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Omnichannel Marketing Examples – Implemented by 10 Amazing Brands

Omnichannel marketing strategies for you to succeed in 2024

  • UPDATED: 07 February 2024
  • 10 min read

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Reading Time: 10 minutes

In the strictest sense, omnichannel marketing means offering customers a seamless brand, message, and experience across every channel (including print, email, online, and in-store).

Customers might interact with a brand via a blog, a tweet, an SMS, or a Facebook post. In omnichannel design, brands must deliver consistent messaging across all touch points and provide a seamless customer experience.

As a customer moves from a print ad to a social media platform, or an email to a webpage to a brick-and-mortar store, or an AI chatbot to a phone call, every experience must be as consistent as every branding and message.

Moreover, if it’s not, customers might dump a brand in favor of another one that offers unified browsing and buying experience.

image1-Feb-02-2024-06-53-35-0358-AM

Omnichannel Definition: What is it and Why is it Important?

The complete definition of an omnichannel marketing strategy can be a difficult thing for marketers. There isn’t a single definition, and each approach has pros and cons, so if you’re looking to pursue an omnichannel strategy, consider this as a starting point.

When you try to understand the omnichannel meaning, imagine the most powerful tool to improve your brand’s visibility. It would change how you do everything, from creating new products/services to interacting with customers. And it would do it by simply making your brand available everywhere it’s needed, whether through your website, email, social media, or mobile app. That is what omnichannel looks and feels like.

And what does an omnichannel experience do? Provide a seamless experience across multiple devices/channels. It makes your brand accessible to anyone, anywhere they may want to interact with it. This fosters not only brand awareness but also brand recall, making your brand more accessible. Let’s say you want to increase the number of leads you’ve generated.

Why is Omnichannel Marketing Important to Brands?

Omnichannel marketing helps businesses stay agile. It allows teams to interact with consumers across various devices and create a consistent message across all channels. This can create a heightened brand familiarity, bringing the consumer’s journey with the brand together. This not only fosters brand awareness but leads to enhanced customer loyalty, which is what you are looking for to create a profitable business strategy that will last.

Fact: Omnichannel marketing is not multichannel marketing

To be clear, Multichannel marketing is the more comprehensive and holistic approach to marketing, while omnichannel marketing is an approach of indiscriminate and disconnected digital marketing.

Omnichannel marketing unifies how you communicate about your brand and makes it accessible across all channels and devices, increasing reach, reducing friction, improving customer experience, and boosting brand equity. Think: ‘multiple ways to reach and interact with your customers across multiple devices and touchpoints.

Both types of marketing are crucial for businesses of various sizes and can be the key to success. But, while both can yield the same results, they’re not necessarily the same.

What Is the Purpose of Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is the seamless integration of the many diverse channels organizations can use to interact with consumers and prospects. By taking advantage of multiple marketing channels and touchpoints, organizations can create a true customer experience on desktops, mobile phones, tablets, or brick-and-mortar stores.

a) Increased Customer Engagement

Omnichannel marketing is another way to engage with your customers across multiple channels. This could be your website, social media, direct mail, or phone calls. Whatever the method, remember that it will improve customer interactions, retention rates, and brand exposure.

b) Increased Customer Retention and Lifetime Value

Omnichannel marketing efforts increase customer loyalty and brand recall. Omnichannel marketing efforts provide both the consumer and the retailer with an equal, seamless experience. This approach fosters more profound brand memories and recall that promote repeat purchases and retention throughout the journey through multiple experiences.

c) Omnichannel Marketing Boosts Brand Awareness

Omnichannel marketing can help you increase consumer awareness of your brand’s latest products and services. You can build a strong and consistent presence on social media by actively seeking out and using customer input during brand activation. This approach can create a heightened familiarity for your consumers, increasing their willingness to interact with your brand via multiple channels.

d) Improved Sales and ROI

With an omnichannel marketing campaign, you can improve your order rate. Multiple touchpoints help improve brand recall, which automatically improves ROI.

Making the Customer’s Mindset Part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

You might wonder how we got here to the place of seamless experiences and exceptionally high customer expectations. Well, it starts with customers who hopped from the desktop or mobile device and online to in-person and back again.

And as they did so, retailers had to learn to keep up and find newer ways to increase customer engagement.

It used to be that consumers were either shopping online or in person.

Now, the new normal is to browse online first, with no intention of buying but only as research before going into a brick-and-mortar store.

Alternatively, shopping at a physical location and then going online to buy is also perfectly normal.

What’s even bewildering is that it’s even common practice to be online while in a brick-and-mortar location. Research shows that 81% of U.S. smartphone owners use their phones in-store to check prices, look up product information, and find a specific item.

However, that’s not the real reason to develop an omnichannel marketing strategy . There’s also the payback for doing so:

Research states that in 2021, the average customer engagement rate of marketing campaigns used in three or more channels was 18.96%, while single channels recorded only 5.4% of customer loyalty.

If you’re considering omnichannel for your brand and wondering how to go about it, note that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Companies also differ in how they go about it based on their industry, target audience, customer journey , and goals.

10 Brands That Use Omnichannel Marketing Strategy to Improve Customer Retention

For an overview of the different ways to use omnichannel marketing strategy, check out these 10 brands below:

1) OYO Rooms Tackles Omnichannel Engagement

OYO Rooms Observes 8X Increase In Engagement with MoEngage

OYO is a hospitality unicorn and has about 1800 hotel properties located across 500 cities. OYO used MoEngage, an omnichannel marketing platform to deliver a seamless experience across their app and their website. It also used Push AmplificationTM to achieve a 44% boost in push notification delivery rates.

Read the complete case study on how Oyo used omnichannel marketing to achieve success .

2) Target: Partnering with Pinterest

Target partnered with Pinterest to integrate Pinterest’s Lens into their app so people can use their smartphones to snap a photo of something they like and have the Target app show them a similar item available for purchase. It was the first time Lens was integrated into another brand’s app. As an example of omnichannel marketing , this is a way to offer a seamless experience for a customer who sees something they want to buy, and they can immediately discover whether or not Target sells something similar—and order it right then and there. Moreover, using this strategy, Target was able to increase its sales to almost 10%.

 omni channel marketing strategy with Pinterest

Partnering with Pinterest is the only channel you should be using to grow your business if all of your other social media channels have yet to produce any results. If you haven’t been using any other social media yet, you might not know that there are a number of really effective channels that you could try to optimize.

Learn more about “ Retail Omnichannel Growth Strategies “.

3) Singapore Airlines: Unparalleled Omnichannel Marketplace

It’s not only retailers (or e-tailers) who can become masters of omni-marketing channels but aviation companies as well. Singapore Airlines sets a good example of offering a seamless experience to their customers.

Singapore Airlines uses omninchannel marketing strategy to offer seamless experience

They have always been lauded for their innovation, and for a while, they have been creating a powerful, customer-oriented omni experience. This flagship airline is partnering with AOE-integrated airports and shopping malls by fusing online and offline experiences. With this partnership, customers can easily shop, pre-book, enhance in-flight options and earn loyalty in real-time.

4) Zumiez: Multiple Ways to Buy

Zumiez is an omnichannel digital marketing master is proven by its top ranking with Total Retail. In the 2017 “Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers” report, Zumiez got the top rank with 100 points in seven criteria, including offering an omnichannel experience. This apparel retailer lets customers effortlessly cross over channels with combinations like buying online while picking up in-store, earning loyalty points across channels, offering multiple ways to reach out to customer service, and even providing more than one way to return merchandise.

5) Sephora: The Makeup Master is a Master of Marketing

Sephora makes many of the lists of best omnichannel marketing retailers because they blend the online and in-store experiences so well. While in a brick-and-mortar location, the brand experience is consistent with beauty tips, informed salespeople, free makeovers, and, of course, products to try. Online, customers can use their Beauty Bag accounts to track purchases (“What color was that lipstick again?”), scan items while they are in the store, see tutorials, keep a wish list and much more. Offering this experience to their customers helped this #1 beauty retailer to gain an approx. 100% increase in mobile orders.

 omni channel retail strategy

6) Value City Furniture: Bringing Omnichannel Home

Value City Furniture has mastered in omni channel marketing campaigns , digital marketing priorities by realizing the conundrum faced by customers who want to shop online but also want to take furniture for a “test drive” before buying. They offer an “Easy Pass” platform that lets customers build a shopping list online and then head to a nearby brick-and-mortar location.

There, sales teams can pull up the list and show the customer the furniture in real life. While at the store, people can also start a wish list in their online shopping cart and find additional product information online. By offering ease of shopping, this furniture company was able to increase 55% of its overall shopping engagement.

7) Bank of America: Omnichannel Banking

Many believe that omnichannel marketing is for retailers (e-tailers) only. However, this fact stands corrected as omnichannel is becoming a way of life for customers (and will soon become one for marketers, too). Fintech companies especially need to offer a seamless customer experience, whether it is a physical bank transaction, online transaction, or an ATM withdrawal.

The Bank of America (BOA) has been utilizing omnichannel experience for its customers for a long time—from allowing them to hook up to free Wi-Fi and continue bank transactions while waiting in a branch to offering tablets while sitting in a kiosk with a bank manager. However, they went a step ahead and started the ‘Robo-branch’ initiative where customers don’t need to wait for a teller to get free; instead, they can share their grievances with a machine. The conversation, issue handling, and experience are all the same.

Bank of America: Omnichannel marketing approach

8) Disney: The Champion of Omnichannel

You can’t read about omnichannel marketing strategy without knowing Disney’s omnichannel marketing strategy. They have set the bar so high it’s what other retailers aim for.

As Hubspot describes it, “Disney gets omnichannel experience right, down to the smallest details.” A visitor’s experience starts with the website  and then moves on to the My Disney Experience tool that can be used to plan every detail of the trip.

Once at the park, a visitor can use the app to figure out the rides and attractions and even see the wait times for popular rides. But that’s not all: The MagicBand is a wristband that lets visitors:

  • Unlock hotel room doors
  • Enter the parks
  • Check-in at FastPass entrances for rides
  • Charge food and goodies to their hotel room

Every aspect of it is consistently branded, effortless to use, and an example of omnichannel taken to new heights.

If you’re not yet doing omnichannel marketing, you soon will be if for no other reason than your competitors already are. But—as these successful brands show—you are free to figure out what will work best for your brand and your bottom line.

9) Apple Embraces Omnichannel Commerce

Apple has been omnichannel-aware since the day Steve Jobs launched its first online store in 1997. Apple used microservices to build a headless E-commerce platform capable of transacting hundreds of billions of dollars in sales. The website, apps, brick-and-mortar stores, and even their social media profiles—everything aimed to provide a cohesive experience.

10) Azadea Group, a Retail Website

Azadea Group did omnichannel marketing to improve customer engagement

Azadea Group built end-to-end customer engagement campaigns that offered its customers a seamless experience. They used MoEngage to build personalized messaging that helped them regulate the order flow.

How to Build an Omni-Channel Marketing Campaign

Omnichannel marketing is the process of carrying out marketing via multiple marketing channels, platforms, and devices. The core difference between an omni-channel marketing strategy and one driven by a single marketing channel is the degree of interconnectedness and integration.

The goal of an omni-channel marketing approach is to create a cohesive customer experience that customers can easily use wherever they are. However, that may not always be practical. Keeping your marketing strategy on a single marketing channel will make your marketing appear inconsistent, which could do more harm than good to your business.

Give Customers a Device- and Platform-Appropriate CTA

Omnichannel marketing focuses on the customer. This is another key difference from multichannel marketing. We can build relationships with them over email, social media, phone, and in person, all while building a website for the company.

But what works for an omnichannel marketing strategy is the device- and platform-appropriate CTAs designed based on the customer journey. This makes omnichannel marketing a notch better than your regular marketing campaigns.

By taking a holistic approach to omnichannel marketing, you can create multiple ways to deliver the same content, decrease wasted ad spend, and boost customer loyalty-to-brand impact (LTI). By analyzing multiple KPIs such as page views/converting — across all potential channels, you can make a plan of attack for your business’s future KPIs, too.

Ankita Kaushik

Ankita is a content marketer with a strong background in writing and editing. She has worked with various publishing media houses and product companies that helped her add more skills to her core subject - content. At MoEngage, she handles core content for North America, Latin America, and Europe region. She has build a strong expertise across omnichannel marketing, customer engagement, customer retention, email marketing, analytics, and personalization. Her work has been featured on various publication e27, IMRG, Hashgrowth.org, Forbes, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions about Omnichannel Marketing Examples

Which is the best omnichannel marketing software.

When we talk about an omnichannel model, we are talking about consistent messaging across channels such as WhatsApp, push notifications, SMS, email, website, mobile app, and even social media. The best omnichannel marketing software that takes care of your omnichannel distribution strategy is MoEngage.

The platform enables you to personalize your customer communication. With MoEngage, your customer journey is taken care of with their AI optimizer, event trigger notifications, and data insights.

What is omni-channel marketing?

It means the same – Omni-channel marketing or omnichannel marketing. In omni channel marketing, brands use the power of multiple channels – like emails, WhatsApp, SMS, and social media – to connect with their customers and to nudge them to take action – like making a purchase.

When it comes to omni channel retail, the channels sometimes include their offline store.

What is an example of a multi-channel retailer?

Some of the multi channel retailing examples are Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. These brands have successfully implemented multi channel marketing strategies to connect and engage with their customers. Some of the top channels that these brands are successful in are:

  • Social media
  • Retail marketplaces
  • Brick-and-mortar stores.

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Sephora: The Omnichannel Strategy Which Redefined CX in Cosmetics

Sephora Omnichannel Strategy

While many other brick-and-mortar high-street brands have crumbled throughout the decades, luxury cosmetic giants, Sephora have gained a stronghold in the competitive cosmetics retail landscape. Survival has been, in part, a result of Sephora’s omnichannel strategy, which ultimately redefined the cosmetics shopping experience. 

From its humble beginnings as a small perfumery in the French town of Limoges, Sephora is firmly in the retail spotlight as one of the leading brands of personal care and luxury beauty products. Like Fartech (which we covered in  this case study) , Sephora’s business model is geared towards a diverse range of customer segments.

In this case study, we take a deep-dive into Sephora’s omnichannel marketing strategy and examine how the blend of in-store experiences with digital platforms has transformed the customer journeys and sustained Sephora’s growth strategy. 

Table of Contents

  • The History of Sephora
  • Awards Sephora has won to date
  • The key success factors that drive Sephora’s growth strategy
  • Authentic Customer Experience-focused mentality
  • Exceptional Omnichannel Strategy
  • Omni-Channel Company Culture
  • Turning Data into Growth
  • Data-driven Mobile strategy
  • “Augmented” Retail Strategy
  • Solid Business Continuity & Crisis Management Strategy
  • How Sephora’s omnichannel strategy redefined customer experience in cosmetics retail?
  • Example #1: Sephora’s Visual Artist feature
  • Example #2: Multi-Purpose & content-rich Mobile app

Example #3: Building a stellar community

  • Sephora’s eCommerce website
  • Analyzing Sephora’s Home Page
  • Analyzing Sephora’s Category Page
  • Analyzing Sephora’s Product Page
  • Analyzing Sephora’s Checkout Process

Go omnichannel or go home (probably)

The history of sephora .

Sephora has always been an innovative brand. When Dominique Mandonnaud opened his first store in Limoges, France (known then as Shop 8), products were grouped by type rather than brand. This allowed customers to try more products they were drawn to. 

The company’s first Paris store opened in 1970, and by 1998, Sephora was among the industry-leading champions for diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment. The business quickly spread its presence across Europe and the United States. Today, the Sephora at Champs Élysées  attracts over six million people  a year. 

Owned by LVMH  Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury goods group, Sephora stores feature a variety of beauty products from more than 300 brands. No wonder Sephora’s new tagline and manifesto is, “We Belong to Something Beautiful”!

history of sephora

Awards Sephora has won to date 

Given Sephora’s rise to retail prominence, it’s no surprise to see they have picked up numerous awards on their journey. To date, the company has garnered 19 awards, but we expect there are more to follow. 

  • Women’s Wear Daily “Specialty Retailer of the Year” (2010)
  • Beauty 2.0 Awards “Best Pinterest” (2013)
  • Beauty 2.0 Awards “Best e-Commerce Website” (2013) 
  • Beauty 2.0 Awards “Best Blog by Beauty Brand” (2013)
  • World Retail Congress Retailer of the Year Award (2018)
  • Glossy Awards Innovation Team of the Year award (2018) 
  • Glossy Awards Best Campaign by a Traditional Beauty Brand (2018)
  • SHEFinds’ “Best New Beauty Products” (2019)
  • HelloGiggles “Beauty Crush Awards” (2019)
  • Cosmopolitan’s “The Cosmo Makeup Awards” (2019) 
  • 2 x Women’s Health “Beauty Awards” (2019)
  • The Knot “Beauty Awards” (2019)
  • Cosmopolitan’s “Skincare Awards” (2019)
  • Parents “Beauty Awards” (2019)
  • Cosmopolitan’s “Holy Grail Beauty Awards” (2020) 
  • ESSENCE’s “Best in Black Beauty” (2020)
  • SheFinds “Best New Beauty Awards” (2020)
  • Parents “Beauty Award” (2020)
  • Allure Best Of Beauty (2020)

Sephora has also featured in numerous indexes, “best in class” lists, and honors. 

Tommy Hilfiger Banner

The key success factors that drive Sephora’s growth strategy 

In their own words, Sephora is “a leader of prestige omni-retail.” The company’s goal is to create a shopping experience that enables beauty and cosmetic customers to purchase products confidently.

