Subsequently, adding more channels expands the horizon of the retail businesses and enables them to reach more customers, while customers on the other hand can reach and interact with their brands through multiple touch-points. With more than one channel to shop from, customers can use different channels during their shopping journey at their own convenience, and as for retailers, they can easily make use of the different channels to influence their consumers along the shopping process. Omni-channel also enables retail brands with speedy access to information related to inventory and customers as well as helps retailers to service customers faster, while customers can receive quick gratification of their purchases or move through the shopping process faster by switching between channels. Omni-channel essentially necessitates the integration of multiple channels, systems and processes, thus facilitating them to work in collaboration, in a way that enables unified commerce. This makes it possible for retailers to have a single version of the truth about their customer and inventory information across the business and also supports them to provide a seamless and unified experience to their customers.

While omni-channel is necessary, it has potentials that can really do wonders to the retail business and retailers must try to capitalize on this. Employing the right omni-channel retail software will help retailers become truly and holistically omni-channel and thereafter reap its benefits big time.

Also Read: Four Emerging Trends In This Revolutionary Era Of Shopping

Four Pillars of Retail Customer Experience

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In this day and age of omni-channel, retail is all about the customer. What the customer needs and demands, how do they research and shop, which channels do they use to interact, what is their opinion about brands and products, what are their interests and preferences, which demographic segment do they belong to, what influences their purchasing, and so on – these are the questions retailers need to seek answers to, so that they are able to understand and serve their customers better. Additionally, since consumer behavior is dynamic and so is the retail business, the same answers may not hold true every time. Thus there is a need for the retail companies to put in constant efforts so as to be able to keep pace with their consumers’ changing demands.

In order to be able to service their customers to the best of their abilities, retail brands must have a holistic approach in strategizing, conceptualizing, creating and offering experiences that can impress their customers. As such, the shopping experiences must be positive and enriching. There are 4 essential pillars of retail customer experience – personal, mobile, seamless and secure, that retailers need to focus on for optimal results.

Below is an infographic that illuminates the importance of these 4 pillars with some industry statistics that retailers need to pay attention to.

Retail Customer Experience

Omni-channel Retailing is not about the channel, it is about the Customer

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In the modern day scenario, while there are numerous elements that play a role in the success of a retail business, the most essential element is to be responsive to customer demand and meet customer expectations. However this seems to be a challenging ask in today’s digital era as the consumer behavior and expectations are highly dynamic and constantly evolving. For the consumers of today, shopping is no longer just wanting to purchase products — they also demand entertaining, convenient and personalized shopping experiences. Add to this the complexity of handling multiple channels where customers can connect with the brand or shop from.

Omni-channel retailing has gained popularity over the years and now it has become the new norm and necessity for retail business to thrive and flourish. Be it brick and mortar retail companies or e-commerce companies – most have realized the dire need to go omni-channel and are thus adding new channels to their operations so as to facilitate their business with the opportunity to be where the customer is. However, one of the biggest roadblock for retailers achieving success in omni-channel is focusing on the channels and not on the customer. Retailers must understand that very essence of omni-channel lies in delivering a seamless customer experience across channels and hence it is imperative to focus on customer centricity. Here’s how:

Understanding and meeting customer expectations

Considering the shopping habits of today’s shopper it is clear that consumers themselves have dramatically changed. Technology such as the internet and social media have significantly expanded their horizons enabling them to consume more information, find a wide range of products and share about their experiences. Emphasis is on curated offerings that customers seek along with personalized product recommendations. Retail companies can find success by realizing, considering and understanding consumers’ shopping preferences and then using retail technology solutions to provide more personalized experiences. In order to continue meeting the demands of evolving consumer expectations, it is very important for retail owners to follow the shopper journey and then orchestrate information, pricing, inventory and promotions as the consumer moves through to the path to purchase.

Encouraging and enhancing consumer engagement

It is not just about delivering a personalized and seamless omni-channel experience, rather it is about being able to do it consistently. This is what retailers should seek to achieve in order to be able to stay in the game. It is important for the retailer to understand that each and every part of the shopping journey is important. Therefore they must not only focus on the purchase but also aspects like information gathering, opinion seeking, post-sales services, promotions and so on as the customer moves along their shopping journey. Importantly, the retail brand must be able to stay connected with the customer across the entire journey span, transcending multiple channels. Moreover the brand should seek to enhance their relationship with customer through constant engagement that is personalized and relevant to them. Retail business’ success lies in not only realizing that whether the customer purchases or not, every touch-point across the customer journey there is an opportunity for the retail company to meet its customer but also must be seized by the retailer and efforts should be taken to keep the customer positively engaged. With the right retail software, this is definitely possible to achieve.

