Omnichannel

As customers move effortlessly between online and offline channels, it's essential for businesses to create a cohesive customer experience. That's why omnichannel is an obvious strategy. We'll enlighten you right here.

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What is omnichannel?

Omni means "everywhere" in Latin, which makes sense because the essence of omnichannel is to create a better customer experience on all your channels. Before we dive into omnichannel, let's take a look at the other strategies:

  • Single channel focuses on one method of customer interaction, such as an online store.
  • Multichannel extends this by using multiple independent channels, which can be both physical and digital, to reach customers.
  • Cross channel goes one step further by trying to coordinate these channels to improve the customer experience by switching between them.

Finally, we have omnichannel, which refers to an integrated approach to online marketing and customer service where all channels, online and offline, work together to create a consistent customer experience.

An example of omnichannel

Still confused? Let's take an example: Imagine a customer searching for an item on a company's website via their smartphone, adds the item to their shopping cart, but decides to finalize the purchase in the company's physical store. In the store, the employee can immediately find the item and the cart on a tablet using the customer's information.

After the purchase, the customer receives an email with suggestions for related products based on the purchase. This is a perfect example of how all marketing activities are targeted to the individual potential customer.

However, implementing omnichannel in reality is not that simple and requires you to have the correct data collection. But once you've mastered the discipline, your sales opportunities also increase significantly.

How do you create an omnichannel strategy?

If you want your customers to feel at home whether they're shopping from the couch with their phone, browsing your website from a computer or strolling into your physical store, you need to create one unified customer experience - everywhere.

An omnichannel strategy is about just that: Intertwining all these experiences into one big, harmonious customer journey.

How to work with omnichannel:

  • Map the customer journey: Start by understanding and documenting every step of your customers' journey - from discovery to purchase to loyalty. Then identify all the points where they interact with your brand.
  • Integrate your channels: Make sure all your sales and communication channels work together to create a seamless experience. This includes everything from your physical store to your online shop and social media.
  • Use data to personalize the experience: Once you've collected and analyzed data from all your customer touchpoints, you can use this insight to personalize the customer experience to match customer needs and preferences across all channels.

More concepts

Want to learn more digital marketing terms? Our digital dictionary is full of them - and we're constantly updating it.