Gone are the days when customers’ first interaction with a new product involved hopping into their cars and driving to visit a brick-and-mortar store. In the age of the internet, email marketing campaigns, and social media, customers are more educated than ever.
Before they even consider making a purchase, they will likely have explored numerous sources of information to find the best product at the best price.
What does this mean for your marketing strategy? It’s time to focus on a marketing strategy that reflects how customers today shop: omnichannel marketing. Keep reading to learn about this quickly growing marketing method and the many benefits it will provide your company.
What Is Omnichannel Marketing?
Omnichannel marketing focuses on the customer rather than the product. It refreshes the marketing campaigns it displays to the customers based on what it thinks that individual wants to see.
Omnichannel marketing aims to simplify the shopping experience. It does this by making a purchase available from any medium at any time. Because each channel is responsive, the customer does not have to rely on using just one. He can find the best customer service, financial incentives, and product information on any number of channels.
How Does Omnichannel Differ From Multichannel Marketing?
Both omnichannel and multichannel marketing use different platforms to attract a customer. However, the way they use these platforms varies.
Shopify describes multichannel marketing as similar to the spokes of a wheel. While each channel connects to the central goal of selling the product or service, the channels remain separate.
Meanwhile, omnichannel marketing integrates all of the different channels seamlessly. The following platforms will complement one another.
- social media
- websites
- privates message
- the physical shopping experience
Each channel changes its next action based on the customer’s reaction to the previous marketing effort.
Omnichannel Vs. Multichannel in the Real World
To help you better understand omnichannel vs multichannel in the real world, let’s use an example. Take, for instance, a young woman who is in the market for a new laptop. She visits the website of a local tech store.
Multichannel Experience
When she visits the website, a pop-up immediately offers her 15% off her purchase if she signs up for emails. After inputting her email address, she decides she wants to wait on buying a laptop. She abandons her shopping cart and leaves the website. A marketing email reminds her of the initial deal, but she doesn’t open it.
She visits her regular social media sites. On Pinterest, she notices the same ad for 15% off a laptop from the same website. A similar ad appears on Facebook.
A few days later, she ends up purchasing the laptop. But even after she purchases it, she continues to see advertisements for it throughout her social media platforms. One even displays a price drop. She becomes frustrated – not only does she see ads for a product that she just purchased, but she also feels as if she wasted money.
Even though multi-channel marketing efforts engage with customers, they can be irrelevant and redundant. In this case, the advertisements did not even update after the end goal was reached.
Omnichannel Experience
The omnichannel experience for this young woman begins in the same way. She signs up for emails, abandons her shopping cart, and ignores the follow-up email.
Now, though, the various channels begin to interact with one another to adapt to her perceived needs. Based on previous purchases, the young woman has shown that sustainability is an important value for her.
The tech website’s next ad, therefore, targets the sustainable materials it uses. To sweeten the deal, it promises 20% off the first purchase. Pleased by this information, she clicks on the advertisement and purchases a laptop.
The marketing experience doesn’t end here though. After her purchase, further ads on Google show her products that will enhance her recent purchase. She continues to receive emails promoting online courses which will help her make the most of her new laptop.
Even if she decides not to follow up on any of these further offers, she will not be frustrated since she is receiving new and relevant information.
Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing makes the experience better for both the customers and the business promoting the campaign.
People who are on the receiving end of omnichannel marketing campaigns get a more personalized shopping experience. They feel like offers are specifically tailored to them – and this is because they are. These customers also have more freedom to purchase your products from the channel of their choosing.
With omnichannel marketing, your business will be able to create more consumer touchpoints. The more times a customer engages with your marketing content, the more likely it is that they will end up purchasing something.
And customers won’t be just be seeing more content – they’ll be seeing relevant content. This will help increase the lifetime value of your customers as they will be made aware of products and services that can apply to their lifestyles.
Omnichannel shoppers also spend more than their multi-channel or single-channel counterparts. On average, an omnichannel customer will spend 15 to 30 percent more per purchase.
Shopify as an Omnichannel
Shopify can easily be integrated into your omnichannel marketing campaign, especially with the use of apps.
Each omnichannel marketing app hosts different functionalities based on the needs of your marketing campaign. Some focus on gathering contact information like phone numbers and emails.
Others use previous orders to recommend products to customers. For businesses that want to improve their customer service, some Shopify apps provide automation tools to better manage shipping and inventory.
As long as your Shopify site works together with other platforms instead of marketing independently, you are using an omnichannel strategy.
Is Shopify an Omnichannel ? ( quick video )
Become a Shopify Expert
Aside from being a convenient platform to integrate with omnichannel marketing efforts, a Shopify site offers a wide range of benefits to your business.
For example, you can use dropshipping to fulfill customer orders, track website traffic with no coding knowledge, and bundle your products to encourage higher-value purchases.
Check out our blog to gain access to more resources for taking advantage of all of Shopify’s features and driving more traffic to your online store. We’re happy to help! If you want to see a list of our top recommended Shopify apps visit this link here.
