Channel Surfing

Touted as the next big trend in retail, the “omni” approach is everywhere. But what does it really mean for store owners?

By Samantha Sciarrotta

hen talking retail strategies, the term “omni-channel” has become almost unavoidable. Retailers and analysts can’t say enough about the approach and how it’s a must in a digital world. But what does it actually entail to be an omni-channel retailer today? Does the term actually mean anything? Yes, says Bob Negen, founder of WhizBang Training!, a retail consulting firm—despite its recent buzzword status that may have clouded its meaning. “Online, offline. Brick-and-mortar, click-and-mortar,” Negen describes. “It’s not just about having a physical location anymore. You’re using all of the available technological and social media tools out there to build your business.”
MB&G Consulting founder and OmniChannelRetailing.com blogger Bill Davis says the movement started to gain traction when the phrase “multi-channel retailing” rose to prominence in the early ’00s. Now, companies are retooling their entire retail organizations. “It’s a multi-year effort for multi-million dollar retailers,” he points out. Should you not be a multi-million dollar company, though, don’t give up: Davis says it’s still entirely possible to capitalize on today’s technology to interact with customers across an array of platforms.

But, where to start? It’s all about multiple sales channels, says Davis, who has more than 15 years of experience in the multi-channel retailing realm. An e-commerce site is a good first step, but making your site mobile- and tablet-ready and providing ease of access between devices are all important, too. In fact, experts like James Green, CEO of digital advertising agency Magnetic, say the mobile shopping movement shouldn’t be overlooked. Green points to a simple 2014 Facebook statistic: In Q1 of this year, 59 percent of the site’s revenue came from mobile use and only 41 percent from desktop. “Retailers need to look at that,” Green instructs. “We spend so much time on our digital devices.”

Need some help fine-tuning your business to fit a multi-platform world? Here’s how to make the most of the omni-channel movement.

Keep it Consistent

Since consumers flow from smartphone to PC to tablet on a daily basis, it’s imperative that your store’s identity remains similar across platforms. “Consumers now don’t just engage a retailer,” Davis reveals. “They do research online before they get to the store, and they might do some research in the store on their mobile devices. Traditional retailers today are struggling to provide that seamless experience.”

Which is why store owners like Pamela DiCapo of children’s boutique Lauren Alexandra in Kansas City, MO, are investing time—and money—into crafting a coherent, effective, multi-platform presentation. After working with the same e-commerce site for just about a decade, DiCapo took it down two years ago and just re-launched it this year. “I wanted to make sure the site suited the store. It’s hard to find somebody who can match your aesthetic when you’re a creative store,” says DiCapo, who interviewed 10 candidates before settling on a web designer who could capture the look and feel of her physical store online. Now, she says, the site reflects her shop’s ethereal interior, which features elegant furniture and a carefully curated clothing selection. What’s more, the site is just as functional on a mobile platform—and also maintains DiCapo’s desired aesthetic. Her customers are able to shop, view their digital shopping carts and find, manage and create baby registries just as they would from behind a laptop. “It’s not just about getting a website up online,” she adds.

Make it Efficient

At the same time, DiCapo acknowledges that aesthetics were far from the most important part of the finished product. The site had to have above-and-beyond functionality, too, and, DiCapo reveals, it does, as her first-ever online baby registry is set to launch within a few months. “Now that friends and relatives can see registries online, I think we’re definitely going to see a soar in sales.”

As a matter of fact, improving site performance, as well as performance across platforms, is crucial to mastering the omni-channel approach—and thankfully, an array of tech firms have developed solutions to do just that. Take retail behemoth Topshop, for example, which recently selected platform provider Qubit to improve its e-commerce site in terms of optimization, personalization and mobile readiness. (The provider is also utilized by retailers like AlexAndAlexa.com, and, formerly, ChildrenSalon.) The technology allows Topshop to identify a customer’s prior purchases, display real-time product availability information and identify customer segments, allowing the retailer to analyze age, geographic and gender demographics. Employing a similar strategy, The Children’s Place uses data analysis software to track site visit and purchase frequency, order history and even a customer’s browsing style, allowing the retailer to determine the best way to market itself to that particular consumer, and others like her. As a result, the chain has undergone an almost 4,000 percent growth in e-commerce sales since 2003, from $5.1 million to $215 million in 2012.

Giggle has also invested in providing a seamless multi-channel experience in recent years. The popular children’s retailer re-launched its online store in 2012 with Demandware, another e-commerce industry leader, improving on its well-known Best Baby Registry, among other elements. The registry also received a kick with the launch of Giggle’s app, which allows expecting moms to scan products in-store or online, as well as manage, update and shop from the registry. And Founder and CEO Ali Wing says the company will also shift from a traditional POS system to a cloud-based system by September of this year, enabling employees to ring up all sales on iPads. The main benefit, Wing notes, is the ability to maintain and access a virtual record for every customer from any Giggle location, making for a seamless customer experience.

Though services like Qubit and Demandware are geared towards larger businesses that rake in a large number of unique monthly online visitors, there are several options out there for smaller retailers. Starting at around $15 a month, resources like Shopify, Magento, Spree Commerce and Bigcommerce are all viable alternatives for small businesses looking to improve the efficiency of their e-commerce and mobile commerce efforts.

