With the proliferation of eCommerce, it often seems like everything has gotten a lot more complicated. You can’t advertise the same, market the same, or do business at the speed you’re used to. Customer needs and expectations aren’t the same and as a business owner, you’re in the position to change for your customers. But what strategy will you use to make sure you’re serving the new customer demands while maintaining your business integrity within the community and your current customer base? Retailers, manufacturers, and business owners in every industry are hearing about the omnichannel retail strategy. What is omnichannel retail? First, it’s the answer to your question. Let’s break it down.
What is an Omnichannel Experience?
We scoured the internet to find the best way to describe “omnichannel” for you. According to a source in Wikipedia, “Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate.” Sound like Greek?
Omnichannel means bringing all of your points of service and advertising together and build a strategy around the best way to move prospects through the buyer’s journey and improve customer experience. While the channels have changed, the customer experience has always involved multiple channels. But how omnichannel works has changed as customer expectations have changed. Modern marketing professionals may call it something different these days. People may define it a little differently. But it remains the bedrock of your success. Building an omnichannel retail strategy around this journey is how you reach more customers. It’s the way to provide an exceptional customer experience and earn more loyalty and referrals. Let’s explore what an omnichannel retail strategy is by looking at the different parts of the buyer’s journey. And discover how you can leverage these tactics to grow and prosper now and into the next generation.
Discovery
The discovery phase of the buyer’s journey is the point when your potential customers are just that–potential. We call them prospects. They’re in the stage where research is the top activity. The goal: be the store they find during their research.
Here’s what it looked like:
Previously, someone may look up your business in the Yellow Pages. Remember that thick book from the phone company that held half of your advertising dollars in the year? Better known to your customers as a small adult’s booster seat or a less than sturdy TV tray. Customers see a TV commercial or drive past your store to become aware of your business. You run radio spots, printed flyers, host tent sales or sponsor events to get people into your store.
Here’s what it would look like with an omnichannel retail strategy:
You may still be doing these things to help you discover your store. They can still be effective in some capacity. But the Internet has changed where these discovery activities take place for most people. Now they see furniture advertisements while entertaining themselves on Facebook. They perform Google searches and they check local reviews. Your omnichannel retail strategy needs to cover all of the online channels where prospects are researching for solutions.
Consideration
The consideration stage of the buyer’s journey is the point when they’re honestly comparing your store to others as a potential solution to their searching in the Discovery phase. Now, they’re weighing the value you bring compared to the others. This is the stage when they’re narrowing the decision to one provider. In some cases, they’re evaluating whether they really do need a solution at all.
Here’s what it looked like:
Once someone finds your store, they come into the physical store to look around. One of your friendly sales people greets them. They answer questions. They learn about customers preferences and help them find the perfect set.
Here’s what it would look like with an omnichannel retail strategy:
This still happens. But much of this consideration phase now takes place online. People use online tools to see the different styles and color options from the comfort of home. They use online design tools that allow them to visualize what certain pieces will look like in their home. This is a critical point in the customer journey. You want to use the omnichannel retail strategy to make your website, your social media, and your advertising show slight variations of the same message. Prospects are doing a lot of this stage online but some may happen in the store. You’ll see customers come in the store asking about something they saw on your social media. Maybe they call your showroom after reading something on your website. The goal is to guide this buyer to the decision-making stage.
Decision
The decision-making stage is the last stage when a prospect is justifying their purchase decision. This phase could be long or short. And depends solely on how you’re interacting with the prospect.
Here’s what it looked like:
Customers decide what they want and then sign up for financing or pay in the store. You schedule a delivery date that works for you and the customer and make the delivery. Then this may be the end of your experience with this customer.
Here’s what it would look like with an omnichannel retail strategy:
Today, customers complete financing applications and checkout online. So your chances of a one-to-one interaction in the store is more unlikely. That makes your website’s conversion value even more important. If you haven’t looked at your Conversion Rate Optimization, we’re happy to review it with you. If you don’t offer e-commerce on your retail website, customers may visit the store in this decision-making stage. You want to make sure that you’re making contact with these potential customers with very personalized, targeted, customized messages. If they’ve added items to the cart, send abandoned cart emails to remind them about the pending purchase. Continue to find ways to bring the customer’s thoughts back to your brand.
Customer Delight
Congratulations! You have a new customer. Now, what do you do?
Here’s what it looked like:
Once you have a customer, before an omnichannel retail strategy, your re-engagement campaigns were very simple. Hand-written holiday cards, event invitations for customer-only in-store events, maybe you called to get a review a few weeks after the delivery.
Here’s what it would look like with an omnichannel retail strategy:
It’s critical to keep in touch with customers after the purchase. Omnichannel is the best way to approach this stage of the buyer’s journey. They’ve made the purchase. But now you have to make sure you’re continuing to delight them. Why? Because your store stays at the top of their mind for future purchases or referrals. Not to mention collecting customer reviews. Technology makes re-engagement very easy to do.
In a nutshell, this is what the typical furniture customer expects from the furniture buying experience today. Now, let’s take a closer look at these experiences. We’ll see how we can integrate technology with our people to build the optimal customer experience.
