As digital shopping grew in popularity throughout the 2000s, forward-thinking businesses jumped to take advantage of multichannel retail. Multichannel merchants market and sell their products using both e-commerce platforms and traditional channels such as storefronts and catalogues.

As technology advanced, so did the potential to contact customers beyond typical e-commerce platforms. Savvy organisations have rapidly moved beyond multichannel methods and are now using Omnichannel commerce to increase their chances of connecting with prospective clients.

But what is omnichannel retailing, and how can businesses benefit from it? This tutorial explains how an omnichannel retail strategy can increase brand awareness by meeting consumers where they are.

How Does Omnichannel Retailing Work? 

While multichannel retailing brings products to consumers on e-commerce sites, omnichannel marketing brings a brand directly to the consumer, wherever they are. As “omni” means “all”, omnichannel retailing takes advantage of every channel available to help more consumers see a company’s offerings.

When we say every, we mean every. This results in a rather large scope for the types of retail marketing strategies that could be considered omnichannel. Some of the most evident and prolific, however, are seen in the integration of retail media ads into users’ online activities, including:

• A customer receiving targeted ads on streaming services.
• Products that users search for appear on their social media feeds.
• Promoting users to download a mobile app to enhance their experience of a service

These kinds of approaches are prime examples of the type of all-encompassing customer experience that omnichannel retailing aims to create. Every omnichannel retailer seeks to make it simple for consumers to engage with, learn about and purchase from their brand via as many platforms as possible.

Effective omnichannel marketing strategies seamlessly integrate a brand and its products and services into the consumer’s life. Where other retail strategies maximize budget and efforts in a few key channels, omnichannel approaches rely on a brand’s persistent presence in all spaces to drive sales.

Understanding Omnichannel Retailing with the Tetris Effect

One effective way to understand how omnichannel retailing works is to think of the Tetris Effect, a psychological and physical occurrence named after the Archade classic. Yes, the beloved retro video game has a physiological phenomenon associated with it, and its functions as such:

• Avid Tetris Players spend hours starting at repetitive falling blocks as they practice their craft
• They finally call it quits in video games for the day to rest their weary eyes and give their brain a break
• When they close their eyes and attempt to sleep, the image of falling bricks phantoms across their inner eyelids

While this quirky, harmless and temporary occurrence is associated with Tetris, any repetitive image can cause the same effect on a viewer.

It’s simple enough to see where this is headed in relation to omnichannel retailing. A brand’s image haunting consumers as they drift to sleep, however, isn’t necessarily the goal of most marketing strategies.

The real prize for companies is having omnichannel customers think about their brand consciously or subconsciously- when they’re not confronted with it directly. In marketing terms, this translates to:

• Brand recognition
• Brand familiarity
• Top-of-the-mind awareness

These converted trophies of the advertising world have long been heralded as markers of successful branding and marketing campaigns- having an omnichannel retail strategy is simply a modern and effective way to seize them.

Omnichannel Retailing in Practice

Immersive marketing techniques aren’t necessarily new phenomena. Think of amusement parks themed after animation corporations, or sports titans with their logo on everything from the athletes’ shoes to the telecast watermark.

Some megabrands have long surrounded us with their image and offerings. But, in the digital age, marketing approaches have changed and smaller businesses can now get in on the game.

People have increasingly lively digital lives, and online spaces are prime territory for companies to capitalize on connecting with omnichannel customers. Likewise, digital footprints make it easier than ever to track customer engagement- an essential component to personalizing a user’s experience with a brand.

Omnichannel retailing aims to advertise through multiple platforms, but different consumers use various platforms for commerce, communication and leisure. The average social media user has accounts on 6.6 platforms, so a single potential customer may use one or all of these on a given day:

• Meta
• Twitter
• Tiktok
• Instagram
• Various other social media apps
• Amazon
• Other online retailers
• Brick-and-mortar retail stores
• Communication apps such as Messenger and WhatsApp
• Email
• Text Messaging
• Youtube
• Spotify
• Entertainment platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and other
• Other media hosting sites and streaming services

Nowadays, sites are becoming interconnected with integrated logins for Google and Metas. And, unless users are taking measured precautions to limit their traceability, their actions are becoming increasingly easy to follow across the multiple platforms they use-making it easier for brands to target a single user across several channels.

Creating User Personas to Facilitate Omnichannel Marketing 

One potent omnichannel strategy for retailers is to create a user persona to target consumers who are most likely to convert. Brands can start with first-party data of their existing customer base and assess the trends to ones who have converted, when and on which products.

Users personals also allow a company to:

• Get an idea of the type of sites and services their users frequently
• Understanding the kinds of communication their audience is likely to respond to
• Determine what products their audience is interested in and how to advertise them

Once a business has an idea of a consumer’s sensibilities and how they spend their time, it can better cater an omnichannel experience for them.

How to meet consumer on their level 

An omnichannel retailer should seek to meet consumers where they are physically, emotionally and digitally. Hence, robust campaigns take full advantage of:

• Social Media: Omnichannel retailing isn’t just about painting a presence on Twitter, Instagram and every other possible platform; it’s about keeping a consistent omnichannel customer experience. A brand’s persona and the types of products a user sees should ring cohesive from app to app.
• SMS, email and other communication platforms- Messages that users perceive as spam can be annoying or off-putting. But an email containing a 20% off coupon for the exact item that the user is considering? That will lead to customer satisfaction and a more effective way to close a sale.
• Targeted Advertising: Most people today recognize an ad for what it is, so it must be personalized to hold customer engagement. How does a business know what products a user wants to see? They’ve been tracking customer data consisting of what they’ve already purchased, the media they consume and their behaviour on their channels.

Of course, digital spaces alone aren’t the only aspects of the only aspects of the omnichannel approach. An omnichannel strategy should also be taken into consideration:

• The brand’s presence in brick-and-mortar storefronts
• Traditional media, such as television, radio and magazines
• Out of Home (OOH) advertising, such as billboards or public transportation
• Tactics that combine digital and real-world, like guerilla marketing or pop-up shops

In these spaces, it’s not as easy to keep tabs on consumers’ routines and cater to individual experiences. Still, there are ways to link a consumer’s real-world habits to their online presence, including:

• Asking for email addresses at physical checkouts to track a customer’s purchases and send offers for similar items.
• Selling digital tickets to keep tabs on who attends what events and provide them with information about upcoming in-person events.
• Distributing information and tickets for real-world events, such as pop-ups, through digital platforms or to shoppers who make frequent online purchases.

These are a small sample of how marketers connect with consumers’ online personas to their real-world activities. Digital marketing is complex, and approaches are unique to specific brands and the consumers they wish to target. 

Rather than devise their omnichannel approach, many businesses turn to a digital marketing agency to help them develop omnichannel retail plans. 

Axe Digital helps cover all your omnichannel bases

If an omnichannel retailing strategy is the missing link in bringing more customers through your door (digital or physical), but you’re not sure how to cover all of your bases, Axe Digital can assist.

Axe Digital is a top growth marketing business with the knowledge and expertise to create targeted omnichannel marketing campaigns. We can handle every aspect of your marketing strategy, from collecting customer data to creating targeted adverts for high-converting users.

If you want to energise your brand’s image and drive users from any channel, boost your omnichannel retailing with Axe Digital.