From Shopify article:
“There’s a continued appetite for consumers to engage directly with brands. But while retailers have focused on getting online for the last decade, they now realize that it’s all about people and places.
“Creating a brand that’s cross channel—or omnichannel—provides the opportunity to forge a deeper connection with the customer,” explains Dan Conboy, managing director of Shopify Plus agency Statement. “One which goes beyond clicks and allows consumers to interact with your team and products. This in turn can create a stronger sense of loyalty and advocacy—the ingredients that the most successful brands have on their side to drive sustainable growth.”
Creating a brand that’s cross channel—or omnichannel—provides the opportunity to forge a deeper connection with the customer.
High profile companies such as Gymshark and Kylie Cosmetics have successfully opened pop-up stores to bring their brands to life, generate a buzz, and tell their story. Shopify, meanwhile, recognized that commerce isn’t just about online by investing in tools like Shopify POS and, more recently, launching a retail education space in LA to train and empower entrepreneurs to create their own best-in-class retail experiences and stores. And larger brands, who may need more complexity in their physical retail store requirements, can now connect third-party EPOS solutions, such as LS One, into the Shopify platform.
Dan points out that having a unified customer view allows a brand to understand their buyers’ behavior across online and retail store channels, which can unlock a host of benefits such as:
- A store assistant being able to see a customer’s previous online orders to guide their next purchase
- Loyalty points being captured and shared across channels, rewarding customers in a unified and consistent manner and encouraging greater advocacy
- Attaching a digital customer profile to transactions in store, so follow-up emails can be initiated to drive further repeat orders online or in-store
- Collecting and analyzing data to understand how stores drive revenue online in specific geographic regions, which can inform a brand’s wider store strategy and where next to invest in a permanent store or experiment with a pop-up
So in 2020, developing a strong omnichannel strategy, which goes beyond the website and provides opportunities for customers to interact, will become a clear way to create a competitive advantage.”