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Omnichannel Strategy

Multiplying touchpoints is essential for your retail business

 

Customer journeys have multiplied with the rise of e-commerce. Channel diversification is essential to reach your customers and drive sales.

 

 

Faced with inflation, consumers are no longer just ultra-connected: they are also versatile and hybrid in their purchasing behavior. In this context, how can we reassure and satisfy a clientele seeking simplicity, reliability and the best value for money?

Source : Francois Loviton, managing director retail of Google France

 

 

We can define the customer journey as the set of steps taken by the customer leading to a clear objective, which is the purchase of a product or service. Purchasing behaviors are now completely redefined. Before the rise of digital tools, your customers went to physical stores to discover and buy a product. The physical channel was natural, simple and preferred by your customers.

 

The advent of the Internet in our society has brought new ways of buying and consuming for consumers.
Before buying a product, customer will do various internet searches to familiarize themselves with: product characteristics, unboxing videos or even tests and reviews on Youtube. The customer will then go to the store to be able to test the product in real conditions. After making their purchasing decision, the consumer will compare prices in order to buy at the lowest price.

 

“90% of under-25s turn to an online video platform to discover new brands: formats like unboxing, tutorials, tests and reviews are all opportunities to make your brand known while creating engagement.”

Source : ComScore (Video Metrics) study conducted in August 2022 and unveiled at the YouTube Festival

 

 

The purchasing process has become more complex and is no longer linear. The omnichannel strategy consists of optimizing the simultaneous and coordinated use of all available channels of your company. It is essential to strenghten the complementarity of all channels.

 

According to several studies, a customer will interact with a company an average of 10 times for each purchasing decision.

 

In order to implement a cross-channel strategy, it is first necessary to identify all the touchpoints and channels that your customers can use to communicate with your brand: website, telephone, social networks, email or mobile application.
This work  allows you to clearly define possible customer journeys. It is from this that the retailer observes any the blocking or slowing points. You can use this information to improve customer experience.

DIGITAL AS THE FIRST POINT OF CONTACT

WEBSITE

Your website allows your customers to order directly from your brand. It is an assurance of obtaining an original product. Your website must group together your products. In addition, you need to provide one or more means of contact: email, phone number or online chat.

Emailing

Emailing enables you to send your marketing messages to prospects who are subscribed to your mailing list. It’s recurring and reliable channel to broadcast your messages.
In addition, personalization of messages is possible. We can take for example, the sending of a unique promotional code on a customer’s birthday.

Application

The mobile application has the same functionalities as the website. It is an interface adapted for consultation in the field. Applications are very popular with young people because the user experiencc is fluid.

Réseaux sociaux

Your presence on social networks is essential to reach your youngest customers. Instagram and tiktok are effective channels for promoting your new products and collections.
Social networks are a real professional showcase and a way to attract the interest of consumers.

Customers must be able to get in touch with the brand at any time.
That is why it is necessary to multiply your presence on social networks to be available 24 hours a day.

 

Instagram boasts 26.5 million monthly active users in France and 14.4 million average daily unique visitors in France.

Today, French people spend 4 hours 30 minutes a day on their smartphones.

All prospects are exposed to different advertising messages. Some so-called “pure player” brands are present only on the Internet. They pay no rent and have no employees. This is an interesting model for prospects who already know the product and have a specific need. Not having a physical point of sale can be a disadvantage. A physical point of sale increases brand visibility.

 

 

How to target mobile customers?

Today, there are several ways to target on smartphones

 

TARGETING BASED ON GEOLOCATION DATA

Today’s smartphones can pinpoint users’ locations in real time, thanks to built-in GPS. This makes it possible to deliver the right advertising messages to your prospects in the right place.
Prospects can be targeted in real time around a precise geographical area. Targeting can be done at different scales: country, department, city, GPS coordinates.

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC TARGETING

This type of targeting is based on known Internet user characteristics. These include age, gender, education or income level, which the user has entered when registering for a service. These are deterministic data.

Behavioral targeting

Behavioral targeting studies the characteristics of web users through their actions: number of successive visits to a website, interactions, keywords. This information can be used to deduce the user’s profile and propose appropriate advertising.


This targeting can be based on a range of criteria:

  • Internet users’s queries
  • Advertisements to which they have been exposed and on which they have clicked (or not)
  • The content of sites visited

CONTEXTUAL TARGETING

This is based on themes: high tech, sports, games, cooking. Internet users are segmented according to their centers of interest.

Retargeting

Retargeting is based on the observation of interactions between the surfer and the brand. It takes place after the user has already visited your website at least once. This targeting is based on cookies collected on your website. This targeting improves your conversion rates and incremental sales to existing customers.

Remessaging is a technique used to retarget web users who have already been exposed to your advertising campaign.

 

Which digital formats are best for advertising?

