Omnichannel Ecommerce: Brick-and-Mortar Not Required
Zoom classrooms, remote work These digital opportunities are no longer foreign to our daily lives. Humanity is now more connected than ever before and seems to understand the potential of that. Online shopping doesn't make you feel "weird." It's considered normal. This is the case for retail businesses. Enter the concept of omnichannel ecommerce.
It doesn't require a brick-and-mortar business to be a flourishing company. If you have a brilliant concept for a product or service, all you need is a positive attitude, determination, the ability to adapt as well as an internet connection.
What is omnichannel ecommerce?
Omnichannel ecommerce is a multi-pronged sales plan that is focused on creating customers with a consistent experience regardless of whether the point of sale is via mobile devices, a laptop, or a retailer's physical location. That experience should also be the same across all channels, from your online store to Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, Etsy, and more.
Customers don't shop only in the same place. Therefore, no matter where they go, you should be available.
Although the goal of the selling is to achieve the purpose, you need be aware of what the buyer's journey looks like when they are attempting to buy. How can you be a participant in that journey?
The Harvard Business Review reports that 73% of all customers use multiple channels during their buying journey. When a customer is deciding to purchase something there's a solid chance they've done a tremendous amount of study to make sure they've made the right purchase.
Can your business not only provide the item your client is looking for, but also provide an understanding and context?
Focus on the entire user experience. Not just when they add something to the shopping cart or place the purchase. In fact, you must be thinking about how do you make your business a source of information as well as goods, products, or services? How can you accomplish that everywhere you make sales on the internet?
The more channels that a client utilizes, the better they are to your business by allowing 23% more return purchases and up to 13% higher the average value of an order.
Omnichannel E-commerce is a way to do business.
Why is it crucial that e-commerce retailers use different channels to their own website?
Let's do an experiment. Have a look at your feed every time you visit the social network. How many different stores and products are being presented to you?
There are probably too numerous to list. The modern algorithms are so powerful that the feed you receive could bring back things that which you did not realize that you are interested in. You may not remember that time you perused the latest skincare trends while waiting for a call from the clinic, but your feed does. And it will inform you who's offering the best prices in skincare products at the moment.
Imagine that your company is the aforementioned skincare company. You might post the link to Facebook for a blog article about the top skincare products in 2023. A person who's interested could follow the link and go through the article, and then proceed to the next page. But later, they may see an advertisement of your cream to treat eczema and click through to purchase it from Amazon. And the next time they would like to buy, maybe they visit your site directly and register for a subscription.
That's three different channels the customer may have used: Facebook, your website, and Amazon. They all function to create an effective omnichannel eCommerce strategy.
It is more difficult to develop an effective omnichannel plan if you don't have an actual retail store?
No and yes. We've explained that the world lives online, so the retail store isn't necessary for customers to have purchase opportunities at a variety of points.
There are a number of benefits to having a physical space even though it can cost a significant price and time commitment.
The point is you shouldn't think that having a location that isn't there means you can't be omnichannel focused. And if you do have a physical store that is paired with an online shop, you shouldn't just declare it to be a day. There are plenty of additional places to meet your customers to make sure you're present on the platform that they prefer when they're ready to make an order.
The advantages of having a retail location
There are a few distinct benefits that come with having a physical place. In particular, you will be able to connect more personally with customers just by providing a place that they can get to know your staff and your product.
If your store is situated in an area that receives an abundance of people walking through it is possible to persuade customers to come in and purchase something. The ability to reach out physically who are already engaged in shopping. It is possible to demonstrate your products and respond to questions right there and there.
Furthermore, there is a possibility for marketing, such as the opportunity to host events in person and demonstrations of products. Hosting an in-person reception can be a great way to launch a new product.
It has been an option of the numerous options that people can purchase. There are many advantages of having an actual location, the same way there are advantages to having a presence in another online market. The difference is that the option has many disadvantages and expenses.
There are advantages to the absence of a storefront
Actually, there are a number of advantages to the absence ofhaving a retail location. There's no expense associated with rental or utility bills and there aren't problems associated with having a physical store. There's no need to worry with staffing or planning.
It is possible to narrow your search and budget to online channels that are already proven. And, you can remain flexible, so that if anything changes, you can adapt quickly. A physical location is an investment that is costly and you can't usually pick up and relocate on the spot.
We will come back to our initial answer"yes and no!" The location of your retail store (or the absence thereof) is both useful and troublesome for your omnichannel ecommerce strategy. All it depends on is the product and customer.
Ideas for an effective Omnichannel strategy
If you've figured out why omnichannel ecommerce is important, let's look at some keys for an effective strategy. This isn't a detailed step-by step outline, but rather a checklist to build the best omnichannel ecommerce strategy possible.
Make sure your brand's identity and voice uniform across every channel
Imagine a brand that is that is as famous as Coca-Cola. If it's a spot on TV that features the polar bears or a vending machine at a highway rest area or an advertisement at a diner, its sparkling red and white says something: Coca-Cola.
