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How Omnichannel Strategy Accelerates the Entire Operation in Retail
The traditional structure where a retailer uses one strategy for inventory management and another for store efficiency is becoming outdated.
Imagine you wanted to buy a pair of slick black trainers. You visit your favorite online store, and you see the out-of-stock tag. Then you visit the physical store hoping for a different outcome. The store associate tells you they have it, but not in this outlet. This is how a retail store loses an eager customer.
Day by day, we’re witnessing the line between online store and retail is being erased especially with the rise of omnichannel strategies such as omnichannel order fulfillment, buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS), buy online return in-store (BORIS), ship-from-store (SFS), and many more. What’s the pushing power behind these strategies?
The digitalization age produced a new type of customers with higher expectations. The need to meet customer expectations is a force pushing retailers to find solutions. And the omnichannel order management system is proven to be the right answer. Using all channels both online and offline as a unique unit meets retailers’ and customers’ needs of keeping up with the latest trends and using their time and money efficiently. In a scenario that both sides win, let’s get deeper and understand what actually an omnichannel retail technology is.
According to the research of Salesforce, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. Retail store difficulties as stock errors, inefficient communication, return and refund processes cause bad customer experiences but now it can be easily eliminated with an omnichannel understanding. For example, imagine you’re managing several stores. And you have data that can predict which store needs more inventory allocation based on sales history. Wouldn’t that make your job easier?
In a traditional store only in-store inventory can be tracked and whether it works in real-time is suspicious. However, integrating all channels and managing entire inventory from a single point avoid overstock and out of stock problems, and redress a balance across channels. Thus the operations run in real-time, organizations can easily track inventory and make plans for the future accurately.
Building a store communication and synchronization between channels also enables providing a vast of omnichannel delivery options. A customer can easily buy a product online and return it to the physical store as well as buying it online and picking up in-store etc. Providing these options to customers allows them to receive a satisfactory shopping experience.
At the heart of every omnichannel strategy, you will find the customer, and retailers should consider that while making a decision on their stores and operations. A recent study by Harvard Business Review suggests, 73% of customers prefer a mix of online and offline experience. This new type of experience guides retailers who aware that running an efficient store comes with satisfied customers to adopt an omnichannel strategy.
Centralized and coordinated data help you to reach customers through many channels and that can be called the key to keep up with the future of retail. With Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud, You can easily integrate your channels both online and offline, and easily manage them from a single system as if you have only one store. The out-of-stock issue is a concern of traditional retailers! With Shopi’s smart order routing technology, find the most optimum store to fulfill an item and deliver the item wherever your customer wants; either to a store to pick up the items or to their doorsteps. In the era of providing solutions with developing technology, never let your customer walk out of the store without purchasing anymore.
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