There are different formats available on the browser:

The IAB standards are: the pavement, the mega banner, the Skyscraper, the Wide Angle, the Megaskyrscraper or the interstitial.

IAB Rising Stars: Billboard, Push Down and Footer.

Standard rich media: wrapping / interactive wrapping or masthead.

Your ad will be displayed on selected websites

 

Mobile advertising formats include footer, standard expendable banner, overslide, mini scroller, pull down banner, interscroller, medium rectangle banner and interstitial.

 

Le format vidéo :

Catch’up. This is an advertising program at the beginning, middle or end of a video on TV replay.

L’instream : an advertising video displayed before, in the middle of or at the end of a video hosted on an Internet video platform.

L’Out-stream is a text-integrated video where viewing is mandatory to access content.

 

To successfully adapt a campaign to all these formats in a very short space of time, it is essential to use creative automation solutions. This is the only way to get your products on the market quickly, and reduce your “time to market”.

Our Omnipublish software solutions enable creative automation from all the retailer’s communication assets, while drawing maximum creative expression from the graphic charter.

The personalization of these digital campaigns is also a key argument in the implementation of a graphic production automation system.

Discover how ARISTID customizes Carrefour e-catalogues on a large scale

How to make store more attractive?

 

Stores are a concrete place that reprensents the brand’s values. The physical point of contact is a true embodiment of the brand’s values.

70% of online shopping baskets are abandoned

Source : baymard study, 2023

 

Mobile is the first ally of the drive to store. The different channels are complementary. The store has to emerge from a flood of information from different sources: friends, retailers and influencers. The challenge for retailers is to reappear in this universe and offer their customers a unique shopping experience.

 

In-store experience

 

You need to renew the in-store customer experience with a physical store and offer a unique experience. 

At every point of sale, it’s essential to enhance the experience in order to maximize customer value.

 

The physical store complements the online one. When customers go to the store, they’re looking for a different experience. It’s very easy to order online and receive your parcel at home.

 

This is why the retailer has to meet the customer’s requirements when he decides to visit the store. Customers want to discover the offer, touch the product. Customers want to be in contact with someone and spend time with them: live the experience, bring friends, have a coffee.

Some customers want to stage themselves at the point of sale, which is a new place for media and content distribution. The store is a truly magical place. Some brands are developing areas dedicated to photography and encouraging their customers to share their snapshots on social networks.

OFFER A PERSONALIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

70% of customers expect their shopping experience to be personalized.
70% of customers are disappointed when this is not the case.
Source: Tech for retail conference, Paris, 2022


Your brand needs to tell your customers a story. They want to feel unique.

To be distinctive, brands need to be personal with their customers.

This is made possible by data. We can cite data such as age, gender or interests.

 

This data must be exploited by retailers with the aim of becoming distinctive and memorable through personalization.

To personalize, retailers need to understand and listen to their customers.

It’s the implementation of a customer-centric approach.

 

 

GATHERING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

It’s vital for your brand to gather customer feedback. There are different ways of obtaining customer feedback.

 

Direct feedback

Direct feedback is obtained through initiatives launched by the brand. These comments are mainly obtained from customer surveys, using :

  • Satisfaction surveys sent by e-mail
  • Questionnaires
  • Surveys sent via mobile application or tablet
  • Telephone surveys
  • Questionnaires sent by post
  • Interviews

Indirect feedback

These comments are obtained through spontaneous customer feedback:

  • Publications on social networks: tweet, instagram post, youtube video, review
  • By e-mail when the customer contacts the brand
  • On the website with a contact form or chat messaging system

Inferred feedback

These feedbacks are not concrete, but based on analytical data collected on online and offline channels.

  • Traffic, sales level, average basket
  • Website data: monthly traffic, page bounce rate, conversion percentage

All these elements provide a better understanding of the consumer’s journey through the brand’s omnichannel experience. Retailers can better understand customers expectations and anticipate their behavior in order to offer the best possible experience.

 

TAILOR THE PURCHASING OR SERVICE EXPERIENCE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER

 

To offer a personalized customer journey, it’s important to collect customer data and use it strategically to tailor the purchase or service experience. This can be done using customer relationship management (CRM) tools or online advertising targeting technologies.

 

The buying experience adapts :

  • By offering personalized recommendations based on each customer’s preferences and interests.
  • By offering payment and delivery options adapted to each customer’s needs.
  • By using each customer’s data to personalize the shopping or service experience. For example, by proposing special offers based on previous purchases, or by offering content that matches their interests.

 

The aim of an omnichannel strategy is to create a consistent, uniform experience for your customers, whatever channel they use to interact with your company. A cross-channel experience helps you to build customer loyalty, as well as improve sales by enabling customers to buy across different channels.

 

Traditional channels such as physical stores and call centers complement digital channels such as the company website, social networks, mobile applications and e-commerce platforms. Date plays a major role, enabling you to better understand your customers’ behavior and provide them with personalized offers.

 

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