How to Help Customers Discover Your Brand
The first phase of your omnichannel retail strategy will be those elements you put in place to help people discover your brand online. In order for people to find, you must have a presence where your target customers are.
Today’s shoppers have no patience for slow, hard to use websites that offer little in terms of self-help capabilities. They’ll leave before they discover anything. So build a site to be fast and functional or don’t waste your time.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the strategies involved in this part of your omnichannel retail strategy.
Important Techniques to Use:
In this stage, blog content with great SEO will be incredibly important. You’ll want to incorporate topics that represent some of the questions customers in your store ask when they arrive. By writing content that answers customer questions, you’re able to be the store with the solutions to their research.
- Blogs with great SEO
- Product information pages with descriptive romance language
- Social Media pages with up-to-date content
- Social media ads
- Google Ads for popular terms you care about
- Completed review profiles on Google My Business, Yelp and any other relevant review sites
- Visibility in the organic search results through local SEO.
- A quality website with all the user-friendly tools people expect on a modern furniture website
Apply analytics to customize the user’s online experience. For example, use automation to show ads for recently viewed items or items they may like. Hey, that sounds familiar. Amazon already does this. And there’s a reason for that. It can increase clicks by 400% and double revenues according to studies.
Integrate everything. Social media, your website, review sites, search engines and email: they all work together to enhance your online presence and help people find you. Create helpful content. People might not always discover you through an ad. It may be a:
- Clever video
- Informative blog
- Wishlist builders
- Gift registries
- Quizzes
- Facebook contests
- Infographic that helps them re-design their living room
- Design tools
Don’t spread yourself too thin. But do consider what types of content will help people find you and engage with your brand. Content may start in the discovery phase but it also helps people consider in the next stage as we’ll explore next. 
How to Help Customers Consider Your Store
The key to this section of your omnichannel retail strategy is to ask yourself, what‘s the shortest distance between two points? Did you say “a line“? Excellent. As you apply strategies to help people consider, build clear funnels that take customers from discovery through to scheduling a delivery.
To do that, provide ample, easy-to-navigate and well-organized information that helps the decision-making process.
Important Techniques to Use:
Tools that will be important in this stage are going to be more involved than the others.
- Blogs with more in-depth information
- Interactive website quizzes to give style recommendations
- Consistent email campaigns
- Remarketing with emails and advertisements
- Chat tools available on your website
- Local SEO to help people find the proximity of your store
- Enhanced searching features on your website that match the searching that happens in-store
- Interactive tools on your website like an online room planner
- Visualization tools to show how customized someone can make the furniture you offer
- Visible answers to common questions like “do we offer 0% financing for a year?“, “how much do I have to spend to get free delivery?“, “How soon can I get my new sofa?“
- Thorough and easy to read product descriptions
How to Deliver an Omnichannel Retail Strategy During Decision-Making
Don’t forget to promote showroom sales and events to encourage people to visit the store. Give people a reason to actually physically come to your store where you’ll be able to offer a more human customer experience. Develop a plan to quickly update the site with new inventory and available quantities so you’re never caught being out-of-stock while your website still says, buy, buy, buy.
Your website and store should be one cohesive entity. It’s important to realize that this phase may involve a hybrid of both online and in-store experiences. Integrating your website seamlessly into the in-store experience further drives customer decision-making. For example, you’ll collect some amazing customer data through your website that your sales team can use to enhance the in-person experience. Regularly share data, website trends, and challenges with your sales team to both gather ideas to enhance the online experience and help them improve how they relate to customers in-store.
Let’s take a look at tactics you can use to do just that.
Important Techniques to Use:
- Personalized email campaigns
- Local SEO to help people find the proximity of your store
- Customer reviews on your website, social media, Google, and in your store
How to Delight Customer After the Delivery
After the furniture is in the customer’s home, your furniture store could simply walk away. But we’d recommend you don’t. This is your best chance to wow your customer and earn a great review because so many others neglect this part of the experience.
Important Techniques to Use:
- Personalized email campaigns but less frequently than before
- Remarketing brand ads around Google to follow the customers who keep visiting your website
- Social media posts about happenings around your showroom
- In-store events for customers
Make sure customers know what to expect on the delivery day. Do you leave the furniture on the porch? Probably not. Does your crew hand deliver the piece to its spot? Does the furniture have to be assembled by the customer? The more closely expectations align with reality the better a customer will perceive their experience. Make sure customers know the best way to reach you on delivery day or before by reiterating contact information in each communication, which may even include the name, face and work phone of their delivery driver to add a more personal touch.
Reviews are important to your business because 90% of customers read online reviews during that consideration phase. Customers spend 31% more on the first purchase when a company is 4.5-5 stars. 92% of people say that if a local business has fewer than 4 stars, they’re not likely to buy from them.
Time to Build an Omnichannel Retail Strategy
Are you ready to build your own omnichannel retail strategy? Remember to build it around how customers buy furniture today. Get your employees involved in your omnichannel strategy. They’re vital to your success. Be proactive throughout the customer’s journey, integrating technology with your physical store to deliver seamless customer experience. See what we can do to help you grow with an effective omnichannel marketing strategy. Schedule your demo today.