Sephora’s marketing team has taken retail to the next level since they have mastered the art of bringing both the offline and the online customer journey into a holistic shopping experience. 

Between 2017 and 2019, Sephora consistently reached revenues of $6 billion, a near 50% increase from just five years prior when the personal care giant was only registering $4 billion. 

Sephora’s retail strategy can be honed down to 7 key strategies.

Key success factor #1: Authentic customer experience

The Sephora business strategy centers around the customer shopping experience. Their in-store set-up is a digital playground for beauty enthusiasts. Utilizing various mobile technologies, screens, and customer-focused sales tactics, Sephora’s takes advantage of new-generation digital technologies such as augmented reality. Store assistants use iPads to showcase the multitude of shades and colors so customers can try before they buy.

Key success factor #2: Exceptional omnichannel strategy

Sephora was among the early adopters of an omnichannel strategy as part of their digital marketing efforts. Central to the Sephora marketing strategy is a mobile app that provides customers with a central hub where they can access all things related to beauty, cosmetics, and skincare. 

With a bevy of new products, video tutorials, celebrity news, and fashion trends directly within the mobile app that consistently encourages customers to return, Sephora’s digital marketing strategy keeps its audience informed, up-to-date, and hungry for more. 

Moreover, Sephora has nailed loyalty marketing as well. By nurturing customers who spend 15x more than the average customer , Sephora has built a seamless, unified, and personalized customer experience by launching groundbreaking technologies like  ColorIQ , ‘ Smell O Vision,’  and famous Sephora Visual Artist.

omnichannel marketing case study

Key success factor #3: Omni-Channel company culture

Sephora’s retail strategy uses data and technology to bring the shopping experience to life. But the “secret sauce” behind its omnichannel success is simple yet far too difficult to copy. In 2018, the company went one step further by merging its digital and physical retail teams and developed a world-class omnichannel approach. 

By creating one team, Sephora focused on overall sales rather than prioritizing its eCommerce strategy. This purely omnichannel approach enables marketers to track the entire customer journey from online browsing to in-store interactions with sales representatives and over-the-counter sales. Sephora is one of the very few retailers globally which turned omnichannel business thinking into action. 

Key success factor #4: Turning data into growth

Sephora recognized a large percentage of shoppers use personal smartphones to search for online reviews, recommendations and compare the price of products with their competitors. 

Rather than treating personal devices as a threat, Sephora developed a retail strategy  to take advantage of mobile technologies . With the help of Google Analytics 360 Suite, their analytics team was able to identify which online advertising was driving in-store purchases. The Sephora marketing strategy was born from this data, and sales from  digital ads soared by 3x .

Key success factor #5: Data-driven mobile strategy

Given that most online searches take place on a mobile phone, Sephora saw the advantage of incorporating a  mobile app  to enhance their retail strategy. 

The app is designed to provide its customers with valuable information such as reviews and emulate a sales associate to provide relevant product recommendations. 

Being always data-driven, Sephora has foreseen the rise of mobile during the early 2010s by heavily investing in mobile technologies. 

For example, Sephora was among the first brands launched in Apple’s Passbook in 2012, getting more than 87k app downloads per week. But was that a result of luck? Certainly not. Sephora knew that approximately 70% of its mobile users came from iOS devices, which is why it was quick to invest in Apple’s digital wallet.

Key success factor #6: “Augmented” retail strategy

Beauty and cosmetic shoppers consume video content across multiple devices. Sephora takes advantage by including tutorials and evocative images in their  retail strategy  by using brand ambassadors and micro-influencers on social networks and YouTube.  

Sephora’s customer engagement strategy provides customers with access to valuable content. “Groups” and “Conversations” enabled Sephora to build a vibrant community of beauty aficionados. In-store digital components such as welcome screens, menus, and sales assistants armed with mobile devices help customers find the right product. 

The amount of earned media Sephora from user-generated content (UGC) every month has no match in the cosmetics industry.

Key success factor #7: Solid business continuity & crisis management strategy

When stores were forced to close during the global pandemic, Sephora’s eCommerce strategy shifted to expand its online efforts to make it easier for customers to search for products from the comfort of their homes. 

To enhance operational efficiency, Sephora tweaked its supply chain strategy across warehouse locations, inventory management, and automation. Sephora also took steps to align inventory with projected sales, thereby minimizing ‘out-of-stock’ products. 

These business reflexes highlight  bold business continuity skills  that help the company overcome the tide. 

How Sephora’s omnichannel strategy redefined customer experience in cosmetics retail?

Example #1: sephora’s visual artist feature .

Sephora omnichannel strategy - digital tools.

With hundreds of products in each category, shopping for beauty products can be overwhelming. To help customers find the right products, Sephora incorporates augmented reality technology and ‘Color IQ,’ enabling customers to virtually ‘try before they buy.’ 

Sephora’s mobile app includes a  Virtual Artist feature  that scans the user’s face and matches their skin tone with a complimentary color. The technology incorporates  artificial intelligence (AI) and uses facial recognition software  that reveals how a particular product will look when applied by the customer. 

Once customers decide on a particular product, they are directed to the relevant page to purchase the product online or locate the product in a store. 

Example #2: Multi-Purpose & content-rich mobile app

Sephora omnichannel strategy - mobile integration

Sephora gathers data through its mobile app, a source of customers’ in-store and online habits. Such data helps Sephora to make relevant product suggestions, which influences future purchasing decisions. 

For example, Sephora sends notifications to individual customers that have searched for a specific item. The notification may inform customers when new products are in store, offers gifts on their birthday, and announces upcoming events. It also notifies when live events that

 are happening when a customer is close by geographically.

Not only does Sephora’s augmented reality feature provide an innovative in-store experience, but its mobile app also enhances in-store experiences by using bar codes that provide product information, reviews, and personal purchase history upon scanning.

Sephora Omnichannel Strategy - User community

The Sephora business model focuses on enhancing the customer experience. An effective way of achieving this is to encourage its growing community of followers to share their experiences, knowledge, and tips.

On its website, the retail giants have created a  Beauty Insider Community  where users can gravitate to engage in friendly discussion, ask and answer questions, share photos, recommend products and connect with like-minded shoppers.

Sephora’s eCommerce website 

Sephora is undoubtedly one of the most digital-savvy retailers around. To figure out what makes their online strategy masterful, we’ve analyzed 4-page templates to determine what’s hot and not.

A. Analyzing Sephora’s Home Page

Sometimes, the simple approach is the most effective. When you have an overwhelming choice of products like Sephora, a minimalistic web design is a way to go. 

Sephora Homepage

What we liked:

  • Easy to navigate:  Today’s shoppers do not have the patience to search for products. Sephora makes finding the most popular product categories instantaneous by linking to skincare, makeup, and fragrances directly from the Hero space. It’s the first thing shoppers see. The rest of the home page provides a list of Sephoras other products built into the company’s merchandise strategy. 
  • Engaging visuals:  Sephora has opted for a simple white background overlaid with high-definition images of their product range. Without conflicting colors obscuring the PNGs, the images ping from the screen and are easy to recognize.
  • Slick UX:  The homepage uses pagination arrows, allowing visitors to view more products in the same category without leaving the homepage.  
  • Great use of top/smart bars:  Sephora showcases its coupon-based promotions right at the top of the website, an excellent placement that’s highly visible yet non-intrusive to the rest of the browsing experience.
  • Easy access to social media : Visitors can reach Sephora’s social media accounts with a single click. Placed within the website footer, the social media icons are easy to find. 

What we didn’t like:

  • Overwhelming:  We’re nit-picking a little here, but the homepage showcases too many products. This may subtract from the shoppers’ overall exploring experience, as too many choices from the homepage can be overwhelming for users that are new to the site.

B. Analyzing Sephora’s Category Page 

Ecommerce websites with massive product categories can sometimes be difficult for visitors to navigate. Sephora’s web designers have done a great job at neatly organizing the category pages’ structure and making it easy for shoppers to locate products.

Sephora Category Page

What we liked: 

  • Well Organised Navigation Menu:  Finding products when there are thousands to choose from could be a complete mind-bender for online shoppers. Yet, Sephora did a great job organizing categories across the upper bar menu and listing each sub-category in a sidebar menu on the category pages. Sephora adopts a nested structure by listing categories inside the category pages and numerous products under each category. 
  • Quick Look functionality:  With one click, shoppers can look behind product images and discover the essential information about a particular item. Sephora has included a color palette and helpfully highlights which tones and shades are not in stock by marking it with an X. 
  • Personalized Suggestions:  Simple but effective; a list of “holiday gifts” and products under $25 provide customers with shopping inspirations that ultimately lead to purchase conversions.
  • Filter Options:  To make it easier for their customers to explore the multitude of products, Sephora offers a useful filter function on the left-hand menu. It helps customers significantly narrow their purchasing options by quickly navigating to the preferred brands within the desired price range.

What we didn’t:

  • Too “old school”:  Despite Sephora being a rather innovative brand, the overall design of its eCommerce site and the UX seems to stick to the basics. The same goes for its product listing, which follows the typical design flow. While safe, it doesn’t provide anything surprising for the user to experience.
  • Partial Visuals:  Sephora’s website is not the most visually appealing despite its best efforts to include high-quality product images. The tips offered at the bottom of the category page – while useful for SEO – probably go unnoticed by customers only because it appears like a chunk of text. The placement doesn’t invite visitors to pay any attention to it despite offering some great tips. This section would be more enticing and aesthetically pleasing if there’s more emphasis on the visual and organization, like the example below. 

Sephora content

C. Analyzing Sephora’s Product Page 

Sephora’s product pages are intuitive, focuses on the products, and provide loads of detailed information. The attention it has paid listening to and answering consumer questions is remarkable – one of the best we have encountered. 

Sephora product page

  • Product Videos:  We noticed product videos before the page fold for numerous products. This is an excellent tactic to skyrocket the customer experience, increase average session duration, and reduce the bounce rate.
  • Explore this Product : This is an excellent section that enhances user engagements and “injects” tons of social proof on the product pages by featuring user-generated content from customers and influencers.
  • Shipping Selection:  Customers can reserve and collect items from their nearest store or pay for shipping. Sephora also informs shoppers how much more they need to spend to qualify for free shipping, a nice touch that can further boost shopper spending per order.
  • Exceptional Product Info:  Sephora has made a concerted effort to provide as much relevant information as possible to beauty connoisseurs. Tips include how to use products and ingredients. This section helps to build customers’ confidence through product education.

omnichannel marketing case study

  • Customer Reviews:  The thousands of authentic customer reviews with star ratings for each product is by itself a key driver for sales. Furthermore, Sephora asks reviewers to provide details of their eye color, hair color, and skin tone, so buyers are more informed on the purchase decision.

omnichannel marketing case study

  • CTA button:  There is only one “add to basket” button at the top of the page but a lot of scrolling for shoppers to learn about the product. It would be more convenient for customers if the add to basket CTA is stickier, either appearing at specific intervals within a page or remaining visible as shoppers scroll down the page.

D. Analyzing Sephora’s Checkout Process 

Sephora Cart Page

  • Guest option:  Not all online shoppers are comfortable with registering accounts with eCommerce brands. Sephora recognizes this and conveniently allow buyers to “check out as guest.” Nice touch.
  • Reserve and collect:  Sephora offers its customers the option to reserve a product and collect it from a store. This hybrid eCommerce model is ideal for customers that do not want to hand over sensitive information such as email and payment details or wait for the shipping to arrive.
  • Credible payment options:  Both Paypal & Klarna are trustworthy payment solutions that certainly reassure consumers to convert easier.
  • Nice, minimal design:  The checkout process offers   clear, distinct steps with friendly color coding. The absence of a top menu and footer creates a neater user experience geared towards conversions.

Sephora Checkout

  • Lack of Safety Badges:  None trust badges, icons, or copywriting optimization like “Pay securely via…” was spotted, despite transaction safety is among the most crucial  checkout best practices  in eCommerce.
  • Restrictive Shipping:  Shipping options outside the US, Canada, or Japan is impossible. There is no UK or EU website, for example, and addresses in Europe are not available options. While this may be part of Sephora’s expansion strategy, we consider this as a missed opportunity for the millions of international visitors who may come across Sephora’s brand.

Interesting eCommerce tools that Sephora uses 

Using BuiltWith, we scanned Sephora’s US website to highlight some of the eCommerce technologies Sephora uses among its arsenal. 

  • Klarna : The UK retail startup which revolutionizes the shopping experience adding great payment flexibilities to both customers and retailers.
  • Signal : Offers deep analytical insights and real-time customer connections so brands can build profiles of high-value customers. 
  • Certona : This resonance personalization tool tracks consumer behavior and provides personalized recommendations based on real-time interactions.
  • Olapic : A leading visual commerce software that strengthens product pages by showcasing user-generated content from the company’s social media accounts.

Some other interesting eCommerce tools that are worth mentioning, are the ones used by ASDA and the John Lewis brand, UK’s top homeware retailer , like Omniture SiteCatalyst, Bazaarvoice, and Hotjar.

Impressive Sephora stats you may not know 

  • Sephora is an empire: 2,600 stores in 36 countries worldwide!
  • The company currently employs more than 30,000 employees
  • Sephora has been twice recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Employers in 2018 and 2019
  • Sephora’s website receives almost 60m visitors a month

Breaking Sephora news not to miss

  • Sephora will open mini shops inside 850 Kohl’s stores by 2023, as retailer bets big on beauty – CNBC
  • Sephora Shows How Inclusivity Is Good For Business – Forbes

Throughout its history, Sephora’s expansion strategy has been admirable. The pivot to digital platforms has been highly impressive, triumphantly succeeding where so many other established high street brands failed miserably. 

In short, Sephora’s success is not by accident. The company has built a solid foundation based on a customer-centric business model and marketing strategy from in-depth research to understand its audience’s needs and behaviors. Moreover, Sephora has successfully extended its strategic advantage across both online and physical channels it serves – an exceptionally well-executed omnichannel offering.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve and consumers hanker after convenience and personalization, eCommerce businesses face challenges to improve and adapt their business strategies. Omnichannel is not the future any longer. It’s here in our present age, and the sooner retailers prioritize their business strategy and goals, growth and results will follow.

ContactPigeon, one of the leading  customer engagement  and marketing automation solutions for retailers in Europe, has numerous capabilities to help any retail brand take the next step towards business transformation.

omnichannel marketing case study

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Ecommerce tips, strategies, and news – all without ever having, [case study] 17 omnichannel strategies and tactics breakdown.

Omnichannel retailing   isn’t new. But the truth is … Most retailers are failing at creating successful omnichannel strategies. Despite the vast majority (90%) of brands having an omnichannel strategy in place, only 8% feel like they are succeeding. This omnichannel case study is going to break down one of the most successful retailers, and how they use omnichannel marketing to drive revenue. Read on to learn the real strategies and tactics Nordstrom uses across the three main components of any omnichannel strategy:

  • Personalization  - Understanding your customer enables you to personalize each touchpoint across devices and locations. 
  • Fulfillment  - Connecting offline and online channels through fulfillment provides an incredible convenience to customers and sales uplift and brand loyalty.
  • Customer  - You need to collect and connect customer behavior, demographics, product/category affinities, and purchase history across all channels in one place.

How Nordstrom Personalizes Customer Experiences With Omnichannel Marketing

Nordstrom has long been a leader in Omnichannel retailing. Underpinning their strategy is an extreme focus on what has always distinguished Nordstrom: superior customer service, convenience, and understanding customer wants.

Omnichannel marketing means being where your customers are. It requires the active management of multiple channels to drive sales, and systems to support personalized engagements.

Our customer strategy focuses on providing a seamless and high-quality experience across all Nordstrom channels. - Nordstrom 10k, 2016

These first few examples show how Nordstrom personalizes the customer experience based on intent - connecting social discovery and eCommerce fulfillment seamlessly.

Connecting Social to Brick & Mortar

Using pinterest to supercharge discovery and drive retail traffic.

Omnichannel social strategies

Image Credit

Since 2013, Nordstrom has integrated Pinterest directly to their stores. They first did this by highlighting their most popular items on Pinterest with in-store displays.

In 2018, Nordstrom is taking their Pinterest game to new levels. Pinterest recently released a new "Pincode" feature, which allows shoppers to scan a code and be taken to a Pinterest board. This gif made by the Pinterest team shows exactly how it works.

  • ​ Nordstrom shoppers scan the Pincode while in-store
  • Shoppers are taken to an curated board of gifts under $100
  • Nordstrom sell more

​You can see the actual board Nordstrom uses here .

Using Youtube to Extend Customer Service

In-store, Nordstrom associates are able to guide clients to the purchase purchase with their expert style advice. With video, Nordstrom is able to recreate this type of customer service online. In fact, video has become key for educating and motivating clients on how to put wardrobes together. The final call to action is perfect.

It underlines the shortcomings of a video, and invites the customer to come in and talk to their own personal style expert.

Nordstrom connecting Social to Instore

Connecting Social to Online Stores

omnichannel marketing case study

Nordstrom also uses social to drive online sales.

One example is through Instagram's Shoppable Posts. Mary Beech, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Kate Spade explains:

Traditionally, our customer had turned to Instagram for inspiration, and we're seeing that she's reacting positively to the new shopping experience, which allows her to seamlessly tap and shop the product - going from inspiration to information to purchase in just a few steps.

Below are some quick screenshots that illustrate the customers journey from social to purchase. 

First, Nordstrom shows the products in native Instagram posts. When they click the product, the next screen is given (still in the Instagram app). 

This screen carries more product information, as well as clear product photos that allow the customer to determine if they want to buy. Finally, when a customer clicks "Shop Now" they are brought to the online store.

omnichannel marketing case study

Key Takeaways

Customers use social for discovery and education. By meeting customers where they are, you can engage with shoppers early in the buyer journey with entertaining or educational content.

Extending Personalized Communication Beyond the Store

omnichannel marketing case study

One of Nordstrom's key advantages is connecting with customers through their sales associates. Sales associates at Nordstrom's are expected to deliver personalized product recommendations, and guide the customer through their store. However, as customers increasingly shop online, Nordstrom's needed a way to replicate this personalized experience online. Partnering with technology company BevyUp, Nordstrom's is able to initiate (or continue) conversations with customers online, and provide the same level of personalization on mobile. BevvyUp's partnership with Nordstrom resulted in

  • +32%  - Online Conversion Rate
  • x5  - Average Online Order Value
  • -50%  - Store Return Decrease

The partnership was so successful that  Nordstrom decided to acquire the company , and fully integrate it into their own employee app coming out in late 2018.

Other Personalization OmniChannel Marketing Tactics  Used

 I want to quickly list a few other ways Nordstrom personalizes their interactions with their customers.

Personalized in-app communication

Loyalty Programs - Loyalty program that rewards shoppers points regardless of where you complete the purchase.

Congruent Experience Across Devices  

Buy Online, Pickup In Store -  Customers can purchase items and pickup them up in store. 

How to fuel Omnichannel Retailing with Cross Channel Fulfillment

Nordstrom recognizes that in order to succeed at omnichannel, they must support fulfillment across all of their channels. Again, their guiding principle is convenience and customer service. As Brian Gill, the technology senior vice president explains -

"The retail environment is changing faster than ever, but the value of service, speed, convenience and newness remain constant,"

"The retail environment is changing faster than ever, but the value of service, speed, convenience,, and newness remain constant." - Brian Gill

Connect your offline and online worlds with your store app

Nordstrom in app purchase

In 2016 Nordstrom added a "Reserve and Try in Store" feature for their in-app shoppers. Nordstrom shoppers often look up products before going in-store to try products on and purchase. With this feature enables, Nordstrom allows customers to place items "on reserve". Nordstrom completley nails the execution. Once a store clerk has collected the reserved items and placed them in a dressing room with the customers name attached to the door, a simple text message is sent, letting the shopper know their reserved items are waiting for them. Items are kept until the store closes the next day.

Evolve your business model to fit customer expectations

A post shared by Nordstrom Topanga (@diana_lopez_beauty_stylist) on Oct 3, 2017 at 12:06pm PDT

The most successful digital first retail stores are beginning to open phsycial space retail stores. Warby Parker  operates upwards of 63 stores. Likewise, Bonobos and Moda Operandi have already opened their first physical stores. Nordstrom is taking notice and action. Their latest effort is opening a store where the merchandise is on display but you can't take it home.

  • No inventory
  • Delivery Only
  • Onsite Tailoring
  • Full service Drink Bar

While the average department store spans over 140,000 square feet, the first Nordstrom Local came in right at 3,000 .

Keeping in line with their omnichannel strategy , the boutique supports returns of online purchases and curbside pickup of online orders.  The store also highlights what distinguishes Nordstrom from its competitors: service.

In this case, a full service bar is offered where shoppers can receive personal advice from a professional stylist - not to mention enjoy the other drink and nail care amenities.

Other Omnichannel Fulfillment Tactics Used

In addition to these omnichannel fulfillment strategies, Nordstrom utilizes a number of  other tactics including:

  • Cross channel inventory  - Store inventory is shared across all channels
  • In-store inventory online  - Physical store availability is able to be seen online
  • Curbside Pickup  - Shoppers can purchase online, drive to a store, text an associate, and have their cart ran from in-store to car-door.
  • In-store purchase w/ Home Delivery  - In reverse, shoppers can enjoy in-store customer service, make a purchase, and opt to not carry around bags as they continue shopping.

Connecting Data Across Brands and Platforms

omnichannel marketing case study

Powering all of Nordstrom's omnichannel strategies and tactics is the ability to unify customer data. 

Data fuels omnichannel strategies and tactics. The goal is simple: get all of your customer data in one place, make that data easily accessible, and use that data. 

Free Resource (no opt-in):  Click here   to see the key data questions you need to ask to empower your omnichannel strategy. 

Like most retailers, expanding sales channels has been a major fulcrum of growth for the company. As the number of channels retailers use increase, so does the complexity and the need for data unification. 

Today, retailers use a number of channels including:

  • Multiple websites  
  • Physical Stores -  Digital first brands such as Bonobos are launching physical stores.  ​​
  • Wholesale -  Increasingly, wholesale first customers are beginning to build relationships directly with consumers, while retailers have always expanded to wholesale once they reach scale. ​​
  • Mobile/App -  Mobile conversion and traffic stats continue to grow.
  • Telephone Orders
  • Social Marketplaces  -  eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and chat marketplaces.  ​​

Nordstrom's Many Sales Channels

Like most established retailers, Nordstrom's uses a multitude of sales channels to connect with customers.

What separates Nordstroms (and makes their quest for omnichannel success that much more difficult) is the number of distinct brands the business manages.

As of March 20th, 2017 - Nordstrom operated 344 US stores and three major eCommerce platforms: Nordstrom.com, Nordstromrack.com/HauteLook, and TrunkClub.com.

While the majority of their retail stores fall under two brands (Nordstrom and Nordstram rack), they also operate Trunk Club clubhouses, Jeffery Boutiques, and "Last Chance". 

In addition to their eCommerce stores, Nordstrom also has a whole suite of customer facing apps where customers engage with the brand and complete orders. 

All in all - Nordstrom's sales channels include

  • Three Major Brands  
  • Physical Stores  - 344 stores in the US
  • eCommerce Stores  - 3 total, one for each brand.
  • Social Channels  - A multitude of social channels for each brand including Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and others.
  • Mobile Apps  - 3 total, one for each brand.

Connecting Customer Data

Despite this complexity, Nordstrom is able to connect customer data - creating a seamless experience even across brands.

Nordstrom unifies customer data across   all  of these brands and channels. Customer preferences, sales history, and information are stored in the same account - accessible by each brand and customer.

In other words, if a customer shops at Nordstroms, and then Nordstrom Rack, that information is kept together.

​Other Omnichannel Data Unification ​Tactics

This fundamental ability to combine customer data empowers all of the omnichannel personalization and fulfillment strategies. 

Additionally, there are a few data unification tactics that Nordstrom uses to enhance the customer experience.

  • Cross channel returns and exchanges   ​
  • Save preferred store

Next Steps...

Creating an effective Omnichannel strategy is not easy. 

The first step is getting your data together in one place, and selecting a personalization vendor that empowers you to build seamless, personal, customer experiences across platforms and devices.

We've put together an in-depth guide on how to select a personalization partner here . 

If you're interested to see how Barilliance can help your brand, you can request a demo here.

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Omnichannel B2B Marketing: A Guide + Case Study

In today’s digital era, B2B companies are embracing omnichannel marketing to provide seamless customer experiences across a variety of platforms. This approach integrates multiple marketing channels to create a seamless and personalized journey for both prospects and existing clients.

Omnichannel marketing can sound complex, but it’s not as complicated as it seems. At its root, it’s simply using many marketing channels at once to reach your audience.

We hope to simplify it and give some tangible examples in this blog post. We will delve into the nuances of omnichannel marketing in the B2B realm, exploring its significance, strategies, best practices, and cover an example from one of our clients (we helped them increase their sales by 203% using an omnichannel approach).

What Exactly Is Omnichannel Marketing?

In short, omnichannel marketing is a customer-centric approach to marketing. It involves putting the customer at the center of all of your activities – from social media to the sales process – and communicating a clear and consistent message across the board. It typically involves using multiple channels and platforms to create an omnipresent experience for them.

As we’ll discuss later, the key is a consistent and seamless experience across every touchpoint.

multichannel vs omnichannel marketing

Challenges of Omnichannel B2B Marketing

B2B digital marketing is distinct from B2C in several ways. It involves longer sales cycles, a smaller, more niche target audience, and often requires nurturing high-value clients through personalized relationships. The decision-making process in B2B transactions is complex, typically involving multiple stakeholders, and is driven by logic and financial incentive. Consequently, the digital marketing strategies employed must cater to educating and building trust with potential clients over time through detailed content, comprehensive service demonstrations, and robust engagement platforms.

b2b buyer's journey

The nature of B2B marketing creates some hurdles when it comes to omnichannel marketing, largely due to this complexity.

One significant challenge is the integration of various digital platforms and channels to deliver a unified brand message. And aligning internal teams to ensure a consistent customer experience is often a logistical test. The more touchpoints there are, the more complex omnichannel becomes.

However, these challenges are balanced by the opportunity to leverage a wealth of data for deeper customer insights, craft more personalized campaigns, and increase touchpoints that can nurture leads through the sales funnel more effectively.

The nature of B2B transactions also means that opportunities in omnichannel marketing can lead to substantial rewards. The ability to deliver targeted content through the right channels at the right time can significantly influence the purchasing decisions of businesses.

Several B2B industries are seeing great results thanks to an omnichannel approach:

  • Many in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry utilizes webinars, live chats, social media engagement, and email nurturing campaigns to educate and convert leads.
  • In manufacturing, companies are combining traditional sales tactics with digital catalogues, mobile applications, and virtual reality tours to showcase their products and services.
  • Professional services firms are leveraging thought leadership through white papers and case studies distributed across different social channels, email, and industry forums to build credibility and generate leads.

Building an Effective Omnichannel Strategy for B2B

Creating an omnichannel marketing strategy in a B2B environment is a complex task that demands a deep understanding of your audience, meticulous planning of your marketing channels, astute use of data and analytics, personalized content delivery, and a synergy between sales and marketing efforts.

Understanding Your Target Audience

We say this in every blog post we write, but any successful marketing campaign starts with this.

Crafting detailed buyer personas is crucial. These personas represent your ideal customer base and are based on real data about customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed your personas, the better you can tailor your omnichannel strategy to the specific needs, interests, and challenges of your prospects, ensuring relevancy and effectiveness.

Once you have a persona, you need to map their journey. Journey mapping is a visual representation of every experience your customers have with you. It helps in understanding the many interactions customers have with your brand before they make a purchase. By mapping the customer journey, you can identify key touchpoints where targeted interventions can be made to move prospects through the sales funnel.

Integrating Different Marketing Channels

Start by identifying the key marketing channels for your audience and personas based on their maps / journeys. Not all channels will be right for your business. The key is to identify where your buyers are spending their time and how they prefer to engage. For B2B, LinkedIn, email marketing, webinars, and trade websites are often key channels, but this can vary greatly by industry and audience. You need to also consider your offline channels, too.

Once you’ve chosen your channels, the key is staying consistent across them all. Consistency is the bedrock of effective omnichannel marketing. Your brand’s message should be coherent whether a customer engages with an email, a social media post, or a webinar. Consistency in tone, messaging, and visual branding reassures clients of your reliability and professionalism.

Leveraging Data and Analytics

Data collection and analysis are what make personalized, targeted marketing possible. By collecting data across all channels, you can gain insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and pain points, allowing you to optimize your marketing efforts continuously.

But the key is making sure you’re collecting everything and are able to analyze it efficiently. It’s easier said than done.

CRM and marketing automation tools will be your best friends here. They can handle vast amounts of data, help manage customer interactions, and automate repetitive tasks. They allow for more personalized, timely interactions with potential customers and provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of marketing strategies.

hubspot analytics

Personalization and Segmentation

Personalization is not just about addressing a customer by name; it’s about delivering content that resonates with their specific industry, business size, and stage in the buying cycle. This level of personalization requires a deep understanding of your audience segments, so make sure you took your time building out personas and journey maps.

If you have really clear segments, you may consider rolling out an ABM play as a piece of your omnichannel marketing strategy. ABM is a strategic approach where marketing and sales treat individual prospect accounts as markets in their own right—a perfect fit for B2B. This approach focuses resources on a set of target accounts within a market and employs personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each account.

omnichannel abm dashboard

Sample ABM Omnichannel Campaign Dashboard

Using omnichannel marketing is the key to a successful ABM campaign. You want to be in front of your prospect offering them value everywhere they turn (without overwhelming them). For example, you might target your list of accounts with:

  • Simple brand-focused display ads throughout the internet
  • Case study and whitepaper-download ads on LinkedIn
  • Brand video ads on Facebook / Instagram
  • Bi-weekly emails focused on thought leadership around industry developments
  • Physical mail once a month with branded gifts included

When each of these aspects is valuable and they’re all consistent in tone and messaging – your target accounts will have a hard time ignoring you.

A successful omnichannel strategy in B2B marketing hinges on an interplay between understanding the customer, utilizing the right channels, and leveraging technology to deliver a personalized and seamless experience. By focusing on these areas, B2B companies can not only meet but exceed the evolving expectations of their clients.

How We Helped CRIF Increase Sales by 203% with Omnichannel Marketing

We recently had the opportunity to work with business solution provider CRIF. Facing low brand awareness and disjointed brand identity post-expansion, CRIF approached us needing help growing awareness in the Asian market where they had recently acquired some local entities.

We started with targeted persona research to gain a better understanding of their audience. Once we knew our target, we reimagined their approach to organic social and put together a cohesive social media content strategy. We coupled their organic social overhaul with strategic LinkedIn content and optimized Google Ad campaigns, enabling CRIF to cultivate a unified and authoritative brand image that resonated with their audience across multiple platforms.

omnichannel marketing case study

The results were huge – a 40% increase in social media followers and a 63% decrease in cost per acquisition on top of their 203% increase in sales.

Check out the full omnichannel marketing case study here. 

Embrace the Future of B2B with an Omnichannel Approach

From understanding the nuances of B2B buyer behaviors to the integration and personalization of various marketing channels, the journey to omnichannel proficiency is complex yet deeply rewarding for brands who get it right. As digital marketing continues to evolve, the businesses that will thrive are those that embrace the omnichannel approach, blending technology, data, and content into a seamless narrative that speaks directly to the heart of their customer’s needs and challenges.

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A Study of 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works

  • Emma Sopadjieva,
  • Utpal M. Dholakia,
  • Beth Benjamin

omnichannel marketing case study

The more channels they use, the more money they spend.

Traditional retailers are feeling the heat. Even as competition intensifies , shoppers’ visits to retail stores are declining every year, leading one industry veteran to ominously ask his peers , “Is anyone not seeing large traffic declines?”

omnichannel marketing case study

  • ES Emma Sopadjieva is a research and analytics manager at Medallia, a global provider of SaaS-based customer experience management systems.
  • Utpal M. Dholakia is the George R. Brown Professor of Marketing at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and author of  How to Price Effectively: A Guide for Managers and Entrepreneurs .  
  • BB Beth Benjamin is senior director of research at Medallia, a global provider of customer experience management software. She applies organizational science to real-world problems, helping companies to adapt to the challenges of growth and market change.

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Omnichannel marketing

omnichannel marketing case study

Key Takeaways:

  • Customers increasingly expect organizations to provide fulfilling experiences across channels
  • By connecting data across channels, organizations can improve the customer experience and earn customer loyalty — which in turn increases customer retention and revenue
  • Composable CDPs are a powerful tool to overcome the common data management hurdles of implementing omnichannel marketing

Table of Contents

The modern purchasing experience involves an increasing number of channels — like social media, physical storefronts, email, and mobile apps — creating an opportunity for organizations to optimize the buyer journey .  

The average customer engages in between 20 and 500 brand touchpoints before making a purchase. Each touchpoint can provide organizations with key customer insights to personalize their experience across channels and touchpoints. Historically, however, organizations operated in siloes that restricted the flow of customer data.

Omnichannel marketing emerged as a concept around 2010 for marketers to connect data across the many different touchpoints in a customer’s journey to create a seamless and personalized experience across all channels.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless experience regardless of where or how the customer engages with a brand. It uses insights from a customer’s actions on one channel and reflects those insights across all other channels and brand interactions.

The common omnichannel marketing channels can include:

  • Physical storefront
  • Mobile application(s)
  • Email marketing
  • Social media
  • Instant messaging or chat channels
  • Text messages (SMS)
  • Online community or communities
  • Virtual or in-person events
  • Virtual reality or metaverse environments

Many brand touchpoints take place within each of these channels and can affect the customer experience.

For example, a physical storefront can include fitting or dressing rooms, the point of sale, and distinct areas within the store where customers may need assistance. The customer might use other channels to complement the in-store experience, like using the store website to confirm hours, checking social media or email for discounts, and using the mobile app to order a product and picking it up in-store.

The omnichannel approach breaks down the barriers between channels and enables organizations to approach customers with highly relevant messages, no matter where they are.

Building on the physical storefront example, a customer who purchases an item in-store could later receive an email suggesting a complementary product instead of a generic product — showing that the organization understands the customers’ interests.

By implementing an omnichannel strategy, organizations can deliver relevant and timely messages to target audiences like:

  • Email non-openers with a paid ad on social media
  • Highly engaged audiences with a push notification or SMS
  • Customers who abandon their shopping cart with an email and SMS
  • New product users with a series of help guides and how-to articles through email

Multichannel marketing vs. omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing is often confused with multichannel marketing. While related, they are two different marketing approaches.

The prefix omni- means all, whereas multi- means many or multiple. This gives a solid clue about the difference between omnichannel and multichannel approaches.

In omnichannel marketing, the customer or consumer is the focus and organizations meet them wherever they are. Omnichannel marketing reflects all interactions across channels and changes future interactions based on the customer’s activities.

For example, an omnichannel journey may include:

  • A customer visits a physical store location and receives a coupon
  • After visiting the store and not making a purchase, the customer could receive a text message reminding them of their coupon and encouraging them to browse online
  • While online, the customer receives suggested products based on their past purchases

Multichannel marketing, however, is more of a top-down approach, where the organization decides which channel(s) it will invest in, and each channel operates independently (meaning no data is shared across channels). Multichannel marketing often focuses on a specific product/service and reaches buyers most interested in those offerings.

As an example of multichannel marketing, a customer could receive a text message promoting a product, they purchase that product, and later in the week receive an email promoting the product they just purchased.

Cross-channel marketing vs. omnichannel marketing

Cross-channel marketing falls between multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing in terms of integration.

In a cross-channel marketing strategy, teams connect channels and share information across them, unlike in multichannel marketing. This means a customer could make a purchase online and later receive a thank-you email asking them to take a survey about the experience. 

Cross-channel marketing starts to break down organizational siloes, but it isn’t the fully integrated experience of omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel takes cross-channel marketing one step further and focuses on blending experiences across channels, not just fulfilling customer needs within each channel. Instead, it lightly supports a handoff across channels.

What are the benefits of an omnichannel marketing strategy?

An organization’s product or service quality is no longer enough to keep customers — 80% of customers say their experience with a company is equally important as the product or services.

The majority of consumers want brands to use their data to improve their experience. Further, 65% of customers and 78% of business buyers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences (something that is only possible with a complete look at their data).  

Omnichannel marketing is one of the best ways to fulfill customers’ evolving needs and build customer loyalty, and there are measurable benefits to adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy:

  • Nearly one in three shoppers will abandon a brand for a competitor if they receive communications or offers unrelated to their shopping behavior.
  • Customers who engage on multiple channels shop 1.7 times more than customers who use a single channel, and they spend more.

When organizations maintain a consistent brand presence across channels and tailor unique messages to address individual customers, they can improve the customer experience — which increases conversations, optimizes media spend, and delivers a higher ROI.

Omnichannel marketing examples

Omnichannel marketing strategies can benefit both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations. Consider these examples:

B2B fintech company omnichannel marketing

Although many published case studies focus on how B2C organizations have implemented an omnichannel marketing strategy, the approach can be equally important for B2B brands (which commonly have much longer sales cycles).

As a hypothetical example:

  • A B2B buyer could download a gated white paper about the benefits of automation in accounts payable, which enters them into the email marketing cycle.
  • The first email invites the buyer to complete their profile, which asks them to select the topic(s) they’re most interested in learning about (like digital payments, financial security, or compliance).
  • The following emails discuss topics related to the whitepaper and the buyer’s selected interests. Email engagement data like links clicked should inform future communications through email or paid advertisement.
  • Once the buyer makes a purchase, they could receive a 30-minute onboarding call, in which they receive a detailed product walk-through. Any information shared during this call will supplement the customer profile to inform future communications.

Disney omnichannel marketing

Disney is commonly celebrated for its omnichannel strategy and ‘ My Disney Experience ’ tool, which helps visitors plan their trips through a mobile app or website. When they arrive at the park, the tool provides maps and estimated ride wait times. It also integrates with other channels, including email and text, to send visitors important information or timely notifications when they matter most!

Netflix and Hulu omnichannel marketing

Video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu employ similar omnichannel marketing tactics to keep their customers engaged with the service. When new users sign up, they are encouraged to select several shows or movies to inform their recommendations. These inputs affect not just the in-app experience, but the email marketing they receive.  

As a user’s watch history builds, the services can deliver more intelligent recommendations and proactively alert viewers when new content is ready — like sending an email when a new season of their favorite show is available. The viewing experience is also consistent across devices, and customers can pick up where they left off on any show, regardless of where or how they are watching it.

REI omnichannel marketing

Specialty outdoor retailer REI has built its omnichannel strategy over several years, aiming to give customers consistent experiences and deliver personalized messages. The REI website shows inventory for nearby stores and online stock, giving customers flexibility on how they choose to order. Customers can use the REI mobile app to scan in-store barcodes and access detailed product descriptions. REI has also built robust customer segments to deliver emails and text messages tailored based on purchase history and preferences.

Starbucks omnichannel marketing

The Starbucks app gives customers total control over their experience. The app links to a customer’s rewards card so they earn points with every purchase. Customers can also view their point balance or load money onto their account to handle payments wherever they choose to shop. All changes reflect across every channel, meaning customers can rest assured they’ll receive a top-tier experience every time. The app also integrates with other communication channels, including email and text to ensure customers get relevant messages that reflect their preferences.

Omnichannel marketing best practices

There are many common pitfalls of implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy. The following best practices are proven to help overcome the challenges:

  • Conduct customer interviews - Supplement customer insights through direct 1:1 conversations or polls. These learnings can help improve customer journey maps.
  • Prioritize customer data management - One of the biggest hurdles for an omnichannel marketing strategy is incomplete or disconnected customer data. Ensure your team is fully trained on customer data management and consider adopting tools like a composable customer data platform (CDP) to make the process easier.
  • Unify the company branding - While it’s important to personalize specific customer messages, it’s also critical to ensure all communications and experiences reflect the same branding and brand identity. This way, customers recognize messages as coming from the same organization.
  • Optimize for multiple devices - Customers engage with brands from an increasing number of screens and devices. Test all messages and campaigns across devices, including iOS and Android mobile phones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops or desktops.

How can my team build an omnichannel marketing strategy?

Building an omnichannel marketing strategy is a way for organizations to future-proof their sales and marketing strategy. Take the following steps to get started:

Gather important stakeholders

Create a committee to discuss the organization’s current marketing approach and identify how to mature into an omnichannel strategy. Gather representatives from across the organization, including members of any customer-facing teams like sales and customer support, as well as IT and technical support and members of the C-suite leadership.

Ensure you have a single view of the customer

The only way to deliver an effective omnichannel experience is to ensure all online and offline customer data is available in one centralized location — a concept known as customer 360 . Having a single view of the customer ensures the organization has every potential data point that could influence a customer’s omnichannel experience. This also enables the organization to implement tools to automate experiences and deliver personalized messages using customer data.

Review your customer journey/journey maps

Review any customer journey maps or individual journey maps. There may be multiple journey maps based on different customer personas or segments, so gather every map — or create them — before starting.

When reviewing the journey maps, ask your committee the following questions:

  • How do customers currently interact with the brand?
  • What are the major touchpoints?
  • Which channels does the strategy currently support?
  • What gaps exist between what customers want and what the brand provides?

Find opportunities to connect touchpoints

After understanding where all customer touchpoints are, organizations should try to improve connectivity across touchpoints to deliver a true omnichannel experience. In some cases, the organization may need to implement a centralized data warehouse or data cloud to ensure customer data can be shared across all online and offline channels.

This step can take significant time, which is necessary given the many touchpoints the organization may have with customers. Work through each customer journey and possible scenario to connect channels and touchpoints.

An omnichannel marketing platform can accelerate this process (see below for recommendations on what to look for in an omnichannel marketing platform).

Measure outcomes and iterate

Once an organization achieves customer 360 and can leverage customer data across the customer journey, the organization should continuously test and measure different components of the omnichannel marketing strategy.

Everything from messages, headers, subject lines, images, and send times can affect the success of a marketing campaign. The goal is to test new ideas and use data to inform what works for individual customers.

Email marketing teams, for example, should A/B test messages to see what increases positive actions like email opens and clicks (and ideally boost revenue-per-email).

Do I need an omnichannel marketing platform?

It’s common for organizations to question whether they need an omnichannel marketing platform or related tools to enable an omnichannel marketing strategy.

Customer data management is a key component to omnichannel marketing, so investing in a customer data management solution is essential. Many organizations rely on a mix of customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise data warehouse (EDW), or customer data platform (CDP) solutions to manage customer data.

A composable customer data platform (CDP) is an advanced solution built to achieve customer 360 and can sit on top of these tools or other data warehouses. Composable CDPs also help address data privacy concerns and regulations because the customer data lives in the organization’s data cloud, instead of a third-party platform.

After the customer data is properly stored and integrated, teams should assess which tool(s) they need to act on the omnichannel marketing strategy.

Many large enterprise technology companies provide omnichannel marketing platforms, such as Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle, and HubSpot. These offerings often include multiple solutions that span functions, such as email marketing, paid advertisement, and sales capabilities.

Composable CDPs are built to integrate with omnichannel marketing platforms to help move data from a data warehouse to the platform. Alternately, marketers could build their own omnichannel platform using a composable CDP and connect the tools they want (like Braze for SMS, Iterable for email, and Hubspot for customer success).

To decide if the organization should adopt an omnichannel marketing platform, first assess the key channels in play for the customer journey and the current tools used to orchestrate experiences in those channels. Review the capabilities of each tool and whether they effectively tap into the customer data and can deliver automated experiences. If the current solutions fail to enable a consistent experience, then investing in an omnichannel marketing platform could be the fastest way to achieve the intended benefits.

When evaluating an omnichannel marketing platform, ask the following questions:

  • Which marketing channel(s) does the platform connect to?
  • What level of automation does the tool provide?
  • What are the key use cases of the platform?
  • Will the platform integrate with the organization’s existing tools?

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Creating an omnichannel supply chain: a macy’s case study.

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In February 2020, Macy’s announced their Polaris plan , a three-year strategy created to stabilize profits and create growth. This plan included closing 125 underperforming stores and consolidating offices. It also included a major overhaul of their supply chain model.

But, of course, Macy’s had to close their doors less than 6 weeks later due to COVID-19. As their online presence was the only presence available, their longstanding supply chain strategy, which was already starting to cause major issues within the company, needed immediate attention.

Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette stated in September 2020, “Everything on the digital agenda has been accelerated. We’re optimizing inventory placement to meet customer demand wherever and however they shop in our store.”

What’s so bad about Macy’s supply chain model?

Customers expect a strong omnichannel experience — one that integrates both the online and offline world of the retailer, enabling a frictionless shopping experience.

For retailers, the goal is to take the retailer’s replenishment cycle from days to hours and reduce inventory at stores. This way, retailers expand their use of stores to fulfil online orders and hold less inventory altogether, allowing them to dedicate more room for digital fulfillment.

Omnichannel shopping is the baseline expectation for customers, as companies such as Gap, Target, and many others have upped their omnichannel game.

And Macy’s is, er, behind.

Macy’s way of viewing their supply chain in the past was traditional: Move products from point A to point B and optimize costs at each stop along the way. Each delivery channel has its own transportation plan and technology stack, siloing all distribution and fulfillment centers.

This supply chain method was acceptable 10 years ago, but to stay afloat in the in-store and online retail spaces, Macy’s needed to make a change. Silos created major cost issues, not to mention slow speed and service in today’s two-day-delivery age.

The company’s supply chain model operated two separate warehouse networks, one for stores and the other for direct customer (online) orders. This system made rebalancing inventory nearly impossible, among other issues.

Macy’s supply chain also lacked a central platform for locating inventory at the SKU level across the chain, and the cost of goods were high compared to competitors since each private brand sold at May’s was sourced independently.

Creating a better supply chain

In 2019 Macy’s hired Dennis Mullahy , the first ever Chief Supply Chain Officer, to transform the supply chain into one that supports an omnichannel strategy.

Since then, Macy’s has made leaps and bounds in optimizing their supply flow, with COVID expediting the process.

The company is transitioning to a centralized warehouse model, implementing a flow and fold design, meaning a light initial allocation to stores and flexible replenishments. Multipurpose warehouses hold inventory, which can both replenish stores and fulfill e-commerce orders.

By having a centralized inventory, the retailer is better able to strengthen its margins and fulfill orders quicker and in the ways customers want.

“Our new model will leverage all of our assets much more productively and improve customer satisfaction by increasing speed of delivery as well as generate efficiencies in our operations and inventory utilization.” Dennis Mullahy wrote.

In addition, Macy’s is getting on board with using data and analytics to not only get items to customers faster, but also improve inventory forecasting and allocation and package consolidation.

The company plans to increase drop-shipping to boost margins in e-commerce, where delivery costs have been the largest drain on profits. They’ll also renew their efforts into Macy’s Backstage operations in order to compete with other off-price companies such as Nordstrom Rack and TJMaxx.

Behind the curve

And while these improvements are giving Macy’s the help it needs, they should’ve seen the warning signs sooner. Retailers of equal size have been making moves to change their supply chain for years now, and Macy’s is just catching up.

For example, Kohls has been working to integrate e-commerce and brick and mortar stores since the beginning of 2018. The company worked to change its purchase and inventory management system by starting with the smallest stores and working their way up.

Nordstrom has been working on omnichannel fulfillment for over 3 years, and brought in tech consulting firm Opex Analytics to help.

Walmart unveiled plans this month to install a high-tech automation system across 25 Walmart regional distribution centers through their partnership with Symbotic, a robotics and automation company — something they’ve been working toward since 2017. This system will digitize and modernize Walmart’s current supply chain facilities to enrich customer experience and support evolving demand.

But even though Macy’s may be a few steps behind, true omnichannel is a journey — and a difficult one at that. It requires a lot from the supply chain, especially in terms of speed, complexity, and efficiency. The global retailer is making strides in executing their Polaris plan by focusing more on the integrated fulfillment strategy and alternative fulfillment options and listening to what their customers want.  

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Customer behavior: how to create a cohesive omnichannel experience in the buying process

The term 'omnichannel' has long surpassed its initial buzzword status to become a cornerstone of modern retail strategy. The consumer landscape has changed dramatically, driven by technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences. 

Today's consumers are channel-agnostic and incredibly discerning, often interacting with brands across multiple touchpoints before making a purchase.

omnichannel marketing case study

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omnichannel marketing case study

The need for consistency in brand messaging across these diverse channels is not just a luxury but a business imperative. It's not about being present on multiple channels; it's about offering a seamless, integrated experience across them.  

This article aims to go beyond simple discussion and equip you with actionable, proven strategies to create a cohesive omnichannel experience throughout the customer's buying process.

Utilize integrated data systems

Before we delve into the specifics, it's crucial to understand that integrated data systems are the backbone of any successful omnichannel strategy. These systems are not just repositories of customer data; they are dynamic platforms that enable real-time decision-making and personalized customer interactions.

The systems and their roles, at the most basic level, include:

Ecommerce platforms: these are not just transactional endpoints but valuable sources of customer behavior and preference data. When integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) and point-of-sale (POS) systems, they can offer a 360-degree view of the customer.

CRM systems: far from being just databases of customer information, modern CRM systems can trigger highly personalized marketing campaigns based on real-time customer behavior and historical data.

POS systems: these systems have evolved to do more than just process in-store sales. Modern POS systems can sync with online customer profiles, providing invaluable data for personalized in-store experiences.

The integration of these systems offers benefits that go beyond operational efficiency. It enables brands to deliver personalized, context-aware messages and offers to customers, irrespective of the channel they choose for interaction. These integrated systems are the foundation for delivering personalized customer experiences and creating a marketplace of the future.

Deliver personalized customer experiences

Data analytics tools sift through vast amounts of data to provide actionable insights into customer behavior. They analyze both historical data and real-time interactions to offer a comprehensive understanding of customer preferences and pain points.

AI uses the insights from data analytics to predict future customer behavior. It can automate many aspects of customer interaction, from chatbots that handle routine queries to algorithms that personalize website content in real time.

Machine learning algorithms go a step further by continuously learning from new data. This enables them to refine their predictions and recommendations, making them more accurate over time.

The key here is to integrate data analytics, AI, and machine learning to create a predictive and responsive customer experience framework. This will allow you to not just respond to customer needs but to anticipate them, thereby elevating the entire customer journey .

Integrate customer support across channels

Since customers interact with your brand through various channels—social media, email, phone, and in-store—a disjointed support experience can be a deal-breaker, making a unified support experience a business imperative.

The crucial step is to implement a centralized customer support system capable of handling queries from all channels. A centralized support system is the cornerstone of a unified customer support strategy , often called an Omnichannel Customer Service Platform. 

This platform serves as a single point of contact for customer interactions across all channels. It should be integrated with your CRM to provide support agents with real-time customer data.

The advantages of this approach are numerous. Firstly, it significantly reduces the customer's effort in navigating your support ecosystem, as they get a consistent experience irrespective of the channel they choose. 

Secondly, it increases the chances of resolving issues during the first contact, as agents have all the necessary information readily available. Finally, the system allows for real-time analytics, providing valuable insights for continuous improvement.

Provide flexible ecommerce fulfillment options

Today's competitive landscape practically mandates offering multiple delivery options like next-day delivery, click-and-collect, and even same-day delivery. Customers now expect a range of choices. Offering time slots for delivery, locker pick-ups, and even the option to change delivery details on the fly can set you apart from the competition.

Returns and exchanges often serve as the litmus test for your fulfillment process. A cumbersome, confusing ecommerce returns process can sour the customer experience and deter future interactions with your brand. It's crucial to offer a seamless returns process, complete with pre-printed return labels, easy-to-follow instructions, and quick refunds or exchanges. 

The flexibility in your fulfillment options does more than just solve immediate logistical challenges; it has a long-term impact on how customers perceive your brand. A smooth, hassle-free fulfillment process can turn a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. Moreover, the convenience offered by flexible fulfillment options can also lead to positive word-of-mouth, amplifying your brand's reputation.