Creating and enriching customer experience

As mentioned above, retail is no longer about just the transaction between the retailer and customer. It is way deeper than that and retailers must go beyond their usual practices to reach that depth. As the modern day consumers are evolving dynamically, they are not just seeking to satisfy their material wants by purchasing products; they are craving experiences – experiences that will leave an impact on them and want them to come back and stay loyal to the brand. From the customers’ perspective, it is easier for them to stick with a retail brand that stands true to their expectations. Retailers must constantly look to create and deliver enriched omni-channel shopping experiences as well as ensure that these experiences are seamlessly unified and are specially curated for the customer. By creating these personalized shopping experiences across the customer journey, retailers will able to address the needs of their consumers on their own turf – eventually moving from shopping carts to the consumers’ hearts thus leading to sales, positive experiences and brand advocacy. The right mix of retail technology and innovation will make it possible for retailers to achieve success.

Moving from E-commerce to Omni-channel – Top 3 Challenges

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Changing customer expectations, the advent of multiple channels of shopping and the infusion of technology in retail have given rise to a new breed of shoppers today commonly known as ‘omni-channel shoppers’. These modern-day retail shoppers are tech-savvy and highly demanding, spoilt for choice, and seek value for their money. And they will not want to associate with single-channel retail brands as they constantly look for convenience and speed. So not only brick and mortar retail companies but online only e-commerce retail brands also have no choice but to migrate to omni-channel. However, with e-commerce companies going for an omni-channel approach that integrates both offline and online retail, there are some challenges that these retailers need to be ready for.

Online-offline integration:

There are basically, two main channels for retail – online (which includes e-commerce, mobile, and social media) and offline (which includes brick and mortar store, pop up stores). While integrating the online channels to work seamlessly would seem to be achievable due to the similar nature of functionality, adding offline to this mix and looking to achieve a seamless integration can prove to be a daunting task as this calls for necessarily aligning every process and operation of the business to meet the omni-channel objective of unified customer experience. However, the good news is, that by employing the right omni-channel for e-commerce software, retailers can achieve a seamless transition from a single channel and holistic omni-channel integration.

Customer and inventory management:

Online retailers generally provide the ‘buy online and ship to home’ fulfillment. However, when looking to go completely omni-channel from e-commerce, there are new fulfillment options that can be added such as buy online pick up in store, endless aisle, and so on. This calls for a seamless and accurate flow of customer and inventory information across all channels. Having a unified view of the inventory and a single view of the customer across channels is necessary to handle multiple fulfillment options as well as planning and executing promotion campaigns and loyalty programs for customers across channels. Having a solid omni-channel retail software with CRM, promotions and inventory management capabilities can allow retailers to offer a unified omni channel customer experience.

Supply chain and logistics management:

Moving from e-commerce to omni-channel though has benefits, it also poses multiple supply chain and logistics challenges. One of the biggest challenges for retailers while implementing an omnichannel process is ensuring product availability at the right channel at the right time and at the right price. This is necessary for handling different engulfment options so that customers can get the gratification of their purchases as per their terms. Another challenge that is a necessity in this omni-channel age is reducing delivery time-frames. This again can be tackled by having the right product at the right place so that fulfillment centers are not too far away from the customers’ preferences of where they want to receive their purchases. With the help of a robust omni-channel retail solution encompassing supply chain management can ensure retailers succeed in their omni-channel business.

Also Read: Adopting Unified Commerce – The Next Generation Of Retail

Tips to transform your in-store customer experience

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Customer experience is the ‘be all and end all’ for retail businesses today. Every retailer is vying to gain the biggest share of the customers’ attention and wallet in order to succeed; and delivering a superior customer experience is the best way retailers can achieve their goals. Therefore, they need to compete in this intense ‘customer experience’ battle ground. Moreover, for brick and mortar retail companies, the competition gets even stiffer as they have to tackle additional contention from e-commerce retail players. With all this competition and other internal & external constraints, offering a fantastic shopping experience for in-store customers is a challenge for your retail business. However, below are a few simple tips that can help you transform your in-store customer experience.

  1. Offering unique and personalized experience

Knowing and understanding customers not only by the demographic characteristics and buying history, but also following their individual shopping journey. This will enable you to go beyond the usual conventions of customer experience and drive you to innovate ways by which you can make the customer experience unique and personalized. Something as basic as knowing that a customer has visited the store on her birthday and presenting her tailored offers can leave a positive impact. Similar kind of unique and personalized experiences need to be created and delivered. This will set you apart in the perception of the customer.

