Omnichannel isn’t a thing
For years I’ve taken issue with the term omnichannel for lots of reasons. I’ve even written a few other articles on it — and in this one I’m sharing a link to an older one but probably the most specific to ‘omnichannel’ (you can see it here http://bit.ly/2gpOMCT) one I have written. I’ve given talks on it at conferences, by myself or as part of a panel. I’ve tussled over the word with colleagues. Why?
Because I don’t think retail can be omichannel.
In retailing, first we had stores, then we had catalogues, then e-commerce, then we had multi-channel, we’ve had home shopping, then omnichannel somehow snuck in. Why? And how? Omnichannel comes from the word omnis, which means simply all, or universal. In retail, it indicates a seamless customer experience across all channels. Yet people in retail can’t even decide how to spell it. Is it Omni-channel? Omnichannel? Omni channel? Frankly, the word is one of many that has added unnecessary complexity in a world where retailers need to get back to basics. (BTW, even LinkedIn is underlining ‘omnichannel’ in red because it doesn’t recognise it as a word.)
By calling it omnichannel, we are suggesting that a customer can experience all channels simultaneously, in one place. That a customer can experience offline, online, catalogue, call centre, mobile….you get the idea. Everything. But they can’t. They need to use multiple channels, some can be used concurrently and some consecutively. However, they can have an omnichannel experience — and this is where retailers tend to trip themselves up.
The customer has more power than ever; and we see it in the results of public companies, and even in private companies if you look not very hard; how many stores can you think of that seem to have constant sales going on? The business needs to make sales; they need the cash flow, it is the life-blood of the company, so if they need to discount to drive the right levels of revenue, they do. It is incredibly competitive out there, and few retailers aren’t either looking over their shoulder at Amazon, or watching their competition when making these trading decisions.
To have a seamless omnichannel experience — which is the right phrase to use ‘omnichannel’ in, the only way to do this is to ensure you have a completely solid multi-channel base — from all the back-office-inside-the-company-systems; from ERP to your WMS to your CRM to your last mile delivery. A customer shouldn’t feel any dissonance when moving from mobile to laptop, or mobile to store. The solid multi-channel base is two-sided; one is inside the business where all the systems work in harmony, you aren’t plagued with legacy software, and most importantly inside a company, there is a digital evangelist, someone who can explain the benefits of digital to everyone in the business, to ensure an excellent customer experience with your company, every single time.
The other side is customer facing; everything should look and behave pretty much the same. Many of us who have worked in e-commerce thanked a higher power for responsive design, making it easier to have a consistent look and feel across devices, but that still takes work — what works best on a laptop won’t work well on mobile. Test, test, and test some more. Push the limits, and learn from other industries too. Customers are getting savvier by the minute, and a business must invest to keep up and be relevant.
However, if we put technology to the side, the reason I say ‘omnichannel isn’t a thing’ is that it physically can’t exist. A customer can buy online and return in store, or do click and collect, or pop a return off at Doddle on their way to the train, but it doesn’t all happen in the same channel, or the same way. But the experience regardless of channel should be the same, or as close as possible. That’s why I say it is omnichannel experience, not omnichannel.
Digital and technology move fast. Most businesses are by nature now technology ones without realising it, but so much of their infrastructure relies on technology that it is the only way they can function and be competitive. It doesn’t matter if you are selling food, bikes, or clothes, the underpinning of the business is technology. However if you told your CEO that, I bet many of them would disagree — technology and change can be scary, so you hold on to what you know.
The retail industry has realised the need for some sort of consistency, and hence the rise of the Chief Customer Officer, or Customer Success Officer, or similar. Yet businesses are still tackling this issue from the wrong end, or not tackling it at all. When was the last time you went to every channel your business has and placed an order, received it, returned it, and noted all the similarities and differences in the journeys. Customers are savvy; if you make it easy and intuitive, they return to you frequently. If you create dissonance, they might look elsewhere.
An example of this is Boden. I purchased shoes recently, and they were the wrong size, so I marked them for exchange to the larger side and sent them back. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. So I rang them, when I was then advised that since I’d paid by PayPal, they couldn’t do an exchange, I’d have to place a whole new order*. What would have happened if I never called? Boden is lucky — no one else sells their product. So I placed another order. Would I have done the same with another retailer? Very possibly not. The ‘happy chappy’ tone of the Boden website, catalogue, customer communications, etc. was in direct opposition to the customer services ‘we can’t do that.’ Brand dissonance galore. So brands have to look at things from a customer’s experience too, not just their internal processes.
Customers these days are device rich, have the money to spend, but are time poor. They want fast, sleek, intuitive ways to interact with a brand, purchase what they need, and in the channel of their choice. Businesses need to realise this, and either transform or pivot to meet this change head on and take control.
So please, don’t make me go to another meeting to talk about ‘omnichannel’ — after all, it is infrequent a company has one person who oversees wholesale, retail, online, and platforms (eBay, Amazon) as well as catalogues, etc. Instead, let’s talk about a seamless and excellent customer journey, one that gives the customer the product they want, in the channel of their choosing, and at the time of their choosing. THAT is a conversation that will move a business forward, and the bottom line up. Otherwise, it is all buzzword bingo, and while you collect all the tiles to spell omnichannel on some retail Scrabble board, someone else is quietly taking your customers away.
*To be fair, if you read the refunds and exchanges sheet from Boden, it does advise they can’t do exchanges on PayPal orders. I’d like to think we could have as an industry fixed that by now, but I wanted to make it clear that (a) I apparently never return anything I buy to Boden, and (b) I was made to work too hard in being expected to find it on the return sheet, and then when Boden received it, not informing me they couldn’t do an exchange.
Kristine is an Anglo-American with a good dash of Irish sass from her father tossed in who resides in digital land. I love retail, digital, talking about ideas, making things happen, wine, whiskey, sleep and the beach. Essentially, I’m a total digital/retail geek. I’m also sports mad. Wants to be in Cornwall as much as possible, and in her next career, an F1 driver just like Lewis Hamilton (or will happily retrain to be a F1 driver, or work for an F1 team) or Serena Williams.
