With the ever-evolving retail landscape, retailers and wholesalers are being forced to take notice of the omnichannel and keep up with its trends — and its challenges. Brian Kilcourse and Paula Rosenblum, RSR, noted that “For many years, retail respondents reported that multi-channel shoppers were ‘significantly’ more profitable than single-channel shoppers. However, the number of retailers reporting multi-channel customers as significantly more profitable has dropped by 50% in just three years.”*
Let’s take a look at these challenges, how industry winners and underperformers respond, and what steps daVinci can take to become an omni channel retail winner.
Challenge #1: Ensuring Consistent Customer Experiences Throughout All Channels
Industry underperformers see their top business challenge to be logistical — keeping delivery across channels up with sales expectations. Winners focus on their customers and how they shop across channels, especially as the lines between them blur. Customers expect a consistent brand experience throughout all channels. Failing this, their loyalty can diminish.
Challenge #2: Adapting Business Processes and Technology
Risk is a factor to consider which differentiates the winners from the underperformers. Underperformers see risk in technology spending, especially if there is resistance to change internally. Winners understand that their current technology tools were built to be product-focused, rather than customer-focused. They understand the necessity to invest in technology solutions that integrate teams across the entire organization to better meet the expectations of their customers. They appreciate this cannot be done in disconnected processes, and that technology should be an enabler that is cross-functional ( omnichannel) collaborative, actionable, and transparent.
Challenge #3: Minimizing the Gap Between Changing Technologies
A recent study by Innovative Retail Technologies indicated that “35% of respondents report that they have implemented enterprise-wide customer visibility capabilities, but plan to replace them. Retailers have prioritized technology investments that will make converged channel selling more seamless for the consumer and more efficient and effective for the retailer.”* Winners recognize that customer visibility is a moving target and business change is a constant. Technology solutions with quick implementation and built-in flexibility that anticipates change are key to avoiding being out of date.
