Is an omnichannel strategy worth the effort?

Is an omnichannel marketing strategy really worth the time, the effort, and the resources? It seems as though many smaller companies are now adopting this strategy in an effort to increase the bottom line and to retain customers for the long term. These days, your business is everywhere. It is spread across multiple venues and channels in an effort to reach out and make those sales. With an omnichannel strategy, what you are doing is to make certain that, regardless of where your customer interacts with you, they will be seamlessly able to make that all important purchase. Easier said than done it seems. In some recently published research, v12data has found that many businesses can take advantage of this strategy if they understand how it is working. The following is taken directly from that published data:

  • Marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. (Omnisend, 2020)
  • Omnichannel campaigns that involved SMS at some point in the process were 47.7% more likely to end in conversion. (Omnisend, 2020)
  • Purchase frequency is 250% higher on omnichannel vs. single channel and the average order value is 13% more per order on omnichannel vs. single channel. (Omnisend, 2020)
  • Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel vs. single channel. (Omnisend, 2020)
  • 98% of Americans switch between devices in the same day. (Google Research)
  • 15 years ago the average consumer typically used two touch-points when buying an item and only 7% regularly used more than four. Today consumers use an average of almost six touch-points with nearly 50% regularly using more than four. (Marketing Week)
  • Over 35% of customers expect to be able to contact the same customer service representative on any channel. (Zendesk)
  • Companies with extremely strong omnichannel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement. (Aberdeen Group)
  • 77% of strong omnichannel companies store customer data across channels, compared to 48% for weak omnichannel companies. (Aberdeen Group)
  • 64% of marketers cite lack of resources and investment as their top barrier to omnichannel marketing. (The CMO Club)

Omnichannel Marketing

  • 90% of customers expect consistent interactions across channels. (SDL)
  • 71% of shoppers who use smartphones for research in-store say that it’s become an important part of the experience.(Google)
  • Omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel. (Google)
  • Companies with extremely strong omnichannel customer engagement see a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue, compared to 3.4% for weak omnichannel companies. Similarly, strong omnichannel companies see a 7.5% year-over-year decrease in cost per contact, compared to a 0.2% year-over-year decrease for weak companies. (Aberdeen Group)
  • Of those companies identified by Aberdeen Group as being top-performers in omni-channel strategy, 85% conduct regular training of customer care agents in the handling of omnichannel communications, and 77% store customer contact data across multiple channels. (Aberdeen Group)
  • 71% of shoppers agree that it is important or very important to be able to view inventory information for in-store products. (Forrester)
  • 50% of shoppers expect that they will be able to make a purchase online and pick up in-store. (Forrester)
  • 39% of consumers are unlikely or very unlikely to visit a retailer’s store if the online store does not provide physical store inventory information. (Forrester)
  • 56% of consumers have used their mobile device to research products at home with 38% having used their mobile device to check inventory availability while on their way to a store and 34% who have used their mobile device to research products while in a store. (Forrester)
  • 69% of consumers who that store associates be armed with a mobile device — in order to perform simple and immediate tasks such as looking up product information and checking inventory.
  • 27% of consumers would be very likely to leave and visit another retailer’s store if a product is out of stock with 21% stating they would buy online from a different retailer and 21% who would simply hold off buying the product.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer