5 Key Omnichannel Marketing Tips Retailers Can Implement

With holiday shopping in full swing, retailers are executing on months of planning to ensure consistent sales in an ever-changing consumer climate. By focusing on the omnichannel consumer journey and delivering a consistent experience for customers throughout their path to purchase, brands will be able to maximize their efficacy this season and beyond.

According to Google, omnichannel shoppers have a 30 percent higher lifetime value than those who shop only in one channel. Prioritizing these customers and taking a holistic view of the sales journey across channels — and learning lessons at every stage — positions retailers to boost their effectiveness online and in-store.

These five tips can help marketers optimize their omnichannel efforts this holiday season, and can be used as a foundation for better customer experience going forward:

Tip No. 1: You can never have too many holiday landing pages.

Building out SEO- and SEM-optimized landing pages for individual products, curated product selections, store locations, holiday events, and more can work to reach and convert high-intent shoppers. Creating these focused pages provides an anchor for customers searching for something specific, and by delivering results tailored to those exact search terms can yield more conversions.

Tip No. 2: Upgrading on-site search can help optimize customer support and increase conversion.

Studies show that customers who use search on site are more valuable than those that don’t. Unfortunately, the way many sites are currently structured, search isn’t getting the job done the way it needs to. Upgrade on-site search to a platform that gives customers the answers they need and increase sales.

However, better search is about more than short-term conversions. By supporting nonproduct-related queries like “return policy,” “unsubscribe” or “cancel my order” (which make up 34 percent of on-site e-commerce searches), brands can improve the customer experience and increase lifetime value while lowering the burden on customer service teams. It can also be a valuable exercise to survey customers about their search experience to find areas for improvement.

Tip No. 3: Have your on-site content mirror your packaging.

Brands invest heavily in designing packaging and crafting messaging to drive in-store sales. Leverage that investment by having on-site messaging reflect the information that’s displayed in product packaging and materials. Aligning product detail pages (PDPs) with physical product messaging also works to combat discrepancies that can lead to customer support inquiries and returns.

Tip No. 4: Have your in-store offerings mirror online successes.

While physical packages should be reflected online, online sales leaders should be reflected in stores. If certain products are selling well online, they should be prioritized on store shelves to give customers as many opportunities to buy as possible.

Tip No. 5: Always stay well stocked of best-sellers.

Given supply chain challenges over the past two years, it’s essential that brands maintain a reliable stock of best-selling products. A centralized distribution strategy ensures product can be moved where it's needed most across the country after an individual store runs out. That means, for example, that a customer who can’t find an item at their local store can be directed back to an e-commerce platform.

While these tips represent strong strategies for the peak of the holiday shopping season, they’re also lessons that can be carried year-round. Focusing on clear communication, connecting disparate sources of information on your website (and other channels), and bringing consumers to where they want to be with as little friction as possible can increase conversion rates and lower customer service inquiries through self-service.

Derick Jaros is the head of industry, commerce at Yext, whose Answers Platform collects and organizes content into a Knowledge Graph, then leverages a complementary set of products — including listings, pages, reviews and search — to deliver relevant, actionable answers wherever customers, employees and partners look for information.