Use advanced inventory management systems

Advanced inventory management systems are about more than just tracking stock levels. They are complex platforms that integrate with other systems to optimize the entire supply chain. They can automate reordering, predict stock-outs, and even integrate with your ecommerce platform to provide real-time stock levels to customers.

The benefits of such systems are enormous. They prevent stock-outs and overstocking and enable dynamic pricing strategies based on inventory levels. This ensures that customers always find what they are looking for, thereby significantly improving their shopping experience.

Maintain a consistent brand experience across devices

Brand consistency is the practice of uniformly presenting your brand across all customer touchpoints, both online and offline. This uniformity extends beyond visual elements like logos and color schemes to include the tone of voice in customer communications, the user interface on your website or app, and even the overall customer journey.

To maintain brand consistency across various devices, consider the following practical steps:

Mobile-first web design: given the increasing use of smartphones for online shopping, start your design process with mobile devices in mind and then scale up to larger screens

Content scaling: ensure that your content scales appropriately across devices. Text should be readable without zooming, and images should resize to fit the screen.

Navigation consistency: the navigation menu should offer a consistent experience across devices. Dropdowns and menu items should be easily accessible regardless of the device being used.

Adaptive content: use device detection techniques to serve content tailored to the user's device, location, or even time of day. For example, a restaurant might show its breakfast menu in the morning and switch to the dinner menu in the evening.

Paying attention to these practical considerations ensures that your brand offers a consistent and high-quality experience across all devices. This improves user satisfaction and builds trust, which is crucial for customer retention and loyalty.

Competitor analysis

Understanding your competition is crucial for differentiating your brand. A comprehensive competitor analysis should include the following:

SWOT analysis: to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Customer journey mapping : to understand how customers interact with your competitors

Channel analysis: to determine which channels your competitors are using effectively

Identifying gaps in the market or weaknesses in competitors' strategies allows you to position your brand as the solution to problems that others need to be adequately addressing.

Understanding your competitors' strengths can also be enlightening. It can guide you on industry standards and what customers are likely to expect as a baseline. This can help you make informed decisions about where to match competitors and where to surpass them, allowing you to allocate resources more effectively.

Case study: Burberry's omnichannel strategy

Burberry's strategy is a masterclass in omnichannel retailing. They pioneered numerous strategies, including partnering with Instagram for Instagram Checkout and launching their entire catalog on WeChat. Most intriguing was their 'B Series' campaign, a social-native product line available only during a 24-hour window on the 17th of each month. 

This strategy created hype and deepened relationships with customers, particularly among younger demographics. The success of the 'B Series' has paved the way for other activities across multiple channels, allowing for even deeper interaction with their community.

Creating a cohesive omnichannel experience is not a project but an ongoing strategy that requires commitment from every part of the organization. The strategies outlined here are not just theoretical but actionable steps that have been proven to deliver results. 

The takeaway is clear: implement these strategies to create a seamless, efficient, and effective omnichannel customer experience.

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6 Powerful Case Studies of Businesses Using Omni-Channel Marketing to Its Full Potential

Omni-Channel Marketing

Marketing today has taken on a completely new form than that of any time in history. It’s an incredible opportunity that has never been seen before – the chance for businesses, even small ones, to get their names out on a global scale in front of a target audience of billions of people.

Because of this new field that commerce is playing out on, it’s crucial that anyone marketing their product get in the game the right way with players who know what they are doing. That’s why so many businesses are turning to companies that provide omni-channel services for all of their advertising needs.

Omni-Channel Marketing

What is Omni-Channel Marketing?

Marketing can take many approaches. There are social media targeting techniques, email advertising, and even the old-fashioned flyers in your mailbox form. But not every approach works for every potential client, and what works for Person X may not work for Person Q. Instead, for your business to excel and reach as wide of an audience as possible, you have to take an omni-channel approach.

Omni-channel means that your approach to sales comes in multiple ways funneled directly to each customer with an integrated experience that appears to be individual to them and their needs. These approaches combine mobile marketing, social media campaigns, websites, and more to create a seamless experience that works together for an omni-channel marketing technique that appears fluid and natural.

Through omni-channel marketing, your business needs are combined to one platform that delivers all of your messages, follows through with your goals and objectives, and keeps your brand consistent throughout every aspect of your interaction with your customers. It also easily lets you see all of your data and information in one place.

This incredible marketing technique is so innovative, time-saving, and money-making that thousands of the biggest companies are now using it as their main form of advertising. Here are 6 powerful case studies of businesses that use omni-channel marketing to its fullest.

Businesses That Use Omni-Channel Marketing

E-commerce customers today use different channels to do a multitude of things: gather product information, check out brands, compare prices, ask for help, and make purchases. But they all have one thing in common: they have been conditioned to expect ease of use as part of their customer experience, and when they don’t have that seamless interaction, they turn to someone else for their needs.

Not only do these customers want a seamless transaction, but more and more they expect businesses to be smart about their offerings and give the buyer a personalized experience. They’ll take the time at the beginning of their shopping to help a company understand what they are looking for so the rest of their experiences can be more streamlined and simplified.

These e-commerce customers make up an astounding percentage of purchasing statistics : 40% of people in the United States say that they buy items online at least monthly, and 20% say they shop online multiple times per week. Mobile e-commerce spending in the United States alone has topped the billion-dollar mark annually and continues to increase. Companies who don’t adapt to this changing trend are going to get left behind.

Businesses that are implementing an Omni Channel strategy in their approach to marketing are often simple to spot. Their websites are interactive and seamless and their brand is clearly defined no matter where you explore on their site. In fact, these businesses are usually analyzed for their expertise and other companies try to emulate parts of their approach, but without an omni-channel marketing strategy, they usually fall short of the full experience.

Here are six of the pioneers and leaders in omni-channel marketing.

  • Disney – Disney is one of the biggest companies in the world. Disney Land, Disney World, Disney Productions – they all share a similar experience when you visit their sites. Whatever you want to do, from planning a trip to watching advertisements for their upcoming or existing movies, you are going to have the ease of knowing what to expect.

In fact, for people looking to plan a trip to Disney (to and from anywhere in the world), it is possible to secure your tickets, choose and pay for your meals, book your Disney hotel, and even order your Magic Bands. Magic Bands are now an all-inclusive ticket, hotel room key, food ordering tool, credit card device, and photo storage location. There’s really nothing like it anywhere else.

  • Bank of America – As the name implies, this bank is found throughout the country and is used as a leader in the banking industry, so they have to be on the forefront of technology when it comes to how people interact with their money.

Bank of America has created an omni-channel experience in which customers can deposit their checks via their digital devices, pay bills at the touch of a button, and schedule banking appointments through mobile and desktop apps.

  • Virgin Atlantic – Virgin Atlantic is a worldwide airline founded by Richard Branson of Virgin Records. Branson opened up his airline in 1984 and never looked back, always on the forefront of innovations that made Virgin Atlantic better in value and better in quality.

Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to offer business class passengers individual TVs, and other airlines quickly followed suit. They then launched the Upper-Class Suite, which was the longest flatbed seat in business class. The Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow Airport in 2006 provided airline guests with a cocktail bar, a hair salon, a spa, and much more – and all of these ideas were then followed by other airlines.

It’s no wonder then that Virgin Atlantic has pioneered the way for an omni-channel marketing experience. Booking a flight, waiting for your plane, and your airline experience are all seamlessly integrated together when you use Virgin Atlantic.

  • Neiman Marcus – Leading the way in the luxury retail industry, Neiman Marcus’s omni-channel strategy actually got them in the spotlight in 2017 for the IRT Retailer Innovation Award in Customer Engagement. This is largely due to their concern that they need to speak to the customer’s identity above all else.

Their omni-channel experience becomes more personalized the more often a user interacts with the site. The website remembers personal preferences to make it easier for the customer the next time they visit, uses geolocation to keep the customer updated on local offerings and happenings, and directly targets individual email marketing campaigns based on each person’s interests.

  • Starbucks – Yet another industry mogul using omni-channel marketing to make a killing is Starbucks. From the rewards card they use that lets you load and reload it to make purchases to ordering online and storing your favorite preferences, the Starbucks experience is geared towards making your order as streamlined and simple as possible.

Their approach combines the three customer touchpoints of physical brick-and-mortar locations, their digital app, and their website. All three of these touchpoints are connected through their loyalty card, but the digital app is the prized part of Starbuck’s omni-channel success. Not only can customers order and pay by their app, but they can choose their location, check wait times, and get directions to their chosen store.

  • Crate and Barrel – The homeware store that others in the industry follow has an incredible experience for customers both on their sites and in their actual stores. Customers can use tablets as they shop, scanning the barcodes of products to learn more information, adding items to their wish lists, and even ordering the item in different colors right then and there.

Additionally, customers can add items to their shopping list and checkout with a salesperson who will collect everything for them – no shopping carts with broken wheels to push around the store!

Items placed on wish lists help Crate and Barrel send specifically targeted ads to each customer to remind them of products they were interested in. And this innovative technique works, as sales reports from Crate and Barrel, showed a 10% jump in revenue since this omni-channel experience was implemented.

Is Your Business Ready for the Omni-Channel Level of Success?

Not every company is Disney and Starbucks level huge, but even the smallest of companies can use an omni-channel experience to attract and retain customers to their products. With this marketing technology, everything you need to be successful is in one platform and each step is guided for you so you know what you are doing throughout the entire process.

Digital purchases are a trillion-dollar industry today, and this number is projected to rise over the next decade exponentially. This means that not only are you missing out if you are not marketing, but you have a lot of competition of people in your field who are taking advantage of the amazing opportunity we are afforded today.

When you are ready to take your marketing to the next level and create a seamless, streamlined experience for you and you

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Opal

[Case Study] How INTERMIX achieves omnichannel marketing efficiency

Company profile.

Founded in 1993, women’s clothing retailer INTERMIX curates designer and luxury fashion from around the globe. In addition to 43 boutiques across the United States, INTERMIX offers an online shopping experience and complimentary style consultations for its customers.

Industry:  Retail & E-Commerce

Annual Revenue:  $140M

# of Employees:  ~500

Teams in Opal:  Editorial, Design,   Brand Marketing, Site Merchandising, Digital Marketing, Web Operations

By the numbers

  • Reduced content build time by 50%
  • Reduced approval times by 94%
  • Increased on-time campaign launches by 95%
  • Saving 15-20 hours per week

Challenge: Enable cross-functional visibility and timely approvals

When Angie Crippen joined INTERMIX in 2018, marketing project management consisted of 15-person email threads and workflows taped to the office wall. “The work management tool we were using only provided a place to house copy and images,” Angie recalls. “It really didn’t support the whole process.” Manual systems led to miscommunication, resulting in unapproved or incomplete content being published. “All the feedback was coming back-and-forth via email for every piece of content, and deadlines were easily missed. It was painful, and we made a lot of mistakes,” Angie admits. “There was no visibility, because everything just lived in my email.”

Solution: Workflows and Chat & Activity in Opal

Angie began searching for a planning platform that could solve INTERMIX’s biggest challenges: tracking feedback and changes, simplifying approvals, and digitizing workflows.“I demo’ed a couple solutions that weren’t customizable and just wouldn’t work for us,” Angie says. Then an external referral sent Angie to Opal, which was already in use at other GAP brands like Old Navy and Athleta. “During Opal’s demo, I remember thinking, ‘Wow! This is what we need.’” Soon, all INTERMIX content creators and approvers for email marketing, brand marketing, paid and organic social media, site merchandising, and web ops were collaborating in Opal.

Results: Unprecedented visibility, faster approvals, and customized workspaces

Angie and her dedicated Opal Customer Success Manager partner to make the most of the platform’s flexibility, creating custom channels and content types. Today, approvals that used to take two days now take only an hour—centralized, trackable, and conducted directly in Opal. “As soon as a project is kicked off, we put everything into Opal: the brief, timeline, due dates, content, etc.” Angie explains. “Instead of checking three systems, all the teams that need that information now have a single source of truth. And Chat & Activity, my favorite feature, has created a sense of trust and accountability between marketing and leadership.” In fact, all pieces of the process have been streamlined, creating unprecedented efficiency for the INTERMIX marketing team. Since implementing Opal three years ago, Angie estimates that her team saves 15-20 hours every week.

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Into the fast lane: How to master the omnichannel supply chain

Omnichannel shopping has become the new normal for almost all consumer products and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Through omnichannel shopping, consumers can shop across multiple sales channels—online using their laptop or phone, in physical brick-and-mortar stores, or at wholesale stores—while benefiting from a seamless, holistic consumer experience. This new normal has important implications for consumer-product companies, including direct-to-consumer businesses such as retail, grocery, and consumer-packaged-goods companies. To survive, these companies must accept the challenge of delivering a great consumer experience across sales channels and shape their supply chains accordingly. Most companies’ supply chains predate omnichannel, however, and layering the newly required capabilities on top of legacy systems can be difficult. Organizations need to undertake broader and deeper transformations to meet rising consumer expectations in consumer experience, individualization, and delivery speed, while keeping delivery costs under control.

Our experience in working with consumer-product and retail companies across categories, including grocery, suggests that organizations looking to master omnichannel supply chain excellence  should focus on seven key building blocks. These building blocks—which cover strategy, information flow, the physical flow of products, process automation, and last-mile delivery—are the principal subject of this article.

The challenge is significant, but consumer-product companies that respond effectively to the changing market environment have an opportunity to gain an advantage over their peers. Players that fail to make this shift will struggle to remain competitive.

The importance of omnichannel: E-commerce is booming, but physical stores remain important

E-commerce was booming even before the pandemic, and the COVID-19 crisis has increased the pace of growth (Exhibit 1). This shift does not necessarily spell the end of brick-and-mortar stores, however. Forward-thinking consumer-product companies have been using their stores to educate consumers on product offerings, reinforce their brands’ positioning, and support e-commerce sales. Despite the pandemic, for example, Nike opened a 26,000-square-foot flagship store in Paris that features a “digitally empowered” end-to-end consumer experience. 1 Sheena Butler-Young, “Why Nike opened a sprawling Paris flagship in the middle of a pandemic,” Footwear News , July 29, 2020, footwearnews.com. Prepandemic research found that opening a new location increases traffic to a retailer’s website by 37 percent in the following quarter. 2 “Physical stores key to retail success, study finds,” International Council of Shopping Centers, October 15, 2018, icsc.com. This complementarity is why it is vital for consumer-product companies to invest in—and master—omnichannel supply chains that can deliver a great consumer experience across multiple channels.

The seven building blocks of omnichannel supply chain excellence

Most companies will need to fundamentally transform their supply chains to deliver omnichannel excellence, but the effort will be worthwhile. The remainder of this article lays out the seven essential building blocks for the omnichannel supply chain of the future (Exhibit 2). 3 While the focus of this article is on supply chains, a complete omnichannel operational overhaul would also include an examination of the upstream value chain (sourcing, product development, and production), particularly if e-commerce is a large share of the business.

Essential questions for each of the building blocks of omnichannel excellence

Consumer-centric supply chain strategy.

  • How many supply chain segments are required to deliver the supply chain mission, and what is the objective of each?
  • What is the customer offering across different segments, and how can we differentiate ourselves from competitors?
  • How can we tailor the assortment to a retailer or to a channel?
  • What are the key supply chain risks, and how can we best prepare for disruptions?

Network and supply chain ecosystem of the future

  • What is the physical flow of goods through the network? What is the impact of different product–supply speed models?
  • How are suppliers managed and integrated to support an agile upstream supply chain that responds quickly to changes?
  • Is the distribution network designed for each channel individually, or would an omnichannel network be beneficial? What is the right composition of distribution centers (DCs), new node types, and partner locations?
  • How can inventory be shared across channels? Does each channel have its own inventory?
  • What are key areas for customer collaboration that could improve information exchange and product flow along the value chain?

End-to-end planning and information flow

  • What are the different demand signals in the omnichannel environment, and how can they be captured to predict demand potential through advanced analytics? How can we combine them into an end-to-end (E2E) marketplace perspective?
  • What is the optimal inventory level at each stage of the value chain? How can we actively manage inventory to increase availability and keep cash requirements under control?
  • How can we best synchronize the product supply with customer demand in stores, in DCs, and with partners?
  • How can we align the different organizational entities and plans at key milestones? How can we manage trade-offs and locate and prioritize customers, channels, and orders?
  • How can we ensure real-time visibility and accessibility of inventory across all channels and locations?

Omnichannel fulfillment: Node operations

  • How can we achieve warehouse excellence in a more complex environment?
  • How can we manage returns in an efficient and effective way?
  • How can we enable the whole downstream supply chain for omnichannel and optimize in-store layout and processes to enable local fulfillment while providing a great customer experience?

Omnichannel fulfillment: Transportation and logistics-service-providers management

  • What do we need to manage transport operations efficiently in an increasingly demanding world? How do we keep transport cost under control and create end-to-end transparency of product flows?
  • What are the right logistics partners for the different supply chain segments? How do we get competitive rates and services?

Operating model and change management

  • How do we design supply chain processes to support omnichannel optimization? How can digital innovation be integrated in the process design?
  • How can we adjust the organizational structure to capture cross-channel benefits and make change happen?
  • Which additional skills are needed to enable the future organization? How can we best address the cultural change toward omnichannel behavior?
  • How should performance of the E2E supply chain be measured? How can we incorporate the omnichannel dimension, measuring the joint performance rather than individual channels?

