Omnichannel, the term that has dominated marketing rhetoric for more than a decade, is now under scrutiny and criticism.  “Omnichannel is dead,” Forbes contributor Steven Dennis claimed, “most of us can agree that if “omnichannel” ever had any real usefulness (debatable), as a concept, it is now well past its expiration date.”[1]

Steven has been criticizing omnichannel for quite a while. Two years ago, Steven used Macy’s, the forefront of omnichannel evangelism, to prove that omnichannel had failed to deliver its promise. Macy’s, like most multichannel retailers, is facing with the increasing pressure of more people buying online or buying directly from brands due to the Amazon effect and the global digital disruption. Macy’s pins high hopes on its omnichannel strategies by re-investing itself as a tech-savvy, omnichannel retailer. Macy’s omnichannel transformation started as early as in 2010 when the company announced a holistic omnichannel approach to evangelize a digital strategy that spanned the business operations and its workforce. Since then, Macy’s has been the protagonist in many omnichannel case studies. However, instead of reaping great successes with the omnichannel strategy, Macy’s “only delivered quarter after quarter of disappointing performance.”[2]

Macy’s is not the only retailer reported a disappointing omnichannel result. Periscope™ Research shows that almost 80% of retailers admit they’re failing to offer customers unified brand experience.[3]

So, why omnichannel retail was unable to deliver the promise?

To find the answer, let’s explore the concept of omnichannel.

Like many other marketing terms, omnichannel has many definitions. Below are a few of them we found online:

Definition 1

Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless customer experience across all channels. This marketing strategy takes digital interactions, such as social media and e-commerce purchases, and integrates them with interpersonal interactions. These in-person interactions include in-store staff for B2C brands as well as sales and customer success managers for B2B brands. Omnichannel marketing requires all departments to work together.[4]

Definition 2

Omnichannel refers to the multichannel sales approach that provides the customer with an integrated shopping experience. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience will be seamless.[5]

Definition 3

Multi-channel is an operational view – how you allow the customer to complete transactions in each channel. Omni-channel, however, is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer, orchestrating the customer experience across all channels so that it is seamless, integrated, and consistent. Omni-channel anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution.  Making these complex ‘hand-offs’ between channels must be fluid for the customer.  Simply put, omnichannel is multi-channel done right![6]

Definition 4

Omnichannel marketing is defined as a cross-channel marketing discipline that aligns content delivery across various marketing channels to provide seamless and consistent content experiences across the buyer’s journey and beyond. Omnichannel marketing acknowledges and addresses the fact that the modern customer is no longer confined to a single platform, and therefore, strives to deliver a smoother buying experience to customers regardless of the channel, platform, or stage of the buyer’s journey.[7]

Definition 5

Omnichannel marketing is all about connecting the dots between the channels. Think of it as something more like a web — bringing everything together — as opposed to pushing everything outward. It keeps customers moving around within the brand ecosystem, with each channel working in harmony to nurture more sales and engagement.[8]

An omnichannel marketing strategy may include things like cross-channel loyalty programs, in-store pickup, smartphone apps to compare prices or download coupons, interactive in-store digital lookbooks, or price checkers on tablets throughout the store. [9]

Definition 6

Meeting people on the channels where they are shopping and buying, whether it’s in a physical store or an online store or on social media, and connecting the dots between those channels. The purpose is to keep customers moving around within the brand ecosystem, with each channel working in harmony to nurture more sales and engagement. [10]

Definition 7

Omni-channel marketing seamlessly integrates the different communication channels that businesses use to communicate with customers. This approach uses the customers’ perspectives and interests to optimize the consistency of the company’s marketing messages. By uniting the strengths of each communication channel, marketing teams can use omnichannel marketing to deliver a more consistent and effective brand message.[11]

