Debunking Omnichannel Marketing Myths

In marketing circles, we’re no strangers to buzzwords. And as tedious as they can be, there’s some utility in identifying and naming trends. Omnichannel is one such term. Referring to creating a seamless experience for customers across all digital and physical communication channels, the term has dominated wholesale boutique clothing marketing rhetoric for the last few years, and for good reason. Eighty-seven percent of consumers feel that brands need to work harder to create a cohesive customer experience.

As a consumer, that makes sense. For example, when we buy something online that we want to return, we appreciate the ability to return it to a brick-and-mortar store to circumvent having to pack and ship, prolonging the refund and solution.

But as brands try to create the seamless channel integration consumers demand, many have fallen short. Some retail insiders will tell you it’s because the very notion of omnichannel is problematic, or at least misunderstood. And it can be particularly difficult to adopt for both smaller retailers and retailers with established systems (consider Sears).

What’s Wrong With Omnichannel?

In theory, the notion of creating a cooperative content and shopping experience for our customers is sound. But the reality is that often our inventory-tracking and product distribution processes haven’t caught up to our marketing aspirations, and incorporating pieces of an omnichannel strategy without an overarching picture of the application can actually derail your marketing efforts.

Consider inventory. “Tracking all inventory across distribution centers in real-time can be challenging,” says Evan Weaver, the CEO of the enterprise database platform, Fauna, which aims to bring database-reliant industries, such as retail, into the age of digital transformation.

If inventory levels aren’t updated across channels, brands risk marketing out-of-stock products. Not only is this a misuse of marketing dollars, but it also creates a negative customer experience. Because most inventory systems categorize inventory by channel, the channel’s inventory lives in a silo.

For retailers with multiple distribution centers, the problem is even more complex. “Updates at each distribution center may not immediately be reflected in a master inventory catalogue. Databases that eventually reflect accurate numbers actually exacerbate this issue -- each database might show a different number at any given time. Connecting systems to create real time inventory is key,” adds Weaver.

Thus, adopting an omnichannel strategy is about more than marketing. Before you try to implement a seamless customer experience, you need to be sure your inventory and distribution processes are up-to-speed.

System Considerations

When you’re implementing an omnichannel software solution, there are a number of things to consider. “Smart retailers are treating inventory catalogues just as a bank would treat a distributed ledger,” says Weaver. “This ensures all the numbers tally, all the time, in real-time.”

But the ability to update inventory in real-time is only one component of a successful system. Weaver notes that by leveraging the Cloud, you can build a better buyer experience. A serverless architecture enables instantaneous flow of information that’s consistent across geographies.

A Comprehensive Strategy; Compartmentalized Knowledge

Tracy Leigh Hazzard, the CEO of Hazz Design, argues that customer relationships are at stake when an omnichannel focus leads to a one-size-fits-all consumer strategy.

“[The omnichannel trend] is a way to simplify the retailer’s process and handling of different channels but is not the best strategy to build long-term connections and repeat, loyal consumers,” Hazzard says. “When you approach the omnichannel branding and design with that same seamless identity, you miss out on connecting properly with different consumer types and behaviors.”

Plainly put, there’s clear value in understanding consumer behavior based on channel, and implementing a holistic omnichannel strategy should not discount the data gleaned from individual channels or customers.

Differentiating By Channel

Many marketers erroneously believe that omnichannel marketing means giving consumers the same experience across channels. Rather, it’s about understanding each channel and consumer behavior on the respective channel so that the content and experience is cooperative, and optimized based on channel and individual customer.

“In-store, customers are more apt to browse,” says Hazzard. “The same categories you use in-store don’t necessarily make sense online. Even deeper than all that, the shopper demographics and psychographics are different as well. To expect a unified connection or response to your brand only makes consumers feel that either you don’t understand them or are outdated, tech-challenged and don’t get the channel.”

That is, successful omnichannel efforts don’t strive to echo the physical experience online or vice versa. Building an app or online shopping experience that mirrors the browsing categories in-store doesn’t go far enough to consider the state-of-mind of the customer, where they’re at in the purchase path, and how they found your product.

Doubling-Down On Personalization

With targeted digital advertising models, like those adopted by Facebook and Google, consumers understand that often their browsing data is productized. Because of that, Hazzard argues, shoppers are exceedingly aware that they’re trading privacy for a brand’s deep understanding of their behavior, and they expect it to pay off.

“Because of sacrificing privacy for convenience, consumers expect brands to treat them (and their data) as a way to connect and personalize,” she says. “Painting your brand across the omnichannel with too broad a brush only sends the message that you don’t know your customer or don’t know how to use their data – either way, an opportunity for brand connection is lost.”

By incorporating omnichannel strategies without keeping sight of overarching goals, retailers may actually be delivering an experience counter to what they were hoping to achieve with omnichannel integration in the first place. That is, the seamless experience customers crave is reliant on data particular to individual channels. Retailers may be smart to think of omnichannel as a customer experience, rather than a strict set of rules for channel integration.

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