'Omnichannel' Has a Problem: New Retail Report Says Try Customer-Centric Approach

It may be a simple matter of semantics, but brick-and-mortar retail’s fixation on “omnichannel retail” is lulling those companies into a dangerous sense of complacency because it is often misinterpreted to mean multiple channels doing their own thing, one retail consultant is warning. “I’ve watched this whole transformation going on with digital, and I’m so disappointed in the industry’s reaction,” Andrea Weiss, co-founder of The O Alliance, said at a breakfast event in Manhattan on Tuesday to accompany the release of “Retail Transformation Underway," a new report based on data from 150 retail executives and 100 companies.