Information is Everything

With specific product information and competitive pricing available almost anywhere a customer is willing to look, it’s more important than ever to give your customers those details before they have the chance to ask or even look elsewhere. If you provide guidance right from the start and every step of the way, customers will be more likely to stay and less likely to stray. “I think that brands, retailers and manufacturers have so many different touchpoints for engaging customers,” says Eli Gurock, Magic Beans co-founder. “If you’re not aware of the various avenues to connect with customers, you’re already behind the ball. It’s very hard to compete in today’s environment if you’re only thinking about your store and not about the online and social media components.” Which is why Magic Beans offers blog posts, buying guides, social media posts and other ways to communicate with the consumer, in addition to a well-trained staff. “A lot of stores just keep that knowledge hidden,” he continues. “We take that type of experience and amplify it in a much more public way through various channels to establish ourselves as a resource for parents.”

Giggle offers shoppers its Best Baby Registry, gear guides, a pregnancy tracker and a pregnancy library. And the store offers “dynamic” content for all of its online product listings, which encourages customers to shop with Giggle as opposed to buying straight from the brand, Wing points out. For example, if a customer is searching for a car seat, Giggle’s website explains why the store carries that specific seat, and why it might be a good fit for that particular customer. The more efficient the experience, the better, says Wing. “When consumers have a problem, a need, a desire, they want to pick a solution,” she adds. “They want to shop and interact whenever they want without having to think too much. The more barriers you create, the less omni-channel and relevant you are today.”

And in-store engagement, Gurock notes, is just as important. As customers rely more and more on online research, their first impulse is often to consult their smartphones while shopping in-store, to learn more about the products they intend to purchase. But well-trained, friendly employees can help prevent customers from whipping out their phone, Gurock notes. “Staff knowledge is everything,” he reports. “Pricing is not the issue. The issue is: Are we speaking to our customers in a way that is helpful to them? If we aren’t educated on the products ourselves, the customers might as well just buy them online.”

Marketing is a Must

As part of today’s online retail experience, though, customers want more than just a standard website with plain product listings and flat photos. Crafting an attractive, easy-to-read site is step one, but the tools you use to promote it are just as vital. “Usually, what I recommend is that [store owners] use e-commerce as a way to enhance the customer’s experience, rather than taking it over. It becomes an extension of the business,” he states. Most people, he says, tend to toss up a product photo and price on their websites and leave it at that. “That doesn’t enhance the experience of the website at all,” he suggests. “We recommend a picture, a video and a really nicely-written product description that makes it come alive. That e-commerce piece tells the story of the store as much as the products.”

Thus, other store-specific incentives like in-store pickup and events, as well as programs like loyalty lists, e-mail marketing and resources like Giggle’s pregnancy tracker and Magic Beans’ buying guides, are just as integral to a successful omni-channel approach as an e-commerce site, Davis says. For example, Shih-Fen Hu, owner of online store Carousel, stays active on social media and with her e-mail loyalty list, as well as working with as many bloggers as possible and setting up annual pop-up shops. As a relatively new business (Her first season was Fall ’13.), she needed to get her brand name on the market, and fast. “Promoting and marketing [are my biggest challenges],” she says. “I do everything I can. We’re active on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. The pop-up shops are another way to promote. I advertise as much as I can.”

One crucial way to see a big boost in traffic both on the web and in the store? Add a little oomph to your e-mail marketing campaigns, Negen suggests. “Build your list. Get people to opt in,” he advises, with a caveat: “Once they give you permission to market to them, honor that by adding value. Don’t try to push and pitch products. Try to make the fashion come alive. Make the e-mail fun.” As he puts it, “Every time you send them something cool and fun, it’s a deposit,” but when you’re asking for money, or trying to force a product on the consumer, it’s a withdrawal. “You want to build up deposits until you can make a withdrawal,” he explains.

Look Ahead

What the future of omni-channel retail looks like remains to be seen, but Negen says it will likely be bright for business owners who embrace the advances the digital world offers. “The technology keeps getting easier and easier and more and more intuitive,” he claims. “If we were to have this conversation a year or two from now, we’d be talking about some amazing device that allows you to do something that didn’t exist today.”

But, Negen cautions, make sure you have the resources before diving in, and don’t get involved with e-commerce just for the money or as a way to catch up with the competition. “Neither are strategic reasons to do it. Always ask yourself, ‘Can my resources be used better? What about my website? E-mail? Social media? The in-store experience?’” he adds. And that caution, continues Davis, is key, especially when it comes to trying to compete with heavy hitters like Zulily and Amazon. “You’re not going to out-e-commerce those guys,” he advises. “Smaller retailers are better off leveraging their existing outlets.”

That being said, Green encourages retailers to get involved as quickly and effectively as they can, calling today’s consumers “completely intolerant” of businesses who aren’t omni-channel. If a shopper places something in a cart on a company’s website while using a laptop, that should transfer over to a mobile device without hassle. “I understand how hard that can be, but consumers don’t care,” Green says. “They want it all to work, because they’re used to getting it all to work. When it works, nobody notices, but when it doesn’t, everybody hates you. It’s kind of thankless, but it’s necessary.”