  1. Channelizing store employees

An important element that stores have over e-commerce is the personal touch factor. Store employees can be the brand ambassadors for your business and can thus influence the customers purchase decisions as well as enhance their experience. Therefore you need to mobilize and channelize your store employees and harness their potential to deliver a superior shopping experience. Investing in training your store employees is essential to the success of your brand.

  1. Providing value added services

More is less in the new retail mantra. The modern day customers are demanding and how. They seek more channels for shopping, more choices of products and expect more value for the money they spend. Though this seems to be a challenging situation, you can convert it into an opportunity by incentivizing your customers with value added services for purchasing from the store. This is like an extra layer of customer service that will go a long way in compelling customers to come back to the store. Simple service options like offering to home deliver apparel after alteration or offering to take old stuff and providing cash coupons for purchasing at the store, are some techniques than can be implemented.

  1. Tendering convenience and reducing time

There seem to be a few specific attributes for in-store layouts that have been tried, tested, and proven successful. Some of these attributes include speed, convenience, cleanliness, and product selection. In today’s fast-paced world, where customers expect immediate assistance and instant gratification, making it easy and quick for customers to find their products or information, or providing them with different payment options for convenience and reducing their wait time at check-out queues, can significantly  enhance your in-store customer experience. Using innovative retail technologies can allow you to add these capabilities to your retail stores.

  1. Rewarding regular customers

You must appreciate the loyalty your customers have towards your offline retail business and reward them. Customer relationship management and loyalty programs with attractive reward schemes are proven methods to enhance the brand-customer relationships. The more you reward, the more your customers will come back to buy from you, resulting into a profit churning cycle for your business while offering a superior experience to your customers. Further, these loyal customers would be your brand advocates who in-turn would use their word of mouth to bring new customers.

Setting up a solid and foolproof retail business inventory management process

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While strong sales are the backbone of any retail business, its inventory management process can signify the difference between success and failure for the business. Inventory management can be generally perceived to be a balancing act between demand and supply rather than just a business operation. While retail as a business has been evolving over the last few decades due to the influence of technology and innovations, the processes involved in the retail business are also a part of this evolution. The inventory management process has witnessed the need for a significant upgrade, especially due to the advent of new channels of shopping leading towards omni-channel. However laying the groundwork for a successful inventory management strategy and process that matures along with the business is extremely important for the success and sustenance of the business. Below are the basic steps for setting up a solid inventory management process.

  1. Set the key performance indicators (KPIs).

Setting, using and sticking to KPIs to manage inventory can be one of the best methods with regards to to measuring the impact of overall business operations. Every business and therefore their set of KPIs are different, but there are a few common ones that retailers must look at:

Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI): This analyzes the firm’s ability to turn inventory into cash above the cost of the inventory. It is an inventory profitability evaluation ratio, calculated by dividing the gross margin by the average inventory cost.

Gross Margin Return on Footage (GMROF): This is an important KPI that measures the inventory productivity that expresses the relationship between the business’ gross margin, and the area allotted to the inventory. This is critical, especially when stocking inventory at the store for selling.

Average Days to Sell Inventory (DSI): This is a measure of the time period taken by the retail company to convert inventory into sales, and this metric varies by industry. An important point to remember while using this measurement is that large-ticket items typically move slower than small-ticket items. The formula for calculating DSI is (Inventory/Cost of Sales) x 365, according to Investopedia.

Stock-Outs: This KPI represents the number of times a demand cannot be fulfilled due to the unavailability of the required inventory. This helps in obtaining a big-picture view of the effectiveness of the business in purchasing and production.

Rate of Return: This monitors and rates the percentage of orders that are returned and therefore need to be restocked. Tracking the reason for returns while monitoring this KPI is important to identify and address any trends in problems in the supply chain and thus mitigate risks of costly returns.

  1. Specify the W’s.

Efficient product organization aids a smooth inventory management process and can help in other processes such as picking, packing and shipping products accurately and quickly. At the basic level inventory organization begins with where and what – for achieving profitability, optimizing costs and offering superior customer experiences – that is the ‘why’.

Where: Evaluating the storage space available and creating zones, including number of doors/docks, recording their size and location, and non-inventory storage space; within these zones, determining sections, labelling each zone section clearly for employees to see and easily navigate.

What:  Accurately labelling each product to avoid confusion and time in finding what customers ordered.

