Omnichannel: Retail’s Strategic Imperative
Posted by Amanda McLaughlin on Oct 9, 2019
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Omnichannel. A word we love to hate. Why? Because it’s really hard to pull off and not many brands have it completely figured out. That’s not to say the wherewithal to change isn’t there and that we haven’t seen year-over-year momentum. In fact, there are many shining examples of omnichannel excellence in the industry today. At the same time, there is a lot of opportunity for continued growth in terms of delivering the end-to-end customer experience shoppers expect.
This is according to our 2019-2020 Omnichannel Leadership Report. The fourth annual report is a critical assessment of over 200 luxury, premium and lifestyle brands. A team of researchers audited each brand’s in-store technologies, website, mobile properties and call center. Through engagement with customer support and store associates, we’ve benchmarked the industry’s progress toward achieving omnichannel.
Overall, the industry scored a low 40 out of 100 based on analysis of the pillars of modern retail: discovery, purchase, fulfillment, consumer engagement, and associate mobility. While the leaders scored high in these sections, the averages were brought down by the significant number of brands trying to survive on old systems and fragmented omnichannel strategies.
Here’s a look at some notable findings from this year’s report:
And, the report’s leaders, who are notably more competent than their industry peers:
We believe the mobility piece to be core to becoming an omnichannel organization. Consumers are not laying off their use of mobile devices across the shopping journey – and for everything else for that matter. It’s why this section is weighted the most in the report. One thing that sets the leaders apart from the laggards is their proficiency in mobile. Their store associates use mobile devices for nearly all workflows, and mobile has been intricately woven into every customer touchpoint. It’s something we’ve known to be true, but mobile really is presenting itself as the make-or-break for retail.
To dive deeper into our research and learn which brands ranked in the top five in each category, download a copy of the report for free: newstore.com/omnichannel-leadership-report.
