When it comes to customer engagement there’s a gap between what’s deemed standard in and what they are now capable of. The pandemic set a new path for digital transformation and a new standard for consumer engagement in the previous year. Businesses have to speed up their digital strategy to survive with stay-at-home orders in place, creating new client channels in nearly half the time it took before.

While businesses want to add multiple features that include live chat, chatbots, IVR, and video, they also concede they cannot integrate dispersed data points into comprehensive customer records. Businesses are racing to meet customers wherever they are, but they can’t effectively connect with them once they get there, creating a catch-22 that is difficult to fix. However, with the right data, analytics and technology, omnichannel, one-to-one marketing at scale is possible. It starts with a single customer perspective and relies on real-time data activation.

Why is omnichannel experience is critical for the retail industry?

Tech-savvy marketers are already aware that they are being targeted for marketing. And, with customers using different devices and channels, generalized strategies will only result in generic customer experiences.

Modern businesses entice customers by providing personalized information and product recommendations. In fact, when organizations provide tailored experiences, 80 percent of customers are more likely to make a purchase.

Here are a few instances of how different brands have used customization to enhance their omnichannel retail strategy:

From the various product categories and recommendations, users receive the types of advertisements that they are targeted. Therefore, customization should extend to every part of a brand’s omnichannel retail strategy to obtain better outcomes.

Omnichannel Shoppers expect consistency Across Channels

Consistency is vital objective to attract today’s shopper. Regardless of the device, social channel, shopping platform, location, or time of day, the majority of customers expect companies to provide consistent information and experiences at all times.

What about the retailers who are unable to achieve these standards? They could face significant financial losses. More than 60% of individuals will discontinue doing business with a firm if they don’t get the experience they seek.

Examples

Better client acquisition is the key behind all the campaigns. We have put together some industry-specific instances of how Journeys can assist businesses improve engagement across channels so they can reap the benefits of higher lifetime value, and improved revenue.

Campaign for Repeat Purchases

Retention is king these days, and many companies are altering their goals to prioritise customer retention in order to keep consumers coming back for more and increase lifetime value. We will focus on turning one-time purchases into repeat buyers throughout this journey by communicating with them through their chosen channels.

Low Recency Buying Winback

What’s the most effective way to encourage repeat purchases? Use customer intent and lifetime value signals to your advantage. Our goal in this journey is to deploy targeted messages based on intent indications like user engagement and customer lifetime value to encourage repeat purchases.

Omnichannel Retail Trends

Every store must plan a certain set of strategies to align their company goals, brand, and customer needs. The following are a few trends that merchants are incorporating into their operations.

1. Virtual and Augmented Reality

Customers may be anxious to place online orders for certain products. For instance, a couch may be offered at a great price, but not knowing how it would appear in a specific setting may dissuade someone from purchasing it.

2. AR & VR

Augmented reality (AR) is a new take on “”try before you buy,””. It is a simple and engaging approach for shoppers to perceive products in a real world. Customers just choose a product to be superimposed into their surroundings and then choose if they want it in a different shape, colour, size, or other variation.

The IKEA Place app allows customers to digitally “”place furniture”” true-to-scale 3D models of sofas, coffee tables, bookcases, and other furniture items in their homes. In recent app optimization, shoppers can now visually search for products by focusing their camera on an object and the app will automatically retrieve related items. AR can help reduce shopping cart abandonment, enhance customer confidence, and restrict returns by bringing product directly to the customer.

3. Mobile Connectivity in Store

Starbucks has completely embraced mobile app capabilities by allowing users to place orders for pickup in-store on their phones. The coffee giant has even devised a loyalty programme that rewards users for using their smartphone app to make purchases. It’s no surprise, then, that the Starbucks app is the favoured restaurant loyalty rewards programme of 48% of smartphone owners.

Furthermore, the Starbucks app also includes in-store mobile capabilities like Spotify connection to identify songs and artists playing in the store and personalised food and beverage suggestions based on a customer’s order history. This not only encourages customers to choose Starbucks over their competitors, but it also allows the firm to market and upsell to current customers through its app.

For instance

Target is another wonderful example of a major retailer leveraging mobile technology to improve the in-store experience. Target Circle, the large box retailer’s update on their free worldwide loyalty rewards programme. Consumers may join up for Target Circle in different methods, including confirming their phone number at checkout, but the quickest way is through the Target app. Customers may use the Target app to see if an item is in stock at their local store before making a trip, saving time and effort. They can also scan barcodes in stores to access unique Target Circle offerings, such as product discounts and rewards, by using their mobile device. If the success of Target Circle’s predecessor is any indicator — shoppers used Target Cartwheel to save over $1.6 billion — the corporation is sure to have another hit on its hands.

4. No-Contact Checkout

Over 87% of shoppers prefer to purchase in stores that offer touchless or robust self-checkout. The contactless checkout retail store is a cashier-less and fully automated store where you may pick up an item, walk out, and have the cost deducted from your e-wallet automatically. A camera, artificial intelligence, and a slew of sensors are all part of the system. These detect and track the customer’s movements and what products were picked up and returned to the shelf.

Benefits

• Save time: Customers can take what they need in less than 30 seconds and leave the store. Working moms and professionals will appreciate these retail formats.
• No long queues: Customers will no longer make U-turns when they encounter lineups at a retail store’s billing counter. The technology eliminates the need for your products to be billed in a line.
• Go Cashless: Consumers no longer need to carry cash for retail transactions because electronic wallets are more handy.
• Shopping experience: Enhances the shopping experience for customers by making it safer, faster, and more comfortable.
• Improved operational efficiency: The contactless technology requires minimal people and maybe implemented more quickly. Businesses that accept contactless payments save time since they don’thave to count money or operate card swipe devices. Sales can be closed in record fast as a result of this.

5. Electronic Payments

Digital payments have revolutionized the purchasing process, bringing ease, security, and convenience to shops and consumers. There was no need for change, and it was a major change. Digital payments give you the freedom to simply implement an omnichannel strategy by allowing you to make seamless payments through any channel, whether it sit’s an online store or a physical location.

Digital payments are becoming increasingly popular in retail, as evidenced by UPI alternatives and Google Pay.

Also read – Omnichannel marketing strategy- Ultimate guide to get started

The following are some of the advantages of digital payments:

For clients:

Convenience: Customers do not need to carry cash when purchasing online or offline. They have complete control over transactions with digital payments, independent of the shopping channel.

For companies:

Businesses gets relief on the burden of returning the change, counting the notes, and depositing the money into their bank accounts. It also safeguards them against the dangers of counterfeit money.

Takeaway

appICE enables productive customer engagement and customer retention through remarkable marketing automation platform. Our products include behavioural intelligence, personalized engagement, contextual segments, and messaging channels which dramatically enhances customer lifetime value and enable organizations to create personalized experiences

We can confidently claim that businesses are coming closer to customers, and they are being given a multitude of options to shop from/interact with, based on these retail trends for 2022. As a result, brand experiences are improving by the day, and merchants are investing in the correct areas to retain customers.