Omnichannel businesses – that is, those businesses with dedicated customer strategies for storefront, mobile and desktop Internet sales opportunities – are growing in number and popularity. By having access to customers from multiple platforms, consumers have more immediate access to products if they want them. A new report from LCP Consulting seems to confirm that omnichannel techniques helped retailers grow between 10 and 20 percent over the last year.
However, the report also indicates that businesses that don't fully immerse themselves into a fully omnichannel approach could stand to lose quite a bit, with 37 percent of the 50 U.K. retail executives questioned for the survey reported an increase in customer complaints. If a company expands to include a dedicated mobile access point, consumers expect that platform to work properly. If it doesn't, the loss of customer loyalty is a far higher price to pay than not being on that platform at all.
Companies like Domino's Pizza Group, Agros home merchandise retailer and the John Lewis department store have all reported significant growth in the U.K., and cite a dedication to omnichannel strategies as a major contributor to that success. John Lewis operations director Dino Rocos particularly noted that he was “seeing some retailers who are building organically on their current model and I am flabbergasted because it is self-evident that three, four or five years down the line that's not going to be the right model. They should be pausing, evaluating where they are investing and then investing in the model that is appropriate for the longer term.”
The report further categorizes four retail archetypes: Omnichannel pioneers, Omnichannel followers, Optimized multichannel or pureplay retailers and challenged multichannel retailers. While pioneers into omnichannel technology and optimized retailers are able to fully dedicate their systems to omnichannel support successfully, followers and challenged retailers are often either sacrificing their brick-and-mortar business strategies to accommodate online traffic, or are simply not dedicating enough time or resources to make omnichannel retail profitable.