When brands and retailers leverage an omnichannel marketing strategy to create a seamless retail experience for consumers, the benefits are significant—especially with consumer expectations rising. According to a 2019 report, more than half of consumers (66%) care more about the experience than about product or service price. Over half of those polled (52%) also reported that they stopped shopping on a brand website due to a poor site experience, according to a press release on the findings.
As more brands and retailers invest to meet consumer expectations, there is greater consciousness of the benefits of omnichannel marketing.
Reaping the Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is a concept that presents brands and retailers with a variety of ways to reach consumers. Nike invested $1 billion in omnichannel marketing efforts in 2018 and 2019 and has since seen tremendous increases in brand loyalty and digital sales.
While there are many benefits of omnichannel marketing, among the top are better customer experience, greater brand awareness, and increased data collection for personalization.
1. Better Customer Experience
Customers are likely to use a variety of devices to evaluate prices and purchase an item, track their order, receive it, and return it if necessary. They may even want to start the process on one device and finish it later on another. An ideal experience would be: a future customer searches an item at home. They find the product on a brand or retailer’s website. Later, they look at the website again at work on their smartphone, set up an account, and place the item in their cart. That evening, they decide they don’t want to wait for shipping. Luckily, there’s a store in their town, so they don’t have to. Thanks to cross-channel connectivity, that customer can check inventory themselves (as is possible on 38% of retailers’ websites) then arrange for BOPIS, and the purchase is made.
Customers also believe that customer service should be part of the seamless retail experience. In one survey, 61% of retailers reported that improved customer service was the most valuable way omnichannel efforts improved their business.
2. Greater Brand Awareness
A more targeted way to increase brand visibility is by combining SEO and PPC online. According to Google data, 80% of shoppers say mobile searches impact their purchasing decisions in the CPG category. Anecdotally, we know that an incredibly high percentage of shoppers use their smartphones in stores to compare products and prices. By leveraging PPC and SEO to establish a presence online, brands can become more visible when consumers search for keywords that may refer to their product, such as “the best product for disinfecting my home” or “canned tomatoes for making spaghetti.” Brands can reach consumers interested in their product, whether they are mentioned by name or not.
3. Increased Data Collection
The more channels a brand or retailer leverages to market, the more access they have to consumer data. Unifying that data provides marketers with greater insight into the demographic and behavioral profile of customers. This information could include everything from purchase history to information from cookies and social media activity. It has a number of uses:
- Personalization: Data allows brands to more accurately make product suggestions. A survey of grocery and drug store customers revealed that 90% of consumers found personalization appealing and 80% said it influenced their purchasing decisions.
- Loyalty: A seamless retail experience that results from omnichannel efforts makes it easier for customers to accumulate loyalty rewards when points can be reliably tallied across channels automatically.
- Analytics: From increased data collection, trends in customer behavior can be identified as well. Demographics can help brands target their advertising more effectively. There may be regional variations in purchasing patterns, or even variations in the time of day purchases are made.
Mobile Technology Can Boost Omnichannel Marketing Efforts
Brands and retailers can’t reap the full benefits of omnichannel marketing without incorporating mobile technology. Even though only 33% of retailers have mobile-enabled websites, and 27% have mobile apps, mobile sales made up 63.5% of eCommerce in 2018.
Brands and retailers can’t reap the full benefits of omnichannel marketing without incorporating mobile technology.
Two-thirds of shoppers use their smartphones in-store to comparison shop. In addition, mobile technology allows for proximity marketing that can be used to guide and inform the shopper, as well as to observe buying behavior.
Shopkick, an innovative mobile rewards shopping app, boosts omnichannel marketing efforts. It provides a highly gamified, entertaining UX as it rewards shoppers with gift cards for interacting with products in-store and online—this drives meaningful engagement along the full omnichannel shopping journey. On the marketing side, Shopkick documents consumer behavior, providing brands and retailers with valuable analytical data and proven ROI.
When it comes to the benefits of omnichannel marketing with Shopkick leveraged, the innovative app has been proven to drive brand awareness and incremental sales. For example, Shopkick was instrumental in the launch of Georgia-Pacific’s Dixie Ultra Deep-Dish Plates, offering engagement with the consumer throughout the purchase journey—at home and in-store. The marketing campaign received 16 million impressions, with 50% incremental purchases made in-store.
Contact Shopkick today to learn how to become a success story. Harness the power of Shopkick rewards for your omnichannel marketing campaign, just as our partners have.
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