Definition 8

Omni-channel as a philosophy is about providing consistent, yet unique and contextual brand experiences across multiple customer-aware touchpoints, including brick and mortar, marketplaces, web, mobile, and social. It’s about allowing consumers to purchase wherever they are while communicating in a way that is in tune with why they use a given channel and showing awareness of their individual stage in the customer lifecycle.[12]

These omnichannel definitions vary in rhetoric and focus. In some definitions, the vocabularies surrounding omnichannel are murky. But if you summarized them all, you can get a pretty good idea of what omnichannel marketing is all about:

1. The difference between multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing. The term omnichannel initially was coined to differentiate itself from multichannel marketing. Multichannel marketing means that a business offers customers multiple independent opportunities to interact and complete transactions in that channel; it is an operational tactic. Omnichannel, however, recognizes that today, customers decide whenever and wherever to purchase. Most customers utilize more than one platform and navigate between many physical and digital touchpoints for a single purchase; therefore, businesses need to integrate physical and digital channels to offer customers seamless and unified shopping experience.

2. The integration of all channels. Omnichannel marketing requires all departments to break down silos and work together. Omnichannel marketing seamlessly integrates the different communication channels to communicate consistent messages with customers. By combining the strengths of each communication channel, retailers can use the synergy of omnichannel integration to deliver a more consistent and compelling brand message.

3. The outcome of omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel marketing aims to create a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels that will nurture more sales and engagement.

From the summary of omnichannel marketing, you can see that the concept of omnichannel is attractive to marketing leaders for a good reason: First, the idea seems to be easy to understand. Second, all marketers know that great customer experience makes a company stand out from their competition. Omnichannel creates an excellent customer experience, so it must be good. And third, the integration of the physical and digital channels requires that all departments must work together, a goal that all marketing leaders aspire to achieve. Omnichannel gives management a good reason to initiate the reform of the organization structures. Therefore, omnichannel was quickly embraced by business leaders and became a buzzword that has lasted for more than a decade.

[1] Steven Dennis, June 3^rd, 2019, Omnichannel Is Dead. The Future Is Harmonized Retail, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/2019/06/03/omnichannel-is-dead-the-future-is-harmonized-retail/#730e91a265e8

[2] Steven Dennis, June 3rd, 2019, Omnichannel Is Dead. The Future Is Harmonized Retail, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/2019/06/03/omnichannel-is-dead-the-future-is-harmonized-retail/#730e91a265e8

[3] Periscope™ Research Shows Retailers Know They Are Not Delivering Omnichannel Experiences Fast Enough, https://www.realwire.com/releases/Periscope-Research-Shows-Retailers-Know-They-Are-Not-Delivering-Omnichannel

[4] Kristen McCabe, July 12, 2018, Omnichannel Marketing: What it is, Why it Matters, and How to Execute it, https://learn.g2.com/omnichannel-marketing

[5] Michael Becker, The Differences Between Multichannel & Omnichannel Marketing, https://www.emarsys.com/resources/blog/multi-channel-marketing-omnichannel/

[6] Mike Stocker, The Definition of Omni-Channel Marketing – Plus 7 Tips, https://blog.marketo.com/2014/04/the-definition-of-omni-channel-marketing-plus-7-tips.html

[7] What is Omnichannel Marketing? Definition, Strategy, Best Practices with Examples, https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/customer-experience-2/what-is-omnichannel-marketing/

[8] Omnichannel Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Retailers. https://squareup.com/guides/omnichannel-marketing

[9] Omnichannel Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Retailers, https://squareup.com/guides/omnichannel-marketing

[10] Square Guide, Omnichannel Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Retailers, https://squareup.com/guides/omnichannel-marketing

[11] Aaron Agius, 12 Examples of Brands With Brilliant Omni-Channel Experiences, Mar 21, 2019, https://blog.hubspot.com/service/omni-channel-experience

[12]  The Omni-Channel Approach: A Love Story Like No Other, https://www.channelsight.com/omni-channel-approach/

January 6, 2020by admin