Steve Borges, director and co-founder at Biglight explains the importance of having an omnichannel strategy and why all brands need to be doing it not only to thrive but to survive too.
There’s an awful lot of fuss about omnichannel and the reality is that, even in 2018, 80% of retail sales are still transacted in-store – that’s the lion’s share.
If you think about the 20% that is attributed to the online channel, based on the brands we work with at least, click and collect plays a significant role in this, sometimes accounting for more than 50% of sales. All of this goes to show that offline retail, or the store, is still the powerhouse.
For businesses to survive they need to be relevant for the future and have a sustainable model in place that meets the needs and expectations of their customers, which are growing all the time. This extends from being masters of instant gratification, so, that when customers want something now, literally now, they can get it straight away, to the slick delivery of services and the development of compelling in-store experiences.
Halfords is a great example – as a customer, I don’t need a replacement bulb for my car headlight, I need my headlight repaired at a time and place that’s convenient for me, cost effectively and with minimal hassle.
The brands that will survive five years from now in the age of Amazon will be those that constantly focus on the unmet needs of their customers and experiment constantly to I deliver it to stay relevant and, in our view,, for omnichannel retailers at least, stores will be an essential component of this. So peak omnichannel can only be delivered by thinking about things from a store perspective.
There is a need to move the thinking beyond the online channel, online sales and click and collect. I’m pleased to say we’re starting to see brands developing features to improve the in-store customer experience, not just to promote online ordering and click and collect and was heartened to discover recently how The Home Depot have been focusing on precisely this kind of innovation with their The Home Depot app.
As well as features you would expect, such as the ability to create shopping lists and place orders for delivery or collection, the app has a range of tools specifically to support users once they are in a Home Depot store.
On detecting the user’s location, the app switches to ‘in-store’ mode and offers real-time stock information, precise product location details (specific to each store), access to detailed product information, via barcode scanning, and relevant local offers. It confirms many of my own beliefs based on conversations with the retailers we work with. Change is indeed in the air. Retail businesses are starting to think about the online to offline journey.
Years ago, when I was Director of Advertising at Dixons Group, we used advertising in newspapers just to get people into stores at the weekends. Why on earth don’t we using our digital channels to do exactly that? Still today, most retailer’s websites are entirely focused on selling online and treat click and collect as just another fulfilment channel. Not sure what you need, or want to take a look at products first? – Here’s where your nearest store is and when it’s open. That’s it.
The good news is that Home Depot are not the only ones thinking about their customers and how they stay relevant. IKEA’s online experience not only tells you which store as the item you want but also in which isle and the stock levels. Evans Cycles tell you which store has stock and encourage customers to visit and check out a bike before they buy. Businesses are now recognising and working out how to use their digital real estate to drive customers into store.
It’s really simple and useful stuff. Not everyone wants to buy everything online, there’s pre-consideration, you may want to look at stuff, sit on stuff, try stuff before you buy and meet your friends during the process. That’s what stores do. Added to that, once in-store you will want to understand what’s in-stock, find the items you’re interested in quickly and easily, get more information or expert advice, then maybe transact there and then on your phone, before walking out with the product. Why not?
Why can’t the website providing interesting and compelling reasons to visit a store today (like a print ad used to do)? Why can’t it provide useful functions and features like The Home Depot? Imagine a high-ticket purchase item where store colleagues know when you’ve arrived, know about your recent purchases, the favourites you’ve selected online before coming in and the questions you’re looking to answer – making your trip to the store enjoyable and satisfying. It’s not far away.
We think the term omnichannel obscures its purpose – we’ve spent so long refining the ecommerce channel and extending this from online sales to click and collect, but now it’s time to connect the journey from Online to the Offline (O2O) online to create great experiences for customers. A huge part of this will be digital – How can the transition from Online to Offline be better? What features and functions should be provided to customers in-store, whether through customers’ own devices or provided devices? How can these features be constantly improved and periodically re-invented? How can store colleagues be supported in the same way, with really useful digital devices and features that are simple to use? It’s a big untapped opportunity at the moment.
It’s much more about information and usefulness of functionality and features – more so than growing online sales and click and collect, it’s about the entire retail experience that encompasses all channels and that’s the nirvana of omnichannel. Those brands that get it and strive relentlessly to deliver remarkable customer experiences will be the ones that survive.