Digitization and process automation

  • What software and other tools are needed to enable the omnichannel supply chain?
  • How can we capture data and use them along the value chain? How are legacy systems integrated? How do we integrate into an ecosystem with our partners?
  • How can we contextualize data to conduct relevant analyses? Are operational data consolidated and accessible to the right decision makers?
  • How can we employ advanced digital tools such as robotic-process automation, blockchain, and the Internet of Things to enable omnichannel optimization?

The first and most important building block is a customer-centric supply chain strategy. This building block is followed by three strategic supply chain elements—the network and ecosystem of the future, operating model, and digitization and process automation—and also three key supply chain processes—end-to-end planning and information flow, omnichannel fulfillment through node 4 A node is any location that can store and ship products. This could be a shop, a warehouse, or even a pop-up venue. operations, and omnichannel fulfillment through transportation. Consumer-product companies looking to master omnichannel excellence should ask themselves some key questions (see sidebar, “Essential questions for each of the building blocks of omnichannel excellence”).

Being truly consumer centric—meeting customer needs across all channels and grounding all decisions in deep understanding of the consumer—is a widely held objective, but it is difficult to achieve. Common pitfalls include a failure to listen to consumers and a one-size-fits-all supply chain, which leads to a lack of differentiation of services and, consequently, higher costs.

First, companies need to be absolutely clear about which consumer segments they aim to serve. Most companies understandably want to deliver a great service to all potential consumers, but resources are limited; companies need to decide which consumer segments matter most so that they can focus their resources on the most important targets.

After they have identified their target segments (ideally through cross-functional decision making), omnichannel players need to figure out what to deliver to each of these segments. This decision will, in turn, determine how many supply chain segments they need.

For example, a leading global sportswear player has implemented a state-of-the-art supply chain strategy, clearly differentiating among individual segments and defining distinct supply chains for each segment. The company’s most prestigious segment is premium consumers in cities such as London, Berlin, or Paris. These consumers are offered a premium service, which includes a two-hour delivery window on special items, and early access to newly launched products. The supply chain for this segment is therefore focused on fast delivery and reliability. Consumers living in rural areas cannot access the same benefits; the supply chain of this segment has a much stronger focus on efficiency, and standard delivery times are two or three days.

The shift to omnichannel is forcing consumer-product companies to rethink the supply chain ecosystem they are operating in. As described in a previous article , players need to choose the right combination of distribution centers (DCs), new node types, and partners to deliver their consumer-service aspirations within each channel.

The supply chain ecosystem should be an end-to-end collaboration involving all stakeholders, from suppliers to consumers. Companies are only able to deliver on ever-changing consumer requirements if information is shared along the entire value chain, and if all network assets and capabilities are fully leveraged. One example of the importance of collaboration is the growing demand for late customization; 5 Late customization refers to customer requests for customization as part of an online order; for example, by requesting a specific color or inscription. suppliers produce a “blank sample,” which is stored as inventory and customized shortly before delivery.

Collaboration is also a great driver of innovation. For example, consumer expectations have forced consumer-product companies to move from simply shipping products from a warehouse or distribution center to more innovative fulfillment options, such as shipping directly from production facilities or dark stores. 6 Dark stores are large retail facilities that resemble conventional stores but are not open to the public. They are used to hold stock and to fulfill online orders via delivery or click and collect.

Another example of retail partner–driven innovation is “inventory sharing,” as pioneered by Adidas and Zalando, a European e-commerce platform. 7 “Multi-channel pilot in Paris: Zalando delivers same-day for adidas.fr,” Zalando, August 19, 2019, zalando.com. The two companies have adopted a partnership model that involves a shared pool of products; if a specific Adidas product is unavailable at Zalando, the consumer is automatically redirected to the Adidas website. Alternatively, Zalando may deliver products ordered on the Adidas website in order to decrease lead times.

The shift to omnichannel involves an increase in operational complexity; omnichannel operations involve multiple sales channels, multiple network nodes, and a decentralized inventory. Meanwhile, customers expect to be able to access the right products in the right places and in real time. Therefore, omnichannel operations require thoughtful end-to-end planning, which requires significant changes to three key elements:

  • Forecasting should be done by market and product group and then disaggregated to channel level. The overall forecast, for example, would predict the total volume of sports shoes to be sold in London. This total number would then be disaggregated into those sports shoes the company expects to sell in stores, through e-commerce, and through other channels. Finally, the forecast needs to take into account omnichannel effects such as cross-channel cannibalization; for example, customers who have a great e-commerce experience may stop purchasing items in stores.
  • Inventory should not be dedicated to one channel; companies should have cross-channel inventory pools. Algorithms—which should take into account factors such as forecast demand, the accuracy of past forecasts, lead times, and lead-time reliability—should define optimum inventory levels at each node in the supply chain, including in DCs and stores and with partners. Inventory levels should then be actively managed to maximize cross-channel availability and optimize cash flow. Consumers should have real-time visibility into inventory, and orders should be fulfilled efficiently through continuously reoptimized allocation across all channels and locations.
  • Information flow should be seamless among functions, channels, and systems. Players aiming for a truly omnichannel supply chain need to fully digitize cross-channel planning processes and tools, but they can choose whether to start this on one channel or to digitize and move to an omnichannel supply chain simultaneously.

The shift in volume from in-store purchases to e-commerce forces consumer-product companies to reevaluate their fulfillment networks , which are integral to their supply chains. Omnichannel players need to build key capabilities regarding the flow of products to make sure they achieve competitive costs and reliable quality while managing the complexity of omnichannel operations.

Companies looking to add e-commerce offerings to their offline business often add the operations of the new channel to the existing supply chain without sufficient consideration of the new channel’s distinct requirements. The physical flow of e-commerce products, for example, is very different from the flow of products within a distribution center. E-commerce buyers generally expect very short lead times, while cost is more important than speed in the shipping of seasonal stock to the DC of a wholesaler. Stores, DCs, and e-commerce also have different units of measurement; DCs typically think in terms of full truckloads or pallets, while e-commerce is primarily concerned with individual units.

A supply chain that is purpose-built for omnichannel will take into account the varying channel requirements. Warehouse automation  is a good option and can improve speed, quality, and efficiency.

Cross-channel operations should be organized to maximize the value-capturing potential of each channel, including traditional brick-and-mortar stores. In an ideal omnichannel consumer experience, different points of sale are fully connected and integrated. Today’s consumers expect a seamless shopping experience across channels, such as click-and-collect services that allow them to order online and pick up in a store. This expectation means that consumer-product companies also need to reassess in-store processes and layouts to ensure a great consumer experience if both online and offline consumers are served in the same store.

Omnichannel fulfillment: Transportation and LSP management

Transportation and the management of logistics-service providers (LSP) are also significantly more complex for companies with multiple channels to serve, due to the different requirements of each channel. The orders of brick-and-mortar consumer-product companies can generally be booked in advance and delivered by truck. E-commerce services, on the other hand, must process a high number of individual orders at short notice using transportation modes such as couriers or postal services. Omnichannel players need to ensure that they can provide reliable, fast service to all customers while ensuring competitive transport costs.

Success requires organizations to identify the right logistics partners for each segment of the supply chain. Omnichannel players need partners who can deliver small shipments quickly, reliably, and relatively inexpensively, but they likely also need partners that can deliver specialized services, such as “try at home” or electronics installation. Organizations need to carefully source and manage these numerous partners to keep costs down and ensure a consistently high quality of service.

Last mile is generally the most costly transportation segment. Success in this segment requires efficient IT systems, local fulfillment networks, and carefully chosen third-party logistics partnerships. Players need to find solutions that meet consumer expectations on service and lead time, while also offering full transparency about, and control over, costs. These solutions may include leveraging preexisting brick-and-mortar stores or using nontraditional approaches such as bicycle deliveries or local couriers.

To facilitate the supply chain transformation detailed above, and to ensure that each stage runs smoothly, companies also need to invest in two additional supply chain setup elements. These are the focus of the final two sections of this article.

To realize the full benefits of omnichanne l, companies must undertake a full transformation of their operating models, including a redesign of processes, structures, mindsets, capabilities, and performance management. This building block is key to ensuring that the company—and its people—can capture the full potential of the supply chain and deliver exceptional customer value.

As a first step, players need a cross-channel omnichannel team; without such a team, it is very difficult to break down siloed thinking and operations. Consider inventory management when demand exceeds supply or capacity, for example. To ensure good consumer service and enable profit-optimizing inventory allocation, players need one person or team to take ownership of all inventory across channels. The full team also needs to be trained—and given incentives—to optimize for the company as a whole, rather than for any individual channel.

In addition, companies need to be structured in a way that enables intense collaboration with value-chain partners. Assigning clear end-to-end responsibility—from supplier to consumer to the omnichannel team—is an effective way to do this. A leading apparel and footwear player, for example, has set up “city teams” that are responsible for everything from supply management to cross-channel inventory management.

Many companies assume that a full transformation of their operating model will be highly complex, so they tend to apply incremental improvements rather than launching a full overhaul. Ultimately, this approach will not be sufficient to deliver on the opportunity of omnichannel. Instead, companies can simplify their operating-model transformation by taking an agile approach, which breaks the process down into manageable chunks. This process involves built-in test phases and many opportunities to learn and improve.

As this article has demonstrated, technology and effective data-and-analytics strategies that incorporate the right partners are key enablers of an omnichannel supply chain. Players need to ensure that they have the software and tools to capture the requisite data and, crucially, to leverage it.

Rising consumer expectations are pushing consumer-product companies to digitize and automate. The demand for same- or next-day delivery is increasing, for example, at the same time that orders are increasing in both volume and complexity. To meet these expectations, organizations need order-management processes with a high degree of automation and digitization across order capture and sourcing. Digitization and automation are also needed to enable the required instant updates on order status.

Rising consumer expectations are pushing consumer-product companies and retail players to digitize and automate.

Seamless integration of systems and planning tools across channels is also crucial, both to meet consumer expectations and to facilitate management and decision making. For consumers, cross-channel system integration is essential to provide real-time information on product availability and delivery times. For companies, effective cross-channel decision making requires the integration of planning tools with real-time simulation capabilities, especially in situations of scarcity.

The implementation of digitization and automation strategies must be holistic. Separately managed initiatives often add up to less than the sum of their parts and are not sufficient to deliver the required step change in consumer service. But it is equally vital to remember that simply adding smart analytics and automation will not be enough—a fully redesigned operating model is necessary to drive these changes through and deliver omnichannel excellence.

Starting the omnichannel journey

Mastering omnichannel to become a best-in-class player is clearly a significant undertaking, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to prioritizing. However, a "crawl, walk, run" approach can be an effective way to undertake, and then complete, the omnichannel journey (Exhibit 3).

The aim of aspiring omnichannel players—those at the “crawl” stage of the journey—should be to get the basics right. Above all, it is crucial to define a competitive service proposition regarding the omnichannel journey; companies need to be clear on key issues such as which services to offer and their key differentiating factors. Once players have mastered the basics, they should shift focus to adopting omnichannel best practices and then—finally—to developing distinctive omnichannel offerings. At the end of this process, the operating model will work seamlessly to align incentives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to avoid competition for limited resources. This approach ensures that the various channels are complementary, which is the driving principle of omnichannel.

Consumer-product companies looking to define a starting point for their omnichannel transformation will need a structured maturity assessment on each of the seven building blocks. This assessment will also be instrumental in defining a road map and developing initiatives that address the areas with the potential to add the highest value. The final step before implementing the road map is to develop an effective governance model and powerful change story.

Companies that want to deliver a great consumer experience across multiple sales channels will need to comprehensively rethink many of their traditional supply chain approaches, especially in these times of economic uncertainty. The challenge is considerable, but so is the opportunity—companies that get the seven building blocks of omnichannel right will grow their consumer base and build a compelling, long-term competitive advantage.

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Omnichannel Engagement in Pharma — Key Success Factors and Case Examples

Authored in partnership with loop horizon and ci&t.

  • May 24, 2021

Christian Seiffert, L.E.K. Consulting

Pharma has long been on a journey of exploring channels beyond traditional face-to-face interactions and print media when engaging with healthcare professionals (HCPs). In particular, the last few years have seen an acceleration of digital engagement. This has been supported by changing engagement preferences among HCPs, with more and more ‘digital natives’ welcoming virtual interactions.  Pharma confidence in juggling traditional channels with digital means is certainly increasing. Yet true omnichannel engagement — the integration, orchestration and tailoring of customer interactions across multiple channels to match HCPs’ profile-specific needs — has been the Cinderella of marketing activities. While multichannel engagement — the use of two or more channels that run relatively independently from one another — is increasingly in use, the omnichannel engagement model is altogether more dynamic and complex, and thus still not fully adopted by pharma (see Figure 1).

omnichannel definition

A number of related shortcomings have stood in the way of a true omnichannel experience in pharma.

  • Lack of audience-specific content and channels: HCPs and patients want answers to their specific questions, relayed in a concise and engaging way, and via channels convenient to them. Rather than addressing what HCPs and patients want to hear, pharma companies all too often focus on the messages they want to convey and the channels they themselves are comfortable using.  
  • Poor orchestration of channels and content, limited learnings: The success of omnichannel engagement requires the use of the right audience-specific content and channels, at the right time. Beyond a good understanding of customer preferences and behaviours, this needs orchestration and, critically, a feedback loop to assess how well engagement is working and how it needs to be adapted.  
  • Different channels, but the same content: Rather than creating custom-made experiences based on a specific content-channel mix, existing content is often reused and repackaged in a way that can be difficult to navigate and may not be appropriate for the given channel.

The barriers to implementing a true omnichannel engagement are substantial. First, it is a tall order: Creating an omnichannel experience requires deep customer knowledge, mastery of relevant channels, powerful content for each channel, highly coordinated action across channels and the agility to adapt in response to customers’ feedback. It’s an ongoing learning process built on data, monitoring discipline and agility. This might require significant organisational changes both to a company’s operating model and its capabilities and supporting infrastructure — changes that are time-consuming, costly and potentially risky, and need to be balanced against an understandable reluctance to move away from tried and tested models.

Second, in light of the complexity of implementation, pharma companies require a vision — a reason to believe in the benefits of large-scale change — and best practice examples demonstrating the benefits of omnichannel and providing templates for how to realise them. Yet, benefits are all too often not sufficiently tangible, and success stories are rare. Pharma needs to look to other industries for inspiration.

However, momentum towards omnichannel engagement is increasing, building on powerful market trends and changing customer needs. Pharma companies are being forced to rethink the way they interact with customers, driven by the proliferation of technology and mobile connectivity, increasing experience with digital engagement, growing price pressure and the resulting need to increase the cost-effectiveness of engagement, and restricted sales rep access. This is paired with growing customer needs for on-demand and personalised content, agile support, and an increasing affinity with non-personal and digital forms of engagement (see Figure 2).

omni channel momentum

COVID-19 is accelerating this trend (i.e. the use of — and familiarity with — non-personal forms of engagement). It is fair to assume that the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’ will be shaped by experiences during the pandemic, with non-personal channels continuing to play a key role. However, even then, the success of omnichannel lies not in replacing human interactions with digital ones, but in combining these and other channels to enhance the engagement and create seamless experiences for target audiences.

Early signs of success — selected case studies

While efforts to define and implement omnichannel models are ongoing, examples of a successful full-scale omnichannel overhaul in pharma are rare. However, there are a number of early success stories of pharma companies establishing omnichannel approaches for specific segments or built on a small number of channels.

Example 1: Large pharma refocusing its engagement with physicians and patients

In order to increase its market share for oral contraceptives, a large pharmaceutical company planned to introduce an app to remind women to take their pill on a regular basis. However, a detailed analysis of usage data unveiled that, at the current rate, achieving the envisioned market share growth would take eight years instead of the anticipated 18 months; in addition, the company would have to get 10,000 new prescriptions a month to reach its growth target, which was deemed unachievable with an app alone.

Based on market research and advanced analytics, target audiences with the highest potential for growth were identified, and the company’s sales force was redeployed to higher-potential locations based on refined brick data. Resources were also redirected to focus more on patients, with direct outreach to increase brand awareness and engagement through patient support programmes, as well as content such as blog posts on pregnancy prevention.

The integrated approach leveraging multiple channels helped build greater connections between the organisation’s two target audiences, doctors and patients, and overall sales force effectiveness was increased. In addition, the extensive market analysis created excitement and support amongst senior leadership within the organisation, including shareholders and owners. Overall, the product saw a growth of 23% in volume from new customers as a result of the optimised channel mix.

Example 2: Large pharma building B2B engagement platform for pharmacists across Europe

In the diverse European pharmaceutical market landscape, characterised by country-specific rules and regulations around pharmacy engagement, drug manufacturers are often not able to engage with smaller pharmacies directly to build relationships and offer promotions or discounts.

Leveraging existing technology platforms such as Salesforce and SAP, a multinational pharmaceutical company created a business-to-business (B2B) engagement platform that would allow it to design and deliver locally compliant content to pharmacists across European markets end to end without the need to outsource to third parties. The platform was built on scalable and localised architecture for multiple sites and languages, respecting the legal and language requirements of each country, and offering localised content and personalised communication for targets.

Through a single unified platform for content development, content management, pricing and sales, the multinational pharma company was able to access information and align strategic and business objectives across Europe. Initially released in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the sales enablement and educational platform for pharmacists reached US $1 million in revenues and registered more than 900 pharmacies in the first three weeks of operation.

Example 3: Biopharma company increasing global ex-US reach and engagement without adding to field force

A biopharma company planned to increase its reach and engagement with key HCP customers for a major dermatology product across its non-US markets in a highly efficient manner, leveraging existing customer intelligence and without increasing field force resources.

