How to Become an Omnichannel Retailer

Consumer demand for smartphones and tablets increases daily. As it does, the opportunities for retailers to create meaningful experiences that differentiate them from the competition grows as well. But the adoption of a comprehensive, focused strategy seems to be lagging throughout the retail space in comparison to the new paths to engagement that digital advancements are providing.

What's the holdup? Instead of seeing an opening, many retailers aren't embracing the technological advancements fast enough. That's a mistake. With today's connected consumer, an engagement in the digital world can easily open a new entry point into a brick-and-mortar store. It's no longer an either-or situation. The onus should be on creating a seamless shift from one to the other, not battling one against the other.

For omnichannel retailing to be most effective, retailers must be willing to connect to consumers in new ways. Reinventing the customer experience means more than just protecting sales; it's about creating a deeper connection and providing true customer value.

Strategy, design and solution management must go hand-in-hand when creating a new user experience. Engaging all the stakeholders and mapping the desired outcomes and business goals will keep retailers from driving off the tracks with their investment. This is all part of a larger service design tool set that helps retailers focus on creating more value for their customers. A service experience approach provides a holistic, long-term solution that does more than change perspective — it finds real ways customers want to associate with a retailer.

To create that value in the omnichannel marketing space, retailers need an integrated team. The inside team of marketers and designers must understand the process and possess intimate knowledge of the business. An outside agency or agencies has the expertise as facilitator among all stakeholders and understands how to not only provide strategy and design, but can take the project through activation.

Creating a higher level of utility is only accomplished if customers truly appreciate the service. A good example is a loyalty card or membership program. By transferring this normally cumbersome analog process to a digital framework, the benefits are easily seen — namely, ease of access and time saved. The sign-up process usually can be finished in just a couple minutes online and customers can start using it right away, without need for a four week to six week lag time.

Retailers are quickly finding time savings as an important tool to breaking down barriers. Allowing customers to bypass the checkout line through use of a mobile app gives retailers a new opportunity: the ability to capture new data points and gain more insightful details into how customers shop. This information could allow retailers to find the best way to market directly to an individual, but will the buy-in be great enough? How useful the data is will depend on getting customers to download a specific app and trust it's secure enough to process their transaction. Traditional store security can't do this and trusting the app isn't optional to consumers in this scenario.

Technology's rapid advances are giving us new opportunities faster than ever before. Linking a seamless integration of real-world and digital touchpoints is the next step in smoothing over the path to purchase and making a meaningful impression in a cluttered retail landscape. What are you waiting for?

Florian Vollmer is the senior vice president of design for InReality, a design, strategy and solution management company.