  1. Choose the right software.

As the business grows, it is necessary to have an inventory management system that scales with it. Inventory management becomes more complicated with each new product the business sells and every new customer who buys it. Thus it is important to employ the right inventory management software (IMS) to help streamline multiple processes with a single program.

In order to find the right inventory management solution, it is crucial to define the pain points that need to be solved. These pain points may include overstocking/understocking, incorrect inventory levels or sales reporting, handling omni-channel inventory. Determining these needs will help in identifying the features each solution offers and how they will address the needs. Next is to evaluate the level of customization and compatibility with other systems, especially those that are currently being used or are going to be implemented within the business. Assessing the customer service capabilities (e.g., 24/7 service, dedicated representative) of the solution providers is a must as it can make a big difference when there is a need additional support.

  1. Check and monitor.

Frequent and organized check-ins will help streamline all aspects of inventory optimization together. Considering cycle counting programs in order to gauge the accuracy of inventory levels through routine audits can help in understanding the product sell-through rates, which can then be used to liquidate products that aren’t moving in order to optimize costs and storage space. It will also enable the retailer to introduce new products into the mix that share similar characteristics with the biggest sellers. Finally, keeping an eye on the product quality and any discrepancies in size, color or style can help increase customer satisfaction and lead to lower return rates.

Continued evaluation is key for enhancing the inventory management process. Having a well-run process in place — from inventory organization to implement the software to data capture and then review and analysis – can ably support the growing business by adding efficiencies to shipping processes, reducing fulfillment timeframes, lowering rate of returns and enhancing customer satisfaction while strengthening the bottom line.

Reinventing the retail shopping journey!

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Retail shopping experience right from research to purchase to post sales service has seen a paradigm shift over the last few years. One of the primary reasons for this shift is a significant change in the consumer behavior. This change has had a global impact across industries including retail and it continues to drive innovations and advancements which will shape the world through 2030. Further, economic and technological shifts have reinvented the shopper journey holistically. Previously, shopping revolved around the purchase and was highly transaction focused. However today, shopping is an entire journey. It is a relationship building process for the retail brand with their consumers.

The modern day’s shopper journey can be broken down broadly into 3 stages: pre-purchase stage, purchase and the post-purchase stage. Today, the brand experience has to be infused into all of these stages seamlessly.

Taking a look at the pre-purchase stage, this stage is all about the brand connecting and framing a relationship with the shopper, by being able to answer the shopper’s questions about products they are exploring and helping them realize how their purchase can fit within their values and lifestyle. This stage is where customers research about brands and their products/service offerings, and based on their evaluations considering various factors would decide to make a purchase for a particular product, from brand. Hence this stage is a huge opportunity for retail companies to influence consumers and thus lay the foundation of a solid relationship while ensuring their patronage.

Meanwhile, in the purchase stage, being central to the shopping journey as the transactions happen here, there has been a reinvention in the overall perception of the transaction. Price still remains extremely important; however, today’s customer is not only paying for the product but also the convenience that is associated with the purchase. This convenience will also be integrated into the shoppers’ perception of value. Moreover, making things quicker is not only about speeding up the payment process, but other factors such as curating goods and services and information faster, also contribute to it. These will influence the purchase experience of the shopper and retail brands should ensure that this experience is positive, personalized and perfect to establish loyalty.

In the final stage which is the post-purchase stage, it is important for retail brands to extend their post-sale services to shoppers and continue efforts to cement brand-customer relationships as well as enrich loyalty. As such, the shopper’s journey with a particular brand may end at the purchase stage itself and this would be a huge loss as retail companies will miss out on repeat business from loyal customers. Thus the brand value should be extended to the shoppers in the post purchase stage as it enables connecting the brand with the consumer’s lifestyle thus making the brand experience relevant.

3 essential ways to make the checkout experience better

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Retail is generally an emotion-driven industry. In order to keep customers happy and loyal, retailers need to consistently promote positive emotion and reduce negative emotion at each and every touch-point in the customer’s shopping journey. Over the last few years, there has been a rise in investment and innovation, with efforts to improve nearly every aspect of the retail shopping journey. One of the most important and critical aspects of the overall shopping experience has been the checkout and even today many retailers are losing out on sales due to a poor checkout experience.

