Shoppers Expect Omnichannel, Personalized Experiences — Does Your Brand Have What it Takes?

Buyers today are demanding seamless, connected retail experiences that integrate online and offline channels. In fact, 73 percent of retail consumers are now categorized as omnichannel shoppers. Furthermore, these shoppers want brands to deliver highly customized, relevant interactions — with 60 percent saying they’ll become repeat customers after a personalized shopping experience.

If they haven’t already, retailers must embrace digital transformation to meet these evolving expectations. Without a strategy rooted in omnichannel integration and data-driven insights, brands risk falling behind.

Meeting Customers Where They Are

These days, shoppers navigate a variety of touchpoints along their buying journey. For instance, they may start their search online, add items to a cart on a mobile device, and ultimately complete their purchase in-store — or reverse the process entirely. This interconnected behavior requires retailers to present a consistent and unified experience.

From a personalization standpoint, consumers no longer respond to generic offers or mass marketing. Instead they expect their preferences and purchase histories to guide every interaction, from recommending complementary products to receiving special promotions that align with their interests. To this end, 89 percent of marketers indicate seeing a positive return on investment when they use personalization in their campaigns.

Retailers must ask whether their systems and strategies are equipped to meet these needs.

Related story: 5 Retail Trends Shaping the Experience Economy

The Power of Omnichannel

Delivering a seamless customer experience requires breaking down operational silos and integrating sales channels. Mobile apps, e-commerce platforms, and in-store systems should communicate with each other in real time to provide consistent inventory updates, shared loyalty programs, and cross-channel order fulfillment.

Such an omnichannel approach increases customer satisfaction and loyalty because it simplifies the shopping experience. When consumers can easily start and complete their shopping journey on the channel of their choosing, they’re more likely to become repeat purchasers and brand evangelists.

Personalizing Interactions

By leveraging data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), retailers can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences and purchase history. Such insights can be used to create personalized marketing campaigns, product recommendations, and promotions.

For example, a retailer might analyze browsing patterns to identify customers interested in a particular product category and send them targeted offers or content. Similarly, customers can receive early access to new collections or personalized rewards, making them feel valued and strengthening their brand loyalty.

Enabling Technologies

Creating omnichannel, personalized experiences requires a strong technology foundation likely to include:

• Data analytics and AI to analyze customer data to uncover actionable insights for personalization.
• Cloud-based systems to provide the scalability and flexibility needed to integrate platforms and systems.
• Real-time inventory management to ensure customers receive accurate, up-to-date information about product availability, regardless of channel used.

These technologies help retailers deliver the unified, customized experiences customers expect while at the same time improving operational efficiency.

The Digital Future is Now

The retail industry will continue to evolve, and brands must keep pace by embracing digital transformation wherever possible. Customers now view their interactions with retailers as part of a single, cohesive journey regardless of whether they occur online or in-store. Due to this, retailers must deliver seamless, personalized experiences. Doing so will enable them to not only retain their existing customers but also attract new ones, with benefits including increased loyalty and greater revenues.

Retailers should no longer be asking themselves if they should adopt these strategies but how quickly. The technology and expertise to make this transformation are readily available — and the rewards for those that act now are significant.

Amit Patel is senior vice president at Consulting Solutions, where he helps retailers transform their operations to deliver exceptional omnichannel and personalized customer experiences.