What Is Omnichannel Shopping?

Omnichannel shopping is a modern way of buying CPG products where consumers purchase from in-store, online, and click-and-collect channels. This means consumers are buying CPG products through every channel, often at the same time. It gives emerging brands more avenues for getting their foot in the door. But it also complicates marketing efforts and requires a good understanding of consumer behavior to get right.

Omnichannel Retail Landscape

The omnichannel retail landscape in 2023 is a bit complicated. While eCommerce shopping has been growing for years, it is the mixing of channels that truly defines the current and future retail landscape. More consumers than ever are choosing to shop with an omnichannel mindset. In fact, more than one in five (22%) shoppers now plan an in-store shopping trip combined with a prior online order.

This all seems positive since it opens more avenues for revenue, but there are a few caveats as well. For one, tracking the data becomes much more complicated as consumers navigate between the channels and mixed purchases may be incorrectly tracked. Additionally, it spreads your resources more thinly across the channels as you try to target your consumers everywhere at once. Growing sales with omni requires focus and accurate, actionable data.

The Power of Omnichannel Marketing

One of the biggest opportunities for many emerging and growth brands is in their omnichannel marketing efforts. This allows brands to hit their target customers across online and offline channels, with a focus on building an integrated, seamless experience across them. The goal is to keep the brand messaging recognizable and engaging, so the consumer feels like everything is cohesive as they go between channels. To achieve this, brands must take a consumer-centric approach that keeps the comprehensive customer journey top of mind.

Some key ways to maximize your omnichannel marketing are:

• Always maintain a consistent, identifiable brand and message
• Utilize personalized messaging based on previous interactions, consumer interests, or other relevant criteria
• Create an intentional funnel that guides consumers through each stage of the buyer’s journey regardless of where they start

In the end, this all comes down to how well you understand the consumer and identifying the factors that affect demand in your category.

Top 5 Tips for Reaching Omnichannel Shoppers

Clearly, the continued growth of omnichannel shopping shows that brands need to reach consumers across every channel. But, that’s often easier said than done. Especially for emerging brands. Luckily, there are a few areas where focusing your attention can have a strong impact.

With that in mind, here are our top 5 tips for reaching omnichannel shoppers:

1. Track Customer Journeys

Omnichannel customers’ behavior and journeys are relatively more complex than their traditional counterparts. They may first interact with your brands or products on one channel, then another, and finally purchase on the first. Or they may go through all channels before converting. To make it even more complex, purchases can be made at any time of the day or night, at physical stores, online, or through click-and-collect.

To get the best results, you’ll need to track customer journeys better. This requires you to take into consideration the different customer paths and influencers across all channels. Leveraging omnichannel targeting to push customers along the funnel is key. For example, marketers who use at least three channels in their campaigns have a 28% higher purchase rate than single-channel marketers. Knowing the most common paths to a sale can allow you to better target your messaging and shorten the funnel.

2. Create Brand Loyalty

With so many options available on the market today, building brand loyalty is tough but more valuable than ever. In the omnichannel world, personalization is one of the biggest drivers of loyalty. Personalization propels brand growth, increases basket ring, and drives consumer loyalty.

One of the big benefits of using an eCommerce channel as part of your strategy is that you can personalize product pages for customer loyalty. Personalizing product pages with detailed descriptions, enhanced content, and custom attributes goes a long way toward keeping loyal customers. In particular, matching your product attributes to the customer’s persona can pay dividends. Two years ago, only 23% of NIQ-reviewed retailers featured custom attributes on their website, while 35% of retailers do in 2022.

3. Don’t Sleep on In-Store Promotions

An unfortunate side effect of the rise in eCommerce sales is that brands are forgetting about in-store selling. This means they’re leaving money on the table. Not to mention, with Americans and Canadian consumers shopping like the recession is here, maintaining sales across channels is going to be even more important. This is evident as promotional activity and purchases gained momentum in Q4 2022, outpacing non-promoted activity in both the US and Canada.

Understanding how your target customer shops, your category, and the overall marketplace is key to your success. For example, though 40% of Health and Beauty sales occur online, in-store presence is still key. In fact, 50% of consumers surveyed prefer to pick out personal care items personally in the store, even when collecting an order they made earlier. Without adequate promotions catching their eye in-store, you can end up missing out on easy sales while you focus on other channels.

4. Use Product Attributes Wisely

Omnichannel shoppers exhibit some different behavior than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. One big difference is the way that they search for products. Rather than search by brand, omnichannel shoppers tend to search by product attribute. That is, using terms like “gluten-free”, “sustainably”, and “ethically sourced”. This means you can better align product packaging and listings by looking at the stated and qualified product attributes you use on your products.

The key is making sure the claims you use resonate with the market. For example, 45% of consumers say that responsible sourcing is one of the most important sustainability claims to their shopping behavior. But, if only some of your products include the messaging, you can miss out on sales. Take the time to get a better understanding of what your customers are seeking, how they’re seeking it, and where you fit in.

5. Build On Accurate Data

One of the biggest omnichannel challenges many emerging brands are facing this year is rectifying what sales are happening where. With the rise of click-and-collect selling, many sales figures aren’t accurately tracking the actual origin of purchases. They’re either duplicating the numbers or improperly attributing them.

To get the full view of your position and opportunity, you need to look at both sales data and panel data. Consumers themselves are often the best at identifying how they’re going to act in the future. Panel data gives you their own insights, so you can understand how their actions will impact you. For example, 67% of Americans think we are currently in a recession and are tightening their belts. If you ignore this behavioral shift, you can end up with unsold stock sitting on shelves or in your warehouse.