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Here are 3 tips on how to make the check-out experience better

Strike the right balance between data collection and checkout time
The point of sale is a great location and resource for data collection. However, while asking customers for details, too many questions can be a let-down, time consuming and will adversely affect the checkout experience. Having said that, retailers’ must not limit their insight potential at this important touch point in order to keep the line moving. Hence the right balance needs to be struck whereby there is no compromise on both fronts. Data collection and seamless checkout need not be mutually exclusive. Allowing customers to initiate the checkout process for a particular product on the retail brand’s mobile app when they get in line, or even when they enter the store, is one surefire technique that will improve the experience. Another good technique is allowing customers to finish their shopping and seeking their details at a later stage through digital mediums at their own convenience.

Use mobile POS to bust the queues
Another highly successful technique to improve the checkout experience at the store is using mobile POS (point-of-sale). A number of retailers have already used and reaped the benefits of mobile POS. The mobile POS is a powerful tool that will allow to drastically reduce the time per customer by scanning the products while the customer shops followed by billing, thus avoiding the need for customers to even enter the queue in cases where the payment mode is not cash. Thus retailers experiencing a higher number of footfalls at the store and more turnover or looking to handle large queues, especially during peak hours and shopping seasons, the mobile POS system is a definite savior. Also, mobile POS can be used as a tool to capture customer data on the go, consequently reducing wait times while billing. This will certainly improve the checkout experience at the store and prevent ‘lost sale’ situations.

Enable omni-channel integration for seamless operations
Focusing only on the store checkout experience in this day and age is just not enough. The checkout experience has to be seamless, convenient and fast, no matter which channel the customer decides to purchase from. And this can be achieved with the right omnichannel integration of previously disparate systems and processes. Having a truly omni-channel driven retail business will facilitate the seamless transfer of data regarding customers, products, inventory and so on, between the various systems including the point of sale system at the store. This enables auto population of customer data during thus negating the need to capture data during repeat purchases, or allows access to uniform product information such as pricing and availability across channels. Thus the customer can shop from wherever they want to, whenever they want to, quickly and seamlessly.

With the help of the right technology – a combination of both hardware and software, retailers can improve their business processes while creating better and seamless experiences at the time of checkout.

Enhancing the physical retail experience by converging offline and online at the store

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In the last year, physical retail has witnessed some of the most challenging situations. While some well-known retail chains filed for bankruptcy, some retail companies shuttered their stores, some retail companies closed down completely, while some others were struggling to keep up with the growing threat from e-commerce sites and this struggle seems likely to continue. Moreover due to a majority of customers owning a smartphone nowadays, the shift towards mobile and online purchasing will only increase.

With e-commerce and m-commerce being literally at their fingertips, shoppers are often looking to do their purchases with ease and with minimal efforts. This is one of the biggest advantage that online has over physical retail. Though brick and mortar stores provide that touch and feel experience to the shopper, this alone is not enough to compete every time with e-commerce. Therefore, physical retailers need to create a unique and awesome experience for customers and one of the most effective ways to do this is converging online and offline experiences at the store itself.

Retail companies like New York & Company have already begun converging online and in-store selling by using self-service kiosks allowing e-commerce access in some select stores. These effectively serve as a complement to the store associates and the traditional checkout area as the kiosks are positioned throughout the store or near the service desk. This provides the shoppers with the choice of self-service by accessing multiple touch-points across the store where they can shop from both the store’s physical and online product offering, make a secure purchase and collect or get their order shipped directly to any address. This expands the retailer’s point of sale capabilities thus giving customers tech options that they intuitively already know how to use as well as makes the shopping process quick and convenient.

For retail companies wanting to create an omni-channel shopping environment, such self-service kiosks or mobile and other handheld devices that allow shoppers to browse and choose products on the online site while they’re already in the store are definitely apt. Adding this omni-channel capability can help retailers prevent a loss of sale situation if an item is out of stock at that particular store, while still allowing the store to get credit for that particular sale.

Having said that, the kind of technology a store should incorporate depends on the type of store, its product offerings and its customers’ tastes and preferences. It can be overwhelming to choose from the wide range of in-store technology for e-commerce available. Retailers need to research which technology to choose, how to incorporate it and accordingly should drill down to what they’re looking to get out of it, and make a smart and well-informed decision before making an investment.

Some of the considerations for incorporating endless aisles in-store technology could be:

Limited space to display inventory, but a large product offering

Having a well-designed online site that can be easily accessed online

Type of hardware depending on the store space – kiosks or handheld devices

Required infrastructure for managing online functionality within the store

The benefits it would provide to the customers, store staff and the business

The best way to start is to proceed with an inside-out approach that retailers can use. Understanding their own business needs and objectives first and then taking inspiration from peers will prove to be a good modus operandi for them to take better decisions. A good omni-channel retail solution with the right capabilities can help retailers attain higher productivity and better customer loyalty.