If you were to learn that businesses who use omnichannels retain 89% of customers, you’d want a slice of that. ‘Omnichannel’ is hot on everyone’s lips, and there’s good reason for it – customers love it.

They love it, without realising it.

That’s the beauty of being of being in multiple places at once; it makes you omnipresent in a way that allows you to be there for your customers intuitively. You make their lives easier. In return, they don’t just buy from you, they become brand advocates. Because when you love something, you tell everyone.

Why do you need an omnichannel approach?

In a world where we have everything at our fingertips and in a market where your competition can push in from any direction (or dimension), it’s never been more critical to have a customer-centric approach. In an increasingly integrated world, omnichannel marketing allows you be just where your customers need you, at every vital touchpoint.

Omnichannel marketing simplifies the customer experience and it unifies your brand message.

When you are clear, consistent and present on and across multiple devices, your customers trust you. That’s really what omni is all about. It’s about building the trust between you and your audience. They can move within your carefully curated ecosystem comfortably.

In short, an omnichannel approach is seamless on the outside. It’s more complex on the inside, but rest assured it’s worth the effort. You don’t just get more customers and higher retention rates, you also get quality data to feed back into your own marketing ecosystem. What goes around, quite literally comes around when you omnichannel.

It’s not multi, it’s omni

Omnichannel is not multichannel. There can be a little confusion.

Multichannel marketing is where you target your ad campaigns through as many platforms as possible. You might be generating leads from Facebook, Instagram, email, direct mail, and Snapchat. The more you hit up, the more ‘multichannels’ you utilize. These are still crucial, as 73% of buyers explore multiple channels before purchasing.

Omni-marketing is a little more intuitive.

Omnichannel creates an integrated experience. It’s about being consistent throughout the journey, at every stage, and on multiple devices. Put simply, we can describe multichannel as general and omnichannel as personal. When you see the same ad popping up on all your social media, and your desktop, you know you’re being targeted. But when you visit a store on your phone, then pay on your desktop, update your shipping details from a tablet, so you can pick up the product in store where you automatically receive loyalty points on your app – then you feel that the brand is dancing to your tune.

Know the path to purchase

Omnichannel really is a dance. It’s not a linear path, as your customers could take many routes to purchase and, importantly, return for more. This is where understanding your customer journey is vital. An omnichannel approach is seamless for your customer, but you have to put in the hard work behind the scenes.

There are multiple ways of learning their pathways. Use as many as you can to build a clear picture. This is all about taking the road less travelled as well as common routes.

1. Look at your data. Get on your Google Analytics and see where customers are lingering, bouncing, clicking and purchasing.
2. Ask your customers. Open communication should be part-and-parcel of your brand, so use it find out what they really want, straight from the horse’s mouth. Simple. Very effective.
3. Be your customer. Take the journey yourself, and learn from the other side; the side you’re trying to sell to.
4. Assimilate all this information to inform an omnichannel strategy.
5. Keep looking at that data to stay ahead of the game, and anticipate your customers needs.

If you do anything this year to future-proof your eCommerce business, utilizing omnichannel marketing is a powerful option. After all, 90% of customers expect consistent interactions across all channels, but more than half of all businesses have no cross-channel approach.

This is your chance to get ahead.