Whether its seems obvious or not to outsiders, the thing that marks all the top retailers of today is their presence across channels. That is, all the top retailers are omnichannel retailers. Some started online and spread to gain a physical presence; others took the opposite route. But regardless of the path of their evolution, these successful firms are available in whatever channel customers prefer to use.

For example, Macy’s will always have a brick-and-mortar presence, but it is shifting more attention to innovative ideas for fulfilling customer orders. It recently built a new fulfillment center in Tulsa, Oklahoma; added extended search capabilities to its mobile app; entered into a partnership with Instagram to enable users to shop its stores directly through that site; and opened a new Idea Lab to come up with other channel options. The retailer also has a chief omnichannel officer, who notes that the goal of this evolution toward omnichannel is convergence, such that both the retailer and its customers maintain a “single view,” without any distinctions across the channels.

Retailers that started online, such as Amazon, are also creating new options for consumers. Amazon’s mobile apps continue to expand and develop. Furthermore, it has created several pop-up store events, experimented with showrooms, and opened physical branches on a few college campuses.

Omnichannel also is different from a multichannel approach. In a multichannel approach, a retailer runs multiple channels simultaneously without necessarily integrating them. The items available through the mobile app might differ from those listed on the website, and the prices might vary across the different channels. With an omnichannel strategy, any differences are strategic, planned, and purposeful. The design therefore seeks to ensure the greatest appeal to the greatest number of customers, wherever the retailer encounters them.

 

Discussion Questions:

1. What one strategic characteristic do top retailers have in common?
2. How are some of these retailers implementing this strategy?

 

Source: David P. Schulz, Stores Magazine, July 2015