Based on its existing intelligence, four key HCP segments were identified and engaged with through an orchestrated campaign covering email, paid media, portals and partner channels. An automated loop was also created to re-engage or progress key messaging based on HCP behaviours.

Through this orchestrated campaign and loop, the company was able to increase its target audience reach by 29% and engagement by 53% over the course of 16 weeks.

Example 4: Pharmaceutical company improving mature product’s positioning in Europe

Across the diverse and fragmented European market, a pharmaceutical company sought to increase the adoption of its mature respiratory product by improving the delivery and impact of its key messages.

Based on market research and analytics, a system of pre- and post-call rep-triggered events was created, allowing reps to choose further engagements and content appropriate to the particular HCP type, the desired key messages and the outcome of the call.

This systematic approach, combined with leveraging of the company’s Veeva software to automatically suggest content for follow-up email campaigns, resulted in increased email open rates among targeted HCPs by 46% and overall engagement by 73% over 10 weeks.

Key success factors

From early examples, we can derive some initial success factors for omnichannel.

  • Developing relevant content: Content needs to be curated that fits both the channel and the segment. In order to stand out from the competition, it will be critical to ensure content is of high value — highly relevant, differentiated, well communicated and ideally customised — in order to drive engagement.  
  • Finding the right mix of channels appropriate for your audience at the time of engagement: This requires a deep understanding of HCP behaviours, meaningful HCP segmentation and identification of needs within each segment, and the ability to adapt as HCP behaviours evolve.  
  • Orchestrating the channels: Clear roles and interfaces between the channels are needed to ensure a seamless customer experience by mapping customer journeys across channels with appropriate handoffs.  
  • Establishing a ‘closed feedback loop’ to ensure continuous adaptation of engagement (content and channel mix): Sophisticated data collection and analysis capabilities, agility, and time are needed to optimise omnichannel engagement over time and incorporate potentially evolving HCP behaviours.

The creation of a successful omnichannel model can trigger significant organisational and behavioural changes in pharma companies. A number of factors should be kept in mind during implementation.

  • Mandate from the top: Define a clear vision, and ensure that this vision and the resulting need for change are communicated by leadership in order to secure buy-in within the organisation.  
  • Deliver centrally: Establishing a centre of excellence is beneficial not only in leading the implementation but also in driving capability into business units.  
  • Review and adapt the operating model: Omnichannel engagement cannot be implemented without a hard look at the underlying operating model, in particular the processes and responsibilities of sales and marketing and medical functions.  
  • Leverage existing capabilities: Building on existing capabilities in an iterative fashion can drive quick wins.  
  • Manage change robustly: The changes triggered by omnichannel require many roles across the organisation to shift focus and call for robust change management.

Before developing an omnichannel model, pharma companies need to consider a number of trade-offs around market benefits, existing capabilities and cost. Omnichannel models are inherently complex, and complexity grows exponentially with each channel, customer segment and content customisation, creating the risk of overwhelming marketing teams. It is therefore critical that pharma companies carefully assess the degree of sophistication needed along a number of dimensions to develop a fit-for-purpose and actionable omnichannel approach (see Figure 3) . 

omni channel choices

Along each of these dimensions, trade-offs need to be considered. As an example, developing complex attitudinal segmentation is time-consuming and costly but allows more granular and potentially more effective messaging. When designing content, pharma companies need to strike a balance between providing meaningful content tailored to specific channels and customer segments, and the complexity of customisation, specifically as more channels and segments are added. Similarly, significant orchestration maximises omnichannel impact but is costly and time- consuming to implement, so returns on investment (ROI) need to be evaluated carefully.

How to bring omnichannel to life

Implementing a successful omnichannel strategy is by no means easy. L.E.K. Consulting , therefore, suggests approaching the omnichannel transition in a series of steps: 

  • Define an omnichannel vision that clearly sets the goals and helps determine what level of omnichannel sophistication is required  
  • Determine the required future state of omnichannel maturity based on the defined vision and goals  
  • Assess the company’s current omnichannel maturity  
  • Devise an implementation plan to help fill gaps identified and achieve the desired future state  
  • Establish a system for ongoing testing and learning from omnichannel initiatives

Based on project experience, we have developed a perspective on how each of the five steps can be successfully managed. Our approach defines six organisational and brand-specific capabilities which form the pillars of omnichannel engagement and combine to deliver an orchestrated engagement model: organisational vision and preparation, operating model, connected tech and data, customer intelligence, channels, and tailored content.  Omnichannel has the power to transform the way pharma companies engage with their customers and other key stakeholders, making interactions more meaningful, valuable and impactful for both sides. In order to not fall behind and to benefit from this dynamic, pharma companies need to start on this journey now to transform their engagement approach and, ultimately, themselves. 

Luiz Cieslak, Vice President of Digital Solutions, CI&T Carolina Wosiack, Managing Director EMEA, CI&T Robert McLaughlin, Co-Founder, Loop Horizon

Loop Horizon is a consulting & technology company with expertise across Consumer, B2B and Health, and a strategic partner of L.E.K. Consulting. Loop Horizon guides companies in optimising their customer experiences through better combinations of data & intelligence and marketing technology, and supports process change to drive P&L benefit.

CI&T is a leader in driving digital transformation for global brands. For over 20 years, CI&T has been a trusted partner in helping Fortune 1000 companies drive growth and continuous innovation across business, people, and technology.

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11 Omnichannel Marketing Examples to Watch Out in 2024

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In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, omnichannel marketing has become a crucial strategy for businesses aiming to provide seamless and personalized customer experiences across various channels. To help you gain insights and inspiration, we’ve curated a list of 11 outstanding omnichannel marketing examples that showcase innovative approaches and successful implementations.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting, these examples will provide valuable inspiration for enhancing your omnichannel marketing strategies in 2024.

11 Best Omnichannel Marketing Examples to Watch Out

1. nordstrom.

Nordstrom

Nordstrom’s “Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store” service is a great omnichannel marketing example in eCommerce as it seamlessly integrates customers’ online and offline shopping experiences.

With this service, customers can effortlessly shop online and pick up their purchases at a nearby Nordstrom store on the same day, eradicating the wait time for shipping.

This offers customers a smoother shopping experience and prompts them to visit physical stores to make additional purchases. Moreover, Nordstrom’s free shipping and returns policy also facilitates the omnichannel experience.

With this, customers can do online shopping and get their items delivered directly to their doorstep, and if they want to return any items, they can do so either online or in-store. This offers a consistent and cohesive customer experience across all channels and touchpoints.

2. Nearly Natural

Nearly Natural

With a small team, Nearly Natural, a supplier of lab-grown plants, successfully created a solid omnichannel customer experience by using automation in its communication across marketing channels .

The brand’s strategy contained automated onboarding for new customers, using push notifications and emails to build a positive relationship. These welcome messages also showed discounts to prompt customer engagement across channels.

Natural used social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to showcase its products and promotions. The brand cultivated a community of loyal followers by delivering engaging content and interacting with customers promptly.

The company also presented a live chat feature on its website, enabling customers to receive real-time assistance with their inquiries and purchases.

Proozy

Proozy is an online retailer based in Minneapolis. Its Shopify store offers a wide range of fashion products from well-known brands such as Michael Kors, Nike, and Under Armour. The company believes in delivering a personalized omnichannel customer experience and shows different ways to connect customers with sellers.

Proozy’s marketing system sends SMS based on their preferences to inform customers about new products. Social media-savvy customers can also join the Proozy Family Deals private Facebook group to get exclusive deals.

Proozy’s leads can shop in-store, get updates via SMS and browser push notifications, or visit the deals group on Facebook to see the best offers.

4. Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks has demonstrated itself as a leader in omnichannel marketing, largely thanks to its rewards app. This app provides a range of features for customers, such as easy access to the menu, sending promotions and updates using app push notifications, and the ability to manage and pay with a customer card.

What sets Starbucks apart is its constant customer experience across different platforms, whether it’s a desktop, smartphone, tablet, or web. The app is regularly updated in real-time to make sure that customers have a seamless experience no matter how they engage with the brand.

5. Lowe’s

Lowe's

Lowe’s Companies Inc. started a new augmented reality app, The Lowe’s Vision: In-Store Navigation, to enable shoppers to navigate their large stores easily and quickly. The app is developed to assist customers in locating products faster in their 112,000-square-foot home improvement stores.

By doing so, users can search for products and add them to a shopping list within the app. When they hit “begin navigation,” the app makes use of the phone’s camera and location to direct them to the products they require and take them to the exact shelf location.

This Lowe’s Vision Navigation feature is an ideal omnichannel marketing example that helps us understand how helping customers can help your business.

Sephora

Sephora is one of the best omnichannel marketing retailers because it combines online and in-store experiences well.

While in a brick-and-mortar location, the brand experience is consistent with beauty tips, informed salespeople, free makeovers, and products to try.

Online, customers can utilize their Beauty Bag accounts to track purchases, scan items while they are in the store, watch tutorials, keep a wish list and much more.

Delivering this experience to their customers helped this #1 beauty retailer earns approximately a 100% increase in mobile orders.

7. Rothy’s

Rothy's

Rothy’s shows eco-friendly shoes and accessories prepared from recycled materials, with a strong focus on building a seamless omnichannel marketing strategy for its customers.

Their approach focuses on delivering a unified customer support experience and a sustainable and hassle-free returns and exchange process.

Customer conversations were stored as separate tickets, leading to inefficiencies as agents required a complete view of a customer’s history across channels.

Since they adopted customer support, Rothy’s agents can now have a customer’s complete conversation history on a single timeline. That leads to faster, more efficient customer support on any channel, enhancing the overall customer experience.

Zumiez

Zumiez has established itself as an expert in omnichannel digital marketing and has reserved the top rank in Total Retail’s “Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers” report for 2017.

They achieved 100 points across 7 criteria, including delivering an omnichannel experience. The apparel retailer allows customers to easily switch between channels, such as purchasing online and picking up in-store, accumulating loyalty points across all channels, showing multiple ways to contact customer service, and even providing more than one way to return merchandise.

9. Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines

Not only retailers (or e-tailers) can become masters of omni-marketing channels, but aviation businesses can also become masters of it. Singapore Airlines is one of the best omichannel marketing examples by offering a seamless experience to its customers.

They have always been applauded for their innovation and have been building a powerful, customer-oriented omni experience for a while.

This flagship airline associates with AOE-integrated airports and shopping malls by integrating online and offline experiences. With this association, customers can effortlessly shop, pre-book, improve in-flight options and acquire real-time loyalty.

10. Value City Furniture

Value City Furniture

Value City Furniture has effectively executed omnichannel marketing campaigns and digital marketing techniques by addressing the common issue encountered by customers who prefer to shop online but still want to physically inspect the furniture before making a purchase. Their solution is an “Easy Pass” platform that enables customers to make a shopping list online and visit a nearby physical store to check the furniture in person. The sales team can then pull up the customer’s list and display the furniture in real life.

While in the store, customers can also build a wish list in their shopping cart and access extra product information online. As a result of this innovative approach, Value City Furniture was able to improve its overall shopping engagement by 55%.

11. Bank of America

Bank of America

Omnichannel marketing is usually associated with e-tailers, but it’s becoming increasingly necessary in all industries. Fintech companies, in particular, must deliver a seamless customer experience across all channels, including physical branches, online platforms, and ATMs.

Bank of America has pioneered omnichannel banking, offering customers free Wi-Fi and tablets for in-branch transactions.

Recently, they introduced a “Robo-branch” initiative, which lets customers solve their issues with a machine instead of waiting for a teller. This innovative solution has the same level of service and experience as an in-person interaction.

In conclusion, the omnichannel marketing landscape continues to evolve, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for businesses looking to create impactful customer experiences. These omnichannel marketing examples we’ve explored in this blog demonstrate the power of integrating diverse channels to deliver cohesive and personalized interactions with customers.

By drawing inspiration from these examples and adapting their principles to your unique business context, you can position yourself at the forefront of omnichannel marketing excellence in the year ahead.

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Shivani Goyal

Shivani is a content manager at NotifyVisitors. She has been in the content game for a while now, always looking for new and innovative ways to drive results. She firmly believes that great content is key to a successful online presence.

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How to Get 300 Website Subscribers in 30 Days by Setting up Omnichannel Customer Journeys

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The Viseven team has gone through plenty of unique cases where an omnichannel customer journey would be a brand new HCP engagement practice in the pharma market.

A top 50 pharma enterprise from France addressed Viseven to solve a problem that has become widespread in the transforming digital world.

The challenge was to increase the number of registrations to a new web portal section for cardiologists using existing audience demographics which comprises 4.847 healthcare professionals.

This omnichannel marketing case study unveils the benefits of using automation technology and explains how to implement a subscription strategy that would become an impulse for boosting sales and ROI.

The Main Goals

After creating and launching a new section of the website, our client could not reach success and attract the desired amount of new users. Our objectives were to:

  • create the customer journey that includes several branches for multiple customer experience scenarios
  • produce content of diverse types and for a few promotional campaigns
  • launch subsequent campaigns to encourage 300 visitors to subscribe to the website

The Main Challenges

When examining the possible solution strategies for the case and considering the circumstances in the pharma industry, we had to:

  • break down a stereotype of websites as online resources that contain solely promotional materials
  • engage with HCPs using a modified channel mix to introduce a new section of the client’s web portal

The Solution

After analyzing the target database account data and customers’ previous behavior, we decided to take advantage of a marketing automation platform and its features that allowed us to:

  • use email and SMS as two main channels for pharma customer engagement
  • reserve social media as an extra channel for possible scaling

Final Results and Achievements

Within a two-week marketing campaign, the Viseven team created an impact on the future of the company and reached several key points:

  • 98% goal attainment
  • 196 new registrations
  • 3x registration boost of potential customers

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Marketers and advertisers face common challenges: systems that produce inconsistent customer experiences, critical customer data delays and errors, and ineffective offers. How can you as a developer plan, implement, and integrate Adobe Experience Cloud solutions more efficiently and effectively so that stakeholders get value faster? This case study session highlights how technical teams planned, implemented, and integrated Adobe Real-Time CDP, Customer Journey Analytics, and Marketo Engage. Learn to quickly and easily design data models, connect data sources from different vendors, manage identity resolution, and more.

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E-commerce boom: easing supply chain pressure with omnichannel supply chains.

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The boom in e-commerce booming is placing great pressure on various sections in the supply chain. Infrastructure like warehouses, highway and ocean carriers take time to increase in capacity, and labor acquisition and retention remain a challenge. Combined with interruptions in routes caused by weather conditions and geopolitical conflicts, these pressures indicate the possibility of delivery delays.  

The Emergence of Omnichannel Retail

With a 30% spike in e-commerce shipping volumes since 2022, this significant rise in omnichannel supply chains is transforming the landscape of logistics.  

Even as we observe the thriving presence of online stores, traditional brick-and-mortar establishments maintain their significance. Engaging customers is a greater challenge today – not only are they armed with an unprecedented amount of information and options, they also demand a personalized, seamless experience that brings them the greatest convenience. To ensure a unified customer experience and maximize reach and engagement, brands would be wise to embrace the omnichannel retail approach, maintaining both online and physical presences. It is important to integrate both supply chains for physical and online stores, so that sales and fulfillment channels are integrated overall.  

Why Omnichannel Supply Chains Are Necessary

An omnichannel supply chain is a comprehensive system that harmonizes all aspects of a company's logistics and distribution network, ensuring a seamless and consistent customer experience in the manufacturing and delivery of products and services. It represents a paradigm shift in prioritizing customer experience, seamlessly integrating various sales channels like physical stores, online platforms and mobile apps.  

In today's e-commerce landscape, traditional linear supply chains are no longer sufficient; companies must now implement robust digital supply chains that offer transparency, traceability and visibility throughout the entire supply chain. This entails enhanced inter-connectivity among supply chain members, driven by advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), which enable consistent and personalized shopping experiences through synchronized inventory, customer data and pricing across all touch points. 

Building an omnichannel supply chain requires a cohesive integration of various solutions capable of automating processes and managing complexities across the value chain. This includes a spectrum ranging from global trade management, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management systems (WMS), to order management (OMS), customer relationship management (CRM) and point-of-sale (POS) systems.  

To support omnichannel fulfillment, it is imperative for order data to sync between the warehouse, logistics service providers and the core business, ideally in real time. For instance, once a customer places an online order for pick-up at a nearby store, a notification can be sent to the store to reserve the items purchased. When stocks run low at that store, a notification can be triggered to inform the warehouse and transportation teams to send more stock by a certain date.  

Embracing an omnichannel strategy that seamlessly intertwines both the physical and digital channels offers a multitude of benefits for both the manufacturing and retail sectors, with one of the most prominent being the ability to monitor inventory levels in real-time. This capability allows businesses to fine-tune their stock quantities, steering clear of the pitfalls of excess inventory that could result in storage constraints and product expiration, while also preventing shortages that might impede profit maximization.  

Omnichannel Supply Chains Ease E-Commerce Supply Chain Pressure

An omnichannel supply chain informs logistics service providers on how many shipments are required, when they are required, and much more. It can offer flexible fulfilment options to customers, such as buy-online-pickup-in-store. Orders can also be fulfilled faster and more easily when logistics companies pick up from a retailer’s local store, saving delivery time and money. Moreover, it enables businesses to optimize inventory management by dynamically reallocating stock levels based on demand fluctuations observed across different channels. This adaptability not only reduces the risk of stockouts but also enhances overall operational resilience in the face of unforeseen disruptions or changes in market conditions.  