Make a branding identity and voice guide for your company that incorporates items like specific colors, fonts, logosand fonts and even a the language. As your company grows and you are faced with a myriad of more things to consider and plan for, your future self will appreciate it.
Carefully select selling channels
There's a myriad of advertising channels which offer different types of target audience. There are many different approaches needed to find success, but you must choose the channels you can use for your particular business, and commit to giving each of them the respect that it merits.
You should select several to pursue, but don't be reluctant to reject the ones that don't really fit your brand or your target market.
Social shopping
Marketplaces
Utilizing marketplaces like Amazon offers opportunities to access other resources. Amazon's service called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is able to handle all of the processes involved with warehousing, shipping, and providing customer service for orders.
Search
It's likely that you're putting in a significant amount of time into SEO. In the ideal world when someone is searching for something that you offer, your site - and only your site is likely to be listed instantly.
In reality, however, consumers typically conduct broad searches and navigating several options to find the right match. Google Shopping presents searchers with the options which is easy to scan and compare.
Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
Although every single person, their dog and their dog's dog has a smartphone, a shocking number of websites don't have the luxury of being mobile-friendly.
Seriously. Over 50% of all internet usage is on mobile devices.
It's a shame to not cater for those customers! That's half of the internet!
Customers expect a smooth mobile user experience. This can give you a quick leap ahead of other competitors and enhance people's perception of your business.
You'll also want to take a look at your site on devices of all sizes: desktops, phones, and tablets. Software such as BrowserStack allow you to do this electronically, and without needing users to be physically connected to all sorts of devices.
Make sure that images don't get cut off, buttons and links are easy to click or navigated to navigate, etc. Basically, you want the user experience to be excellent regardless of the device users are using in their pockets.
Use customer journey mapping
The customer journey map outlines how a person interacts with your product or company. This begins when they start communicating with you - for instance, by way of an Instagram advert, a blog post, or an influencer until they decide to purchase something or decide to stop paying attention.
There are many motives why an understanding of the customer's journey is an important part of creating an omnichannel strategy for ecommerce. It lets you:
- Get a better understanding of the time, place, and how customers engage with your company
- Identify investment opportunities for different marketing points
- Know the strengths and weaknesses of the purchasing process.
- Give information to help make future market decisions
Customer journey mapping gives the information you need about your customers' habits, how they're shopping for your items and the reasons they're buying from you. This information is vital to ensuring your continued growth in the retail industry and helps you plan future omnichannel ecommerce strategies.
Learn how to build a customer journey map.
Give seamless customer service to customers throughout every channel
Customer service that is efficient is an investment into the future of your business. Happy customers write great reviews, tell their friends they are happy, and also make purchases repeatedly. Plus, that positive energy helps keep morale up. All of this is part of a long-term strategy to create a positive, healthy enterprise.
When you're selling on multiple channels, it can be challenging to provide high-quality assistance to every client. You'll need to quickly respond to messages, questions, or requests for refunds on your website, your the selling platforms of third parties as well as social media platforms, and more.
Improve the experience of checkout
Customers prefer certain marketplaces or platforms due to their familiarity and easy to use. Sometimes it's due to the fact that they don't need to visit an extra website or application. In other instances, it's due to the fact that their payment options are stored or their checkout procedure is extremely simple.
A successful omnichannel experience also means allowing the payment methods customers prefer while making the transaction so simple that it is.
You can boost conversions at checkout by doing a couple of items:
Organize your email marketing into a single, smart tool
Whatever the place where someone bought a product or learned about your company, as long as you have them on your list of email addresses it is possible to follow up with them. Invite them to join your list, send welcome emails, reach out to them with deals, and even solicit reviews to help you generate additional sales.
MailPoet is a great tool for stores. You can build and customize mailers, schedule promotions based on previous purchases, and email abandoned cart customers to recoup lost sales and more. Plus, like Payments, using MailPoet lets you integrate everything directly in your WordPress dashboard. It's a time-saving, ingenious tools for marketing via email.
Continually review and revise your omnichannel strategy
What does a successful business have in the common? They are constantly striving to improve. It's not every platform that is going to be a perfect fit. Certain strategies that aren't working for others will prove to an enormous benefit for you. Do not be scared of changing and avoid becoming obsessed with particular item.
From there, explore the available data on your platforms and spend time learning how analytics tools work. It's an investment worth making for the future of your business.
And remember, long-term growth requires patience. Do not spend excessively comparing yourself to other vendors. It's ok to know what others are doing successfully, but then work to improve your own efforts. Revision and improvement are constant so that you can get a lot further.
Go omnichannel without the physical location
A good omnichannel ecommerce strategy requires no retail space. There's an array of other platforms you can sell your online store to Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Facebook, Google Shopping as well as many numerous others.
Make sure you have an unifying presence on each selling channel. Make sure you connect with your customers, and make sure they feel supported as well as do the effort to market so that you're on the way to creating omnichannel sales!