Omni Channel Retail: What you need to know about Modern Consumer Shopping Habits.

Technology has wholly disrupted the retail industry. Consumers are no longer loyal to a single brand or type of shopping. They now shop in an omni-channel fashion, sometimes buying on a mobile device while in a brick-and-mortar store, or browsing a marketplace before heading to a category-specific site.

Things you want to know to have a 'Single view of your customers?' Are given below-

Who Shops Online?

Millennials vs. Young Generation X vs. Baby Boomers :

Resistance around purchasing online is often fear-based. A flexible return policy, free return shipping and even a pre-printed return label can work wonders for a store’s conversion rate.

• Parents vs. non-parents: Parents have to keep everyone’s needs in mind. If you know your customer and their purchase history with you, use it to make their shopping experience online easier. For example, if they purchased specific children’s product regularly, but haven’t in a while, ask them if they would like to restock. That’s more helpful than pushing an unwanted selling message on them.
• Men vs. Women: Both genders are creatures of habit. Think about curating a shopping list of regular items for men and women on an opt-in basis. If you can capture information about what your customers would like to have, you can offer them trials of new product (often at a profit from your suppliers) and/or automatic refill programs.
• Metropolitan vs. suburban vs. rural: Suburban and rural shoppers are extremely price sensitive and look for coupons and discounts more so than metropolitan shoppers. To better encourage them to purchase, use IP address mapping to intelligently serve discounts to visitors coming from suburban or rural locations.

Where they are spending online?

• Online vs. in store: A great omni-channel ecommerce experience feel the same to customers, regardless of channel. So strive to standardise the processes, rules, messaging and pricing policies. Also, without deviating from the familiar feeling customers expect, create something unique to each channel. Something that’s valuable, memorable and story-worthy.
• Webstore vs. large retailer vs. marketplace: There are thousands of online shopping options for consumers, and few shoppers are loyal to just one, though the most successful merchants are typically multi-channel and growing to become omni in the near future. Nearly half of all online product searches (48%) begin on marketplaces like Amazon, for instance. If you sell through a webstore without using Amazon as part of a multi-channel strategy, you’re missing out on a huge amount of searches and potential conversions.

When do they shop?

• Online shopping frequency: Most of the visitors to your site are not immediately ready to purchase. Pre-transactional conversion opportunities let you trade something site visitors find valuable (content like a style guide or recipe book) for something you find valuable (their contact information and interests). It’s an opportunity to gather contact information from a prospective buyer on your site so you can engage with them in a thoughtful and valuable way.
• Purchase location and time: It’s not just where consumers are shopping, though, that’s of interest. It’s also in what state of mind. Bedtime? While in office? Under the influence of alchohol? (It will be very interesting to see how marketers incorporate this insight into their omni-channel strategy! :D)

What are they buying?

Leverage dynamic product recommendations to upsell and cross-sell, on-site and in marketing emails. Use the information you have about buyers to personalize your outreach to fit their interests.

What is the influencing factor?

Omni-channel requires overlapping to ensure that the customer perceives a seamless experience from end to end. Helping a customer through his entire buyer’s journey means knocking down internal barriers to hold his hand at each stage, making sure that each hand-off is perfect.

Plan omni-channel strategy by including all departments early in brainstorming a path to success.

What are the conversion killers?

They forget that consumer expectations shift based on popular sites and apps. Those design cues become the standard for engagement. Interesting UX and UI trends are coming from the likes of Apple, Uber, Tinder, Buzzfeed, etc. Customer experience is the new battle ground and the gap between design and user preferences is where companies invite disruption and competition. 

• Content online! (what shopper wants)
• Shipping charges! (what shopper hates)

Customer Feedback: What do they feel about the purchase they made online?

• They regret the purchase? A clear returns policy helps instil trust in your brand.
• Overspending? Be transparent throughout the order processing, hidden charges will further lead to cart abandonments and even worst ...'Bad customer experience'

For more insights..visit www.bigcommerce.com