What is Omnichannel? Is there any difference between Omnichannel and Multichannel? How to develop an Omnichannel strategy? Please follow the article below of Viindoo to find answers to the above questions.
What is Omnichannel?
What is omnichannel? and the aim of using this strategy is being interested in many businesses. Omnichannel uses information channels and technology devices to give the company's customers a full shopping experience, similar to the business's brand.
Omnichannel has goals:
- Collect and store much data in a single management center.
- Make your products available on all channels that your customers care about.
Currently, the popular sales channels when using Omnichannel are:
- Business website
- Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Zalo, ...)
- SMS
- Chatbot
- Point of Sales
- Affiliate
Omnichannel
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Difference between Omnichannel and Multichannel or Single-channel
Omnichannel, Multichannel, and Single-channel have many differences, specifically:
- Omnichannel focuses on giving customers the same shopping experience across different sales channels of the business. The aim is to help your customers have a consistent interactive experience no matter what channel they buy from.
- Multichannel is selling on many different channels. These channels are completely separate and have their own goals and strategies for development. So the consumer experience will vary across channels. Information transmission between channels is also not continuous and seamless.
- Single-channel is when businesses focus on investing in customer experience on a single channel.
In the past, Multichannel used to work very effectively and was popularly used by businesses. However, this method has encountered many difficulties when applied in recent times, specifically:
- 89% of business customers feel annoyed and frustrated when the information between channels is repeated too many times.
- 87% of customers expect businesses to put more effort into delivering a more seamless experience.
- 90% of customers expect their experience across channels to be consistent.
- 61% of customers have a bad experience because they have trouble navigating between channels making the shopping experience bad.
What are the benefits of Omnichannel?
Strong revenue growth
Omnichannel sales is a form of omnichannel marketing that allows your products to be sold on many different platforms. From there, the products that businesses sell can reach many different customers.
Increase the revenue
With this form of marketing, the brand of the business can be remembered by customers from in-person to online. This greatly influences the intention and behavior of customers to purchase products.
Therefore, Omnichannel will help businesses increase sales when applied appropriately. At the same time, this form of marketing also helps businesses get a better overview of customer behavior, thereby providing the best sales service.
In addition, Omnichannel also supports businesses to create customer satisfaction in the short term. Since then, customer loyalty increases, leading to sustainable profit growth.
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Multipoint marketing
Currently, businesses are increasingly interested in building multi-point marketing campaigns to attract more customers' attention. Multipoint marketing can start by increasing touchpoints by identifying a brand's customer base and analyzing its purchasing behavior.
Multipoint marketing
According to recent research, in order for a customer to make a decision to buy a product, the brand needs to appear frequently at least 21 times. Therefore, businesses need to try harder to approach and make a good impression on customers.
One of the most effective ways for brands to reach customers is to create repeat encounters across different channels.
A survey from Sapo.vn has shown that the 5 most popular marketing channels, in order from high to low, are Facebook (87%), direct marketing in-store (70%), online platforms such as Email, Youtube, Blog, etc. (51%), SEO (43%), and Google Adwords platform with 38%.
Businesses also need to focus on creating connections between different marketing channels to ensure a seamless customer experience. Make sure you give your customers a flawless experience across all channels.
Optimize customer care process
Omnichannel is used by businesses to reach many different customers on a variety of platforms. This method helps customers choose the right form of interaction, avoiding being forced into complicated and outdated approaches. As a result, it can be seen that Omnichannel helps increase customer satisfaction with even the smallest things.
Optimizing customer service processes
When customers need support, what they expect to receive is: (1) A simple problem-solving approach; (2) Quick response and handling; (3) Understanding and empathy. Therefore, an increased customer experience will help businesses understand more about customers, build trust and long-term relationships.
Increase brand awareness
Another Omnichannel benefit that businesses may be interested in is increasing brand awareness. According to many recent studies, Omnichannel helps increase conversion rates up to 3 times for businesses. Omnichannel marketing helps brands increase reach and revenue growth.
Increase brand awareness
Retain and build loyal customers
Omnichannel is used with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction. From there, businesses can build long-term relationships with customers. At the same time, businesses also convert potential customers into loyal customers.
Build loyal customer data
Omnichannel development and building process
A successful omnichannel program requires three key elements: consistency across channels, customer engagement, and effectiveness in meeting business goals. To achieve the trio of goals, businesses need to develop an appropriate strategy.
Step 1: Market Segmentation
Businesses should analyze omnichannel segmentation by traditional segments, for example:
- Age
- Sex
- Income
- Location
- Marital status
Moreover, businesses can do more in-depth segmentation analysis such as:
- Groups of behavior and habits when using apps and websites to make purchases
- Shopping habits
- Life style
These segments allow businesses to analyze, design and optimize effective customer experiences based on actual data, rather than predictions.
Step 2: Map the customer journey:
Creating a customer journey will help businesses understand their thoughts and desires from learning about the product to becoming loyal customers. To do this, businesses need:
- Develop customer profiles and categorize them according to their needs and desires
- Identify the most effective methods and channels to attract and increase customer engagement
Step 3: Identify the strengths of each channel
Each touchpoint has strengths and weaknesses depending on what the customer wants to do. For example, it may be more convenient to use an app for quick purchases, but the app may lack customer service channels. It is more convenient to answer specific questions in person, via chat, or by phone.
Each sales channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on the wants and needs of the customer. For example: Using the application will be convenient and buying goods faster, but the application often lacks customer support systems. Questions and problems of customers will usually be resolved faster when using sales channels such as buying directly at the store.
Step 4: Analyze your competitors
Understanding competitors' superiority in multi-channel experience can help businesses learn more from experience, and recognize their competitors' strengths and weaknesses. From there, businesses can optimize their omnichannel sales activities and build an appropriate strategy. Likewise, understanding your competitors' weaknesses will be an opportunity for businesses to attract customers and gain market share from those weaknesses.
Step 5: Focus on customer experience
One of the most important aspects of an omnichannel approach is the benefit it brings to the customer. Therefore, businesses must deeply understand the needs and want of customers. From there, businesses can determine omnichannel strategies to meet their needs.
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Step 6: Ensure security
Multi-channel means a higher risk of data security. Data security and payments are top priorities for customers, especially when their information is shared across vast multi-channel networks.
To solve this problem, businesses can consider applying ERP software or POS management software with advanced security features. The software supports customer and business data analysis and monitors every sales channel in real time for anomalies.
Step 7: Personalize
Customers want a personalized experience with their business on any platform. That means businesses must deliver marketing activities that match the shopping experience and customer service based on data from previous purchases such as:
- Social media
- Website Cookies
- Email list
- In-store interactions and other resources
Personalization ensures that your marketing and shopping experiences are engaging and effective, leading to more revenue for your business.
Wrong thoughts when building Omnichannel
There are a few common misconceptions about omnichannel that businesses need to understand:
1. Omnichannel must provide the same services and products on all channels: This is not the correct opinion. Omnichannel focuses on using multiple channels to reach your customers.
2. Omnichannel requires a lot of resources, employees, and infrastructure investment: In fact, building an omnichannel will cost some initial costs, but in the long run, the benefits will far outweigh the costs of the business.
3. Omnichannel is only for large enterprises, with many resources: This is also not true. Businesses of all sizes can adopt an omnichannel strategy, so there's no reason to hesitate if you're thinking about implementing one.
Wrong thinking when building an Omnichannel strategy
In the above article, Viindoo has compiled information for you to answer the question "What is omnichannel?". Hopefully, this article will help your business plan an effective omnichannel marketing strategy.