The emergence of omnichannel supply chains can alleviate the strain on supply chains by facilitating quicker deliveries and optimal manufacturing levels. At the end of the day, customer satisfaction is not only raised, but costs for logistics companies, retailers and customers are also brought down. 

Siddharth Priyesh is vice president of  CrimsonLogic .

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Omnichannel marketing in South Africa, the stats

585 million emails, 700 thousand smses, and 18 million push messages analysed..

Omnichannel marketing in South Africa, the stats

eCommerce newsletters have proved effective in driving sales/Snowing/Freepik.com

Just how effective are email, SMS and push notifications in ecommerce? Omnichannel marketing platform, Omnisend has analyse nearly 600 million messages issued by ecommerce businesses in 2023.

In a press release, Omnisend reckons the messages resulted in more than a million sales in South Africa and helped to earn Omnisend’s customers more than R1.2 billion.

“With the endless number and inconsistency of paid channels, it’s difficult to maintain them, especially for those with limited budgets,” said Greg Zakowicz, ecommerce marketing expert at Omnisend .

“That’s why it’s important to stay focused on marketing tactics that work. Omnichannel marketing using email, SMS, and push messages increased the conversion rate by nearly 500% . Add automation to the mix and the results are even better.”

Action-triggered messages performed up to hundred times better

Interestingly, researchers found that action-triggered (or automated) emails, SMS, and push notifications performed much better than scheduled messages. Automated messages included those sent to customers when they abandoned their cart, registered for a newsletter, or when their favourite item came back in stock.

For automated emails, the click-to-conversion rate improved from 3% to 19%, and for SMS, it increased from 0.4% to 8%. Automated push notifications saw their conversion rate jump from 3% to 20%.

Click-to-conversion rates check the rate of sales from people who click on a message.

Pets and animals, smoking and vaping, and science top three industries for email marketing in South Africa

South African industries with the highest click-to-conversion rate in 2023 were Pets & Animals (21%), Smoking & Vaping (16%), and Science (14%). The lowest click-to-conversion rate was held by Jobs & Education (0.07%), Computers (0.07%) and Internet (0.5%).

“The varying results among industries can be impacted by many factors, including the number of sent messages, the contents of emails, or the percentage of automated messages,” Zakowicz said. “One thing we know is that brands that combine email, SMS, and web push messages into their marketing campaigns, and use behaviour-based automation generate more sales.”

How brands can evolve their omnichannel marketing strategy in 2024

  • Start exploring other channels of communication. If you only used email to communicate with your customers before, SMS and push notifications are a good place to start expanding your portfolio. Finding the best channel to talk to your customers will help you generate more sales and increase your conversion rate.
  • Use automations. Whether it’s email, SMS, or push messages, automated messages significantly outperform scheduled campaigns. If you’re unsure where to begin, we’d recommend starting with the most effective automated messages: cart abandonment, browse abandonment and welcome messages.
  • Focus on growing lists through different channels. Growing your email, SMS, and push message lists helps brands maximise their ROI by keeping order data from all channels in one place and allows them to market to an unsubscriber of one channel (like email) via another (like SMS).
  • Optimise email templates for conversion. If you haven’t yet done so, take this moment to analyse your email templates and add items that can help turn email openers into buyers. You could make your email campaigns more effective by promoting value-adds such as free shipping, return policies, satisfaction guarantees, and customer service availability. Adding social proof highlights, such as product review star ratings and customer testimonials could also be helpful.

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Data Analysis Is the Biggest Generative AI Use Case in the CPG Industry

Several factors affect marketing and advertising spending. So, how are the advent of AI and other factors affecting ad spends in the CPG industry? What are the key consumer trends, and how have investment priorities shifted this year? Check out the findings from Mediaocean’s latest study.

  • Several factors constantly affect marketing and advertising spending.
  • So, how are the advent of AI and other factors affecting ad spending in the CPG industry? What are the key consumer trends, and how have investment priorities shifted this year?
  • Mediaocean’s recent study sheds some light.

Marketing and advertising spending are constantly affected by world events, new technology, economic and job environment, and consumer sentiments. So, how has the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and the current economic climate impacted ad spend, especially in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry? How are CPG companies and professionals using AI in daily operations? What are the important consumer trends this year? And have investment priorities shifted this year? To answer these questions and more, Mediaocean recently conducted a study. The following are a few key insights.

CPG Industry Is Optimistic This Year

The study found that optimism is sweeping across the CPG industry this year. Marketers are gearing up for an active year, with most respondents intending to either maintain or increase their spending across every channel. The only channels with more respondents indicating they are reducing spending compared to increasing are TV and print. This indicates a commitment among advertisers to a diverse mix of media channels and a focus on omnichannel execution.

Do marketers plan to increase, decrease, or maintain spends

For Each Channel, Do CPG Marketers Plan To Increase, Decrease, or Maintain Spends?

Source: The 2024 CPG Advertising Outlook Report Opens a new window

While most channels are growing, a few platforms are expected to see exceptional growth. For the CPG industry, digital display and videos, social media, and connected TV (CTV) are becoming frontrunners, witnessing a continued surge in investments. About 72% of respondents plan to increase their digital display/video spending, 67% for social media, and 56% for CTV this year.

Ecommerce Is the Most Important Consumer Trend

According to 57% of the study respondents, ecommerce everywhere is the most important consumer trend this year. This dominance of ecommerce everywhere signifies the need for CPG marketers to prioritize online channels, optimize their digital presence, and use data-driven insights to engage with consumers effectively.

Besides ecommerce, generative AI has become a crucial trend, occupying the third spot, with 55% of respondents citing it. Clearly, the rise of ChatGPT and other AI apps built on large language models (LLMs) has caught the fancy of marketers, and resource allocation has followed.

CTV/streaming is another area of strong growth, along with TikTok and social video. The trends portend heavy investment from businesses looking to connect with consumers through sound, sight, and motion.

AI Is Used Mostly for Research and Analytics Over Content Generation

How are CPG companies using generative AI in marketing? Data analysis (41%) and market research (29%) were the top applications. About 25% of respondents said they use it for copywriting and 12% for generating images. Further, only 9% use it for customer service.

How CPG marketers are using Gen AI in marketing

How CPG Marketers Are Using Gen AI in Marketing

Despite its prowess, AI struggles to understand tone and context, affecting the generated content’s quality. AI-generated content also lacks the emotional depth and nuanced creativity of human-created content.

Performance-Driven Paid Media Is the Most Critical Investment

Given the current macroeconomic conditions, a few advertising capabilities and media investments have become more critical. Performance-driven paid media occupies the top position as the most critical investment, with 62% of respondents citing it. That said, brand advertising remains a core function, with 45% citing it. Clearly, a full-funnel approach is the path forward for the CPG brands.

According to 59% of respondents, measurement and attribution are also indispensable components of their advertising capabilities and media investments. This is particularly important in an age of cookie deprecation. For a long time, cookies have been the source of truth for data-driven advertising. Without access to them, several consumer segments become invisible to advertisers and publishers. As marketers prepare for the new reality, it is critical to evaluate and test new measurement methodologies and be prepared to implement alternative solutions.

See more: Marketing Pros Mostly Optimistic on AI With a Hint of Concern

The Media-Creative Gap Persists

A whopping 94% of respondents said they did not have fully synchronized creative and media technologies and processes. This gap is caused by the industry over-indexing on media at the expense of creatives. The impact is significant, especially when consumers respond to and reward customized experiences. Solving this gap is a significant growth opportunity for brands.

The creative-media gap manifests itself in three ways:

  • Siloed teams, technology, and processes, creating inefficiencies with rising costs and slow go-to-market.
  • Repetitive and irrelevant messaging, leading to reduced consumer responses.
  • Lack of creative intelligence, creating hurdles in learning what content resonates.

Addressing these gaps requires implementing independent adtech platforms specifically designed to enhance creative relevance and activation across diverse marketing channels.

This year is becoming a year of creativity and innovation for CPG marketers. Despite the significant changes in the macroeconomic environment in 2023, optimism pervades the advertising industry. Marketers and advertisers are showing an intent to either maintain or increase spending across most digital media channels. Generative AI, especially ChatGPT, has captured everyone’s attention, leading to a shift in focus and resource allocation. The importance of measurement and attribution capabilities has increased, and so have the concerns regarding cookie deprecation, which makes measurement challenging. Further, there’s a prevalent gap between creative and media execution. As such, marketers should consider innovative methodologies and creative adtech platforms for competitive advantage this year.

How do you plan to make the most out of technological innovations to stay ahead of the competition? Share with us on Facebook Opens a new window , X Opens a new window , or LinkedIn Opens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

Image source: Shutterstock

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  1. What is omnichannel marketing?

    The prefix "omni" means "all," and "channel" is a reference to the many ways customers might interact with a company—in physical stores, by surfing the web, on social media, and in emails, apps, SMS, and other digital spaces. And this omnichannel approach can be a powerful way to meet your customers where they are, providing them ...

  2. Omnichannel: The path to value

    Too few retailers have established alignment across their organization on the omnichannel agenda, including the long-term vision and the current status. Without strategic alignment, organizations often end up investing in a scattershot fashion, funding divergent priorities in e-commerce, store operations, supply chain, marketing, and technology.

  3. 5 Omnichannel marketing examples and case studies (with results)

    Omnichannel marketing: Definition, benefits, and popular examples. Omnichannel marketing is the process of bringing all marketing channels — like your website, mobile app, emails, push notifications, and social media ads — together by connecting them to a central platform. This lets you share data in real time, create consistent customer journeys across multiple channels, and manage ...

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    Read the complete case study on how Oyo used omnichannel marketing to achieve success. 2) Target: Partnering with Pinterest. Target partnered with Pinterest to integrate Pinterest's Lens into their app so people can use their smartphones to snap a photo of something they like and have the Target app show them a similar item available for ...

  5. [Case Study 2023] Amazon Omnichannel Strategy

    1. Amazon Prime and Data Unification. The first challenge for any omnichannel strategy is how to connect customer data across channels and devices. Typically, customer data such as behavior, previous purchases, demographics, product/category affinities, and more are siloed in each channel. Amazon Prime is Amazon's solution to the customer data ...

  6. [Case Study] How Starbucks Omnichannel Drives Repeat Sales

    Starbucks omnichannel strategy is a great case study in how to deepen customer relationships and drive repeat pruchases. Their success with omnichannel retailing provides a playbook of successful omnichannel tactics. Each section will first look at specific strategies and tactics Starbucks is using today. Then, we will draw specific action ...

  7. Sephora: The Omnichannel Strategy Which Redefined CX in Cosmetics

    In this case study, we take a deep-dive into Sephora's omnichannel marketing strategy and examine how the blend of in-store experiences with digital platforms has transformed the customer journeys and sustained Sephora's growth strategy. Table of Contents. The History of Sephora. The key success factors that drive Sephora's growth strategy.

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    Omnichannel retailing isn't new. But the truth is … Most retailers are failing at creating successful omnichannel strategies. Despite the vast majority (90%) of brands having an omnichannel strategy in place, only 8% feel like they are succeeding. This omnichannel case study is going to break down one of the most successful retailers, and how they use omnichannel marketing to drive revenue.

  9. Redefine the omnichannel approach: Focus on what truly matters

    The approach also can reduce the time it takes to handle calls that do reach an agent, because an efficient omnichannel system alerts the agent to customers' intentions and the actions they took prior to the conversation, enabling a faster time to resolution. It can improve customer satisfaction by providing a more personalized experience and ...

  10. Learn about omnichannel marketing

    Omnichannel marketing is an integrated, customer-centric approach that drives engagement across multiple channels with seamless, targeted messaging. ... Omnichannel use cases and industry case studies. The principles of omnichannel marketing apply in any industry, though the specific execution may vary. ...

  11. Omnichannel B2B Marketing: A Guide + Case Study

    Check out the full omnichannel marketing case study here. Embrace the Future of B2B with an Omnichannel Approach. From understanding the nuances of B2B buyer behaviors to the integration and personalization of various marketing channels, the journey to omnichannel proficiency is complex yet deeply rewarding for brands who get it right.

  12. A Study of 46,000 Shoppers Shows That Omnichannel Retailing Works

    Utpal M. Dholakia is the George R. Brown Professor of Marketing at Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and author of How to Price Effectively: A Guide for Managers and ...

  13. Omnichannel marketing

    Omnichannel marketing emerged as a concept around 2010 for marketers to connect data across the many different touchpoints in a customer's journey to create a seamless and personalized experience across all channels. ... Although many published case studies focus on how B2C organizations have implemented an omnichannel marketing strategy, the ...

  14. Creating an Omnichannel Supply Chain: A Macy's Case Study

    Creating a better supply chain. In 2019 Macy's hired Dennis Mullahy, the first ever Chief Supply Chain Officer, to transform the supply chain into one that supports an omnichannel strategy. Since then, Macy's has made leaps and bounds in optimizing their supply flow, with COVID expediting the process.

  15. Nike: A case study for what omnichannel retail should look like

    Omnichannel retail technology utilized. It really was a great display of technology to deliver a seamless shopping experience. Nike has most definitely customized and built-from-scratch a ...

  16. Mastering Omnichannel Customer Behavior: Proven Strategies for a

    Case study: Burberry's omnichannel strategy. Burberry's strategy is a masterclass in omnichannel retailing. They pioneered numerous strategies, including partnering with Instagram for Instagram Checkout and launching their entire catalog on WeChat. Most intriguing was their 'B Series' campaign, a social-native product line available only during ...

  17. 6 Powerful Case Studies of Businesses Using Omni-Channel Marketing to

    Here are 6 powerful case studies of businesses that use omni-channel marketing to its fullest. Businesses That Use Omni-Channel Marketing E-commerce customers today use different channels to do a multitude of things: gather product information, check out brands, compare prices, ask for help, and make purchases.

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  19. Omnichannel Marketing Case Study: INTERMIX + Opal

    In fact, all pieces of the process have been streamlined, creating unprecedented efficiency for the INTERMIX marketing team. Since implementing Opal three years ago, Angie estimates that her team saves 15-20 hours every week. Download the full case study here. Learn how INTERMIX, an online women's clothing retailer, saves 15-20 hours every week ...

  20. Omnichannel shopping and retail

    Omnichannel shopping has become the new normal for almost all consumer products and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Through omnichannel shopping, consumers can shop across multiple sales channels—online using their laptop or phone, in physical brick-and-mortar stores, or at wholesale stores—while benefiting from a seamless, holistic consumer experience.

  21. Omnichannel Engagement in Pharma

    Early signs of success — selected case studies While efforts to define and implement omnichannel models are ongoing, examples of a successful full-scale omnichannel overhaul in pharma are rare. However, there are a number of early success stories of pharma companies establishing omnichannel approaches for specific segments or built on a small ...

  22. 11 Omnichannel Marketing Examples to Watch Out in 2024

    11 Best Omnichannel Marketing Examples to Watch Out. 1. Nordstrom. Nordstrom's "Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store" service is a great omnichannel marketing example in eCommerce as it seamlessly integrates customers' online and offline shopping experiences. With this service, customers can effortlessly shop online and pick up their purchases ...

  23. Omnichannel Marketing Case Study: 300 Subscribers in 30 Days

    case-study. How to Get 300 Website Subscribers in 30 Days by Setting up Omnichannel Customer Journeys. The Viseven team has gone through plenty of unique cases where an omnichannel customer journey would be a brand new HCP engagement practice in the pharma market. A top 50 pharma enterprise from France addressed Viseven to solve a problem that ...

  24. Omnichannel marketing case studies

    05 February. HeyLocate Case Study: How to Automate Communication with the Audience From Different Countries. Anna Zabudskaya , Mariia Natarova. 186. 17 article.min. 5.00. Cases. 22 January. Pokupon Case: +49% in Website Traffic and +16% in Revenue Thanks to Personalized Recommendations.

  25. Elevate Customer-Centric Marketing with Adobe Experience Cloud

    This case study session highlights how technical teams planned, implemented, and integrated Adobe Real-Time CDP, Customer Journey Analytics, and Marketo Engage. Learn to quickly and easily design data models, connect data sources from different vendors, manage identity resolution, and more. Key takeaways: Track: Developers.

  26. Amazon vs Walmart Case Study (pdf)

    In order for Amazon to build its omni-challenge presence it would have to improve its physical presence in stores to beat the competition from other retailers and marketplaces. 8. Analyze and compare the financial and strategic performance of Amazon and Walmart over the years. Estimate the online sales of Amazon in the US market.

  27. Ecommerce Boom: Easing Supply Chain Pressure with Omnichannel Supply

    April 16, 2024. Siddharth Priyesh, SCB Contributor. The boom in e-commerce booming is placing great pressure on various sections in the supply chain. Infrastructure like warehouses, highway and ocean carriers take time to increase in capacity, and labor acquisition and retention remain a challenge. Combined with interruptions in routes caused ...

  28. Omnichannel marketing in South Africa, the stats

    Omnichannel marketing platform, Omnisend has analyse nearly 600 million messages issued by ecommerce businesses in 2023. In a press release, Omnisend reckons the messages resulted in more than a million sales in South Africa and helped to earn Omnisend's customers more than R1.2 billion. "With the endless number and inconsistency of paid ...

  29. Data Analysis Is the Biggest Generative AI Use Case in CPG

    Data analysis (41%) and market research (29%) were the top applications. About 25% of respondents said they use it for copywriting and 12% for generating images. Further, only 9% use it for customer service. How CPG Marketers Are Using Gen AI in Marketing. Source: The 2024 CPG Advertising Outlook Report.