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Omnichannel vs Multichannel eCommerce Marketing Strategies

May 7, 2020head Image

Introduction

Every eCommerce owner aims to create a seamless customer journey for generating recurring sales. If you own an eCommerce website, you may be looking for the best omnichannel eCommerce marketing strategies to make more sales and profits. Modern customers demand an exceptional shopping experience across all the touchpoints.

Once a customer lands on your website, your website should provide them with all the important information and an engaging user experience. No matter what mobile device, desktop, or laptop the user accesses your eCommerce store from, they should get a seamless experience. Omnichannel strategies can create memorable experiences for users.

Understand customer expectations

When customers need to purchase products online, they do research and compare the prices on several platforms. They check prices, read the reviews, and compare different products before buying anything online. Omnichannel eCommerce marketing strategies can help eCommerce store owners provide a fully-integrated shopping and user experience to users.

Some eCommerce store owners may be confused between choosing Omnichannel vs multichannel strategies for their websites. Multichannel retail strategies may involve the ability of eCommerce stores to interact with potential customers on different platforms. Omnichannel strategies refer to a multichannel sales approach for providing a seamless experience to the user no matter what device the user accesses the site on. It provides a holistic and integrated customer experience. With omnichannel eCommerce strategies, a unified customer experience can be delivered, resulting in more sales and profits.

When talking about the multichannel approach for eCommerce, it focuses on different sales channels. For instance, a customer sees a product on an eCommerce website and notes the features of the same . He drives to a retail store to check the same products physically. He also checks the product on different websites to compare the prices and make the right choice. In this case, if the customer gets a similar kind of user experience irrespective of the platform, he would be satisfied and happy.

Why choose omnichannel eCommerce marketing strategies?

Omnichannel marketing involves interacting with customers using different channels. It focuses on delivering a multi-channel sales approach with an integrated experience. More than 62% of the millennial consumers expect a consistent experience across all the channels. Your payment methods, sales channels, and all the other aspects of your eCommerce business must be consistent to deliver a seamless experience.

To deliver a seamless UX, sellers focus on clubbing sales and marketing activities for delivering a customer-centric approach at all levels. Omni-channel retail has to be customer-centric. It can be a good idea to use a weekly email newsletter to market your products or services to your target audience.

If you’re an omnichannel retailer, you can use various methods. For instance, your customer places an order online and picks it up from a physical store locally. In-store pick up is an easier option for some consumers. Customers can log in to their mobile app and their loyalty points get updated irrespective of the channel they purchase the products from. As all the sales channels are interconnected, the consumers can enjoy all the loyalty points and other benefits with an omnichannel strategy.

Benefits of Multichannel eCommerce marketing

Multichannel selling involves selling products on multiple sales channels. If you sell products on just one eCommerce store, you are not called a multichannel seller. On the other hand, if you sell your products on different channels such as Amazon and Facebook shop, then you are a multichannel seller. Multichannel eCommerce marketing strategies can be used for reaching more buyers.

It becomes easier for customers to buy products from a multichannel retailer. Multichannel retailing can make the sales process a little harder for your customers. For example, if your customer orders online, they have to wait for the item to be shipped to their home. If this was an omnichannel retailer, they could order online and pick it up right away in the store, which is a strategy called buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS).

Another example of a multichannel eCommerce strategy could be as follows: A customer may be interested in purchasing a particular product and he decides to purchase a product online. He finds out that the product is out of stock and so, the customer walks into a local store to buy the product. The customer enjoys the benefit of getting a lower price than in the physical store.

Omnichannel vs Multichannel approach: Which is Best?

In short, an omnichannel eCommerce strategy requires a lot of resources for setting up. Omnichannel has a lot of added costs like the employee having to locate the product that is ordered online by the customers. It may also involve added costs for notifying the customers about their orders, and for tracking shipments. These are the additional costs that may reduce the profit margins of eCommerce store owners who choose the omnichannel approach. On the other hand, a multichannel approach is considered to be a cost-effective option for startups and small businesses.

If you have a limited budget or just one or a few stores, you can choose a POS system and develop an online store for online ordering. It is easy to set up eCommerce stores and the orders placed can be synced with the in-store transactions.

Omnichannel selling is suitable for:

Omnichannel commerce is a multi-faceted approach to sales that is focused on providing seamless customer experiences across multiple channels

1. Local businesses that have eCommerce stores:

When a customer purchases an item online, you can provide them an option to get the order shipped to their home or pick it up in-store.

2. Companies with email newsletters:

The customers can receive newsletters with offers based on their purchase behavior and this would increase the chances of conversion.

3. Businesses offering loyalty programs:

If your business offers a loyalty program, you can use the omnichannel eCommerce approach for online or in-store transactions

4. Businesses with large profits margins:

An omnichannel approach can lead to higher profit margins when it involves shipping to the store. The employee has to pick the order and ship it to the customer.

Multichannel retailing is the best suited for:

Multichannel Retailing is the process of using multiple channels for selling similar products across different platforms.

1. Businesses where costs matter the most:

If costs are an important thing for your business, you can choose a multichannel approach that requires no integration expenses.

2. Companies with custom POS systems:

Companies that may need to integrate custom POS systems may choose multichannel eCommerce strategies to enjoy the maximum ROI.

3. Commissionable sales reps

When a customer buys a product in-store, sales reps get a commission for it.

Concluding

Depending on your business requirements, you can choose the omnichannel or multichannel eCommerce approach for your store. Discuss your requirements with the experts and get an idea about the best option for your business. No matter which strategy you select, your eCommerce store should deliver a seamless customer experience for generating recurring sales. The customers should feel satisfied and happy with the purchase from your store. It’s important to create memorable and lasting experiences for your customers. If the users get a better experience while shopping at your store, there are higher chances that they would become your long-term customers. You may get in touch with us and discuss your business requirements so that we can guide you and help you pick the best eCommerce strategy for your business. Our team of expert eCommerce developers can help you choose the right approach to help you enjoy the maximum ROI. Think about it.

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