5 Lessons for Creating Best-in-Class Omnichannel Experiences

Several major market changes have made waves throughout the retail industry in just the past few years. The proliferation of mobile devices, Amazon’s meteoric rise to the top of e-commerce, and the emergence of omnichannel strategies have all fundamentally changed how retailers compete.

Shoppers today expect browsing and purchasing to be consistent and seamless, no matter where their experiences take place. Omnichannel, especially, has transformed retail and improved what consumers consider to be a quality user experience.

While building an effective omnichannel strategy is not easy, retailers can avoid mistakes and create best-in-class omnichannel experiences by following these five lessons:

Lesson 1: Loyalty Isn’t Given, It’s Earned

According to online appointment scheduling company TimeTrade’s 2017 State of Retail report, shoppers say they would increase their in-store spending by 5 percent or more if a retailer provided a more personalized experience. That increased spending amounts to an extra $150 billion per year in retail revenue.

Today, customers are starting to expect personalized content. It’s critical to map the customer journey and understand what content consumers want to see. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can help to increase the effectiveness of personalization efforts, including these:

• improving analyses of customer behavior;
• enabling deeper customer segmentation;
• ensuring messages are consistent to a specific customer across all touchpoints and all channels; and
• personalizing recommendations and paths to purchase based on customer preferences and past activity.

Lesson 2: Use the Right Technology to Reduce Friction

Today’s retail leaders are making it easier and quicker for customers to make purchases in-context and in the moment. Amazon allows shoppers to purchase via voice command using its Amazon Alexa, is experimenting with checkout-free stores, and has also released dash buttons so customers can order their favorite products with the click of a button.

While Amazon’s bets have paid off to date, retailers shouldn’t invest in new technologies just because others are doing it. Sometimes these things can enhance the brand experience; other times it can detract. Some shoppers, for example, might find beacon technology intrusive since it requires Bluetooth usage. There are also a host of operational challenges that can come with a large-scale investment, so brands have to thoughtfully embrace the right technologies before disrupting their teams.

Lesson 3: Change Must Come From Within

While e-commerce has become important to the success of many businesses, some e-commerce teams are struggling to influence decision-making within the larger company. As a result, retail leaders are focusing on evolving their methodologies by pushing to advance digital and omnichannel revenue streams to catch up with retail juggernauts like Amazon. Yet another reason why it’s so important that  e-commerce and in-store operations partner up.

Having the operations teams in lock-step will benefit all sides of the business, as many purchases cross the digital/physical boundaries (i.e. buy online, return in-store).

Lesson 4: Quality Is King

E-commerce professionals lose 12.5 hours a week dealing with digital performance issues, according to a recent report by Dynatrace, a company that provides software intelligence for the enterprise cloud. That adds up to 652 lost hours of work per worker per year—with many of those hours spent addressing quality issues that affect the customer experience and revenue streams.

It’s simple: If digital quality is lacking, customers won’t waste their time or their money. In fact, according to a 2017 Google report, “when users have a negative brand experience on mobile, the likelihood they will buy from that brand again drops by more than 60%.”

A robust quality strategy is essential to ensure retailers are meeting the high-quality standards customers expect from applications. They need to make sure all consumer devices work seamlessly regardless of operating system, device, or network. But with 45,000 device combinations on the market, it becomes impossible to only test software in a lab environment.

Retailers need to consider a combination of testing methods—automation, traditional QA, and crowdtesting—to ensure that all consumer touchpoints are fully tested and ready for the eyes of the public.

Lesson 5: Put the Customer at the Center of Development

“The customer is always right.” It’s an adage every single person in retail—from the cash register to the corporate office—knows well. But these days it’s not enough to design with customers in mind; brands have to become truly customer-obsessed by gathering useful customer data, seeking customer input and feedback and acting on these insights to create an experience that is by the customer, for the customer.

Offering omnichannel experiences is important. Getting these experiences right is essential. The above five lessons will help retailers get—and stay—on the right track.

Chris Sheehan is vice president of enterprise customer success at Applause, responsible for developing and executing the company's retention and expansion programs for North American enterprise customers. Prior to his role in customer success, Sheehan led Applause’s long-term product strategy team. He currently serves on the boards of media company Xconomy and the Center for Women and Enterprise, both based in Boston. He has also led many investments in the Boston area as a software venture capitalist.