How to select the best Omnichannel platform?

Before we nosedive into the rich yet complex world of fussing over the right platform, one must acquaint oneself with the usual suspects. The What, the Why, the Where to understand the How.

What?

Omnichannel marketing is not a new or emerging concept. This was introduced in the 1990s as “integrated marketing communications” (IMC). The term was later changed to “omnichannel marketing” around 2010 due to the development of digital technologies such as social media and mobile devices. However, such concepts are best illustrated with the help of real-life examples.

Imagine you want to get a cup of coffee from the nearest Starbucks but not wait in line so you whip out the Starbucks app on your phone to place an order and use it to not only pay for the order but also have the purchase points credited into your Starbucks account which can later be redeemed for free drinks and other rewards.

Now observe what happened.

Starbucks in this case uses three channels like a

digital product (to place an order on your phone)

using a digital service (the Starbucks app)

from a physical place (the Starbucks outlet)

to provide the user with a holistic user experience. This virtuous loop drives revenue, simplifies payment, gives value-added services, triggers re-engagement, forces channel adoption and more importantly, creates happy customers. Congratulations! You have just witnessed omnichannel marketing in action.

Now more than ever, it is imperative to create a brand presence across multiple online (Social Media, e-Commerce, Web, Email, SMS, App) and offline (retail stores, kiosks and experiential events) channels. However, all that may be futile if you cannot weave them together, resulting in a fluid user journey for your customers. Remember that Omnichannel marketing is a unified way to put users and not brands, at the centre of the process.

Why?

Did you know that according to Google, 90% of multiple device owners alternate between different screens to complete a given task and average three screens a day? The same research indicates that more screens mean more shopping.

If you were only targeting one channel, you could be missing out on untapped benefits tangible and intangible alike. You need an integrated approach because:

Complex portfolio: Companies that sell a variety of products and services across a range of categories can’t rely on merely a single channel as the point of sale. For example, half of the world’s population wears prescription eyeglasses and although 79% of those people buy them offline, the other 21% buy them online. These eyewear companies must stay relevant to serve the needs of their buyers. Similarly, new players are entering the online insurance space and forcing the other players to adopt fresh approaches to stay relevant. The nature of such offerings is paramount to the buyer’s decision-making process and it is only prudent that they have all the flexibility and support.

Broader Reach: Let’s take the aforementioned example of Starbucks, shall we? To redeem your Starbucks rewards, you need not even be in the same neighbourhood as that outlet you visited. You could use your app to place an order from any of the nearby outlets or even buy their retail merchandise with the tap of a finger. Each of your purchases can be linked universally to one entity and one entity only — you, the user.

Increased Profits: By amplifying a product’s reach on multiple platforms, you are increasing its visibility and by grabbing more eyeballs, you are potentially selling more than you would have otherwise sold. To put things in perspective, a marketer using three or more channels in their campaign earns a 494% higher order rate over single-channel users.

Better attribution: A consumer goes through different touchpoints during their journey before their actions lead to a conversion. Omnichannel marketing enables a brand to retrace a customer’s steps along this journey and measure each channel’s ROI effectiveness using the gathered data.

More Retention: One of the gravest challenges faced by the industries is customer retention because we all have been told that “Thou shall always retain than acquire customers for it is 5x more expensive” is the eleventh commandment.

1. By deploying a data-driven unified approach, brands can ascertain customer behaviour, analyse trends, recognise patterns, and make informed decisions that lead to better customer retention.
2. Customer service is another avenue that if done right, can witness groundbreaking results. The users of today would pay a fortune for the ideal customer service and brands are leaving no stone unturned to feed this demand frenzy. Amazon is a prime example (pun intended) of this phenomenon. They outsource functions like customer support & troubleshooting to third parties for scaling up, meeting the booming demand and ultimately, keeping their customers happy.
3. Have you noticed how eCommerce websites charge more for faster delivery? Shipping times can be a make-or-break situation for an eCommerce company because of fierce competition and ravenous buyers. Shipping delays can cause users to jump ship and pledge their undying loyalty to another brand (until of course, a better one comes along) but that is the cutthroat world we live in.
4. Customer retention is a key part of any successful marketing strategy. Yes, it is daunting to stay on top of the ever-changing customer landscape but omnichannel marketing has become a necessity for many brands to keep up with the changing times and demands of customers.
5. In order to comprehend what customers want, brands need to be able to collect data and use that data for personalised experiences. They also need to provide value-added services like order management in order for the customer to not only come back but also refer friends and family members who might be interested in their products. These bespoke services are both time-consuming and costly so companies partner with specialists and rely on them to provide customised services at scale for a more immersive shopping experience and tailored micro-interactions.

Where?

At the risk of sounding cliched, omnichannel marketing is omnipresent. It is industry agnostic because all constituting factors like data, technology and people are present in every imaginable sector. That being said, there are some verticals where it is far more relevant and instrumental for their meteoric growth.

