The era of ‘retail everywhere’ is well and truly upon us, with nearly 90 per cent of Australian shoppers surveyed recently by Shopify indicating they plan to continue making purchases online, and close to 70 per cent set to continue shopping on social media, explains Shaun Broughton, Managing Director, APAC & Japan at Shopify.

But at the same time, 90 per cent of Australian shoppers polled in Shopify’s study say they are purchasing at the same rate, or more, in-store as they were the prior year.

Clearly, today’s retail landscape is about more than just online channels. With bricks-and-mortar sales still playing an important role in the retail mix, consumers are buying goods via any number of offline and online channels.

Why omnichannel?

With the preference for various modes of shopping splintering among consumers, more and more retailers are adopting omnichannel sales strategies aimed at meeting customers where they want to be met.

The touchpoints on the path to a purchase are multiplying as consumers become more open to new experiences and increasingly willing to shop via social media surfaces. Indeed, Shopify’s research suggests that younger shoppers in the local region are highly receptive to new touchpoints, including shopping for products directly through brand social channels.

Most local retailers with an online presence seem to understand that allowing consumers to shop anywhere will enable a more sustainable future for commerce. Nearly a third of Australian businesses surveyed by Shopify believe that sales through social media will form the largest part of their business by the end of the decade.

There is power in choice, and retailers that limit themselves to just one or two channels, or don’t have the seamless integration across various channels needed to follow customers from one touchpoint to the next, may face barriers to long-term growth.

The customer journey

In most cases, a customer’s omnichannel journey begins with the discovery phase. In this phase, a consumer will research products, find detailed information and compare prices across different channels, including assets such as a retailer’s websites or third party online marketplaces and social media sites. In Shopify’s recent research, 39 per cent of Australian consumers said they were more likely to make a purchase by discovering a product through the following channels than a year ago.

Once the product that the customer wants to purchase has been identified, the next step in the omnichannel journey is typically the purchase phase. At this point, customers may make a purchase via a retailer’s website, an online marketplace or social media site or a physical store.

The next step on the journey that kicks in once a purchase has been made is the fulfilment phase. In this stage of the journey, the customer receives the order, making the purchase official. If the purchase was made via digital channels, confirmation of fulfilment is usually communicated to the customer via email or SMS notifications, and is backed up by an automated tracking system.

This is where the long tail of the customer experience stage begins – where customers decide if they are satisfied with their purchase and experience with the brand. It is at this stage that customers may leave reviews and feedback or access customer service if they require more assistance.

Paving the omnichannel pathways

There are multiple pathways in an omnichannel customer journey, each of which need to be established and curated, to some degree, by the retailer. This is why the first step to creating a flawless omnichannel retail strategy usually lies in figuring out which platforms, channels and devices customers use on a daily basis.

When working out which channels are most appropriate, retailers should consider elements such as where they like to hang out and what experiences motivate their daily lives.

The key to designing an effective omnichannel retail strategy is ensuring every potential touchpoint is shoppable. For example, if someone adds a product to their cart from an online retail store, it should also pop up on the retailer’s mobile app, creating a consistent experience across channels.

Shopify recently launched 100+ product updates in its latest Editions showcase, to help improve merchants’ innovation to extend their own longevity. The improvement to the Shop app and one-page checkout will help merchants boost conversion amidst challenging economic conditions and give them an advantage over their competitors that’s built to last.

For physical stores, customers usually want to know what’s in stock before they come to visit. Often, customers may want to add an item to their cart on the way to a store and have it sitting at the register for pickup. This click and collect model has become very popular since the onset of COVID-19. And more recently, Shopify introduced local inventory sync with Google last year. The feature allows merchants to automatically let nearby customers know when a product is available in store, making it easier than ever to shop and support local brands. Such strategies have seen consumers increasingly want to connect with brands both online and offline.

This is why, if a retailer’s strategy involves sales that aren’t offline, it is critical to connect the online components with the physical store element. Merely being present in both channels isn’t enough, retailers need each channel to interact with each other to ensure ownership of a sale when it happens.

Road making tools

Perhaps the most important tool in the road making toolkit for retailers wanting to build pathways for an omnichannel customer journey, is a point of sale (POS) system that contains both offline and online elements, and is able to keep both worlds consistent for customers.

Traditionally, POS systems have been thought of as the device or software that a retailer may use to process transactions and accept payments from a physical retail store. However, in the ‘retail everywhere’ era, POS systems need to go well beyond the physical shopfront.

To establish the pathways for a truly omnichannel customer journey, retailers should look for a POS system that has the ability to unify in-store and online sales, bridging the gaps between a brand’s website, social media presence and physical store.

For example, a POS system that can synchronise inventory information across channels will enable retailers to provide a more seamless shopping experience for customers, while also giving them the ability to more efficiently manage their stock.

Additional functionality enabling local pickup or delivery, ship-to-home or email carts, can make for a truly omnichannel customer journey experience. Add to this a smartphone app element to a POS system, and a retailer can turn any smartphone into a sales terminal, with data sent directly to a back-end that talks to all the other channels in the omnichannel mix.

With such tools on board, retailers can proactively look for new outlets and ways to connect with customers in each and every channel, and create an experience that doesn’t restrict customers to any single place of purchase. Which, today, is what most consumers are looking for.

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