Retail: What was once a novel differentiator is now a means for survival in the retail sector. Despite brick and mortar’s immovable popularity, the retail experience has become a hybrid of online and offline. Millennials and Gen Z do not even think like the previous generations when it comes to traditional shopping. Most of them either shop online or opt for an in-store pickup and this behaviour has prompted the retail players to up their game and offer new game-changing interfaces to shop for various commodities. Amazon has pioneered the art of self-checkouts, one-tap checkouts and the futuristic Amazon Go where a shopper need not stand in queues or pay but instead just grab and go.

Automotive: According to a National Automobile Dealers Association study, 70 per cent of US car dealers manage sales transactions entirely online, except for payment and delivery. The car buyer goes online, surveys their options, builds out a vehicle of their choice, negotiates the price and once they settle on a number, they walk into the car dealership to get the car for the mutually agreed upon price, take it for a test drive and purchase the automobile.

Healthcare: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forever altered the way we get healthcare. Medical institutions known for their rigidity and Luddite attitudes towards technology were compelled to adopt state-of-the-art mediums like telehealth, WhatsApp services and peer-to-peer remote consultations to provide sound advice regardless of where you were. Cut to today, omnichannel is thriving in this vertical as much as it is in retail if not more.

Financial services: Everything from life insurance, banking services, due diligence, payrolling and real estate deals have been digitized and are now accessible by customers on several platforms. In what seemed like a post-apocalyptic world during the lockdown, tax returns were filed almost completely online by citizens. Even banks issued loans over authenticated OTPs instead of handshakes while credit card companies capitalized on the boom of online shopping during the pandemic to offer meaty discounts, juicy deals and milk every ounce of business they could.

How?

The first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one. The starting point is for companies to survey their resources and relationships to chart out a vision. After aligning themselves with a common goal, they:

Must focus on user: In a world where people are everything, a user is a brand’s north star and if it weren’t for them, the brands wouldn’t have anybody to sell to. By staying true to the needs and behavioural patterns of the user, brands must always religiously start with what the user is up to, then go inside out and beyond. To establish a robust understanding of one’s users, brands must collect as much data as they can.

Collect data: With the right combination of data gathering, enterprise resource planning and social listening tools, companies can accurately compile information on their target demographic for further segmentation.

Analyse data: Raw data cannot do you any good if you do not polish it. Analyzing and refining the collected data to segment your users so you can fashion personalized experiences for them.

Create a website, social media handle & app: Before deciding on the right omnichannel platform, it is pivotal for companies to perform some basic sanity checks like installing a digital footprint with the creation of websites, social media handles and apps if necessary.

Now that you have ticked all the boxes from the checklist, you can move on to the next stage which is figuring out the right platform.

1. Security: Privacy is an alarming cause for concern for new-age companies and with great power comes a greater responsibility to protect user data and company information from abuse and misuse. Make sure that the chosen platform is resistant if not immune, to data breaches and DOS attacks. It must be equipped with the appropriate security measures to not just neutralise potential attacks but also predict them.
2. Compatibility: When selecting an omnichannel platform, consider your existing tech stack and how compatible it is with the platform you have in mind. There is no dearth of options to choose from but having two different systems working in silos will only serve to do more harm than good. While looking into various choices, study the compatibility criteria to know if it’s the right choice.
3. Interactivity: The platform you go with, is going to be used by people both inside and outside your organization. For it to succeed, its UI/UX ought to be intuitive, responsive and easy to implement. A platform with such an interface can help your employees learn the tool quickly and use the tool to yield the best results. For the best outcome, conduct usability tests with focus groups, collect feedback and choose the optimal solution.
4. Supportability: If your platform answers questions like “Does it provide accurate feedback on the current trends?”, “Will it tell me who my active and inactive users are?”, “Does it support chatbots?” and other similar questions pertinent to your company, then you are in good hands. It also needs to be enabled to provide cross-channel support once all your channels are up and running. We live in an era where customers pay heftily for premium customer service and failure to provide that level of service can be counter-productive.
5. Personalization: As part of your business’ omnichannel efforts, you may be required to engage the customer at various touch points like push notifications, Facebook retargeting, newsletters, WhatsApp engagement, etc. If chosen wisely, your platform can correctly segment your user base, spike conversion rates, target the right demographic, help with positioning and designing deeply personal experiences for your users and bolster brand presence across all the channels.
6. Scalability: As you succeed with your goals, your business grows. With this, comes an inherent need to support the growing number of users in the system so naturally, a scalable system becomes the need of the hour. Your company might look different 2 years from now and when it does, will you have the infrastructure to sustain the ecosystem you built?
7. Marketing automation: Developing a scalable system is not enough. Did you know that 51% of companies are using marketing automation as of today? So what is it? Simply put, it is the automation of your omnichannel efforts and getting them to work cohesively. Consequently, this reduces churn, avoids redundancies, increases efficiency and maintains consistent brand messaging across your channels.

Conclusion

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