With the advancement of technology, especially with everything going mobile now the way customers shop, has completely changed the retail industry. For you to stay ahead of your competitors, you need to be where the people are at- Digital market place or E-Commerce in short
A recent study conducted by Harvard Business found out that over 73% of people are using multiple channels to shop products online and the numbers increased to well over 90%.
Now, if you’re a retailer, these numbers are really important for you if you still want your business to stay afloat. It’s a massive chunk of customers you will lose. With changing times and changing consumer preferences, as a business owner you have to be present where they are.
Hence, the need for an omnichannel presence.
Whether you’ve been struggling to improve your omnichannel activities or you’re starting from scratch, there are many obstacles you should be aware of so you can build an effective omnichannel strategy. When buyers get irritated with a disconnected shopping experience and take their business elsewhere, a poorly implemented omnichannel strategy can do you more harm than good.
That is why in this article will take you through 3 hacks to optimize your omnichannel presence and drive more sales without worrying about any obstacles on the way.
Without further ado, let’s dive straight in
Buy Online, Pick up in Store (BOPIS)
A retail model that has provided new significance during this time of social distancing, many customers love the convenience that BOPIS provides such as being able to view and filter the list of products in a store, get updated on their order, buy the goods online and not wait for their orders to be delivered. The BOPIS strategy is the perfect strategy to make clients purchase a product while they swift through the items from home.
Despite such benefits, there is a lack of an omnichannel presence for many brands such as the inability to keep track of inventories, problems pertaining to the integration of their E-Commerce platforms with their point-of-sale-systems (POS) among others.
So how do you tackle such problems?
Try these simple hacks:
– Equip your Distributer Order Management system with API’s which will not only connect your POS and your Warehouse Management systems but will also provide real-time inventory data to online shoppers.
– Make sure that retail associates have an in-store app to fulfill the orders.
– Beta test BOPIS in select cities, before going full scale to understand how the marker responds and whether it’s worth taking this strategy pan India.
Offline Fulfillment Centers
No one wants to wait for the delivery of their product after they have made a purchase to get their hands on it. And when it comes to retail, most probably, people want their item delivered on the same day. As demanding as this sounds, there is a way retailers have come around to deal with this and that is by using their stores to act as distribution centers and speed up delivery to meet the shoppers’ demands. This method also helps businesses to sell more products at full price by delivering orders directly from stores to consumers who shop online.
While this may seem quite beneficial for your business’s overall goodwill, there are certain challenges you need to be aware of which you might face:
– Retailers must monitor inventory to ensure that in-store is not sacrificing on the store’s footfalls.
– Store sales executives may get de-motivated as they may not get credited when items are being purchased online.
– Employees need to manage the inventory in order to avoid over-promising the walk-in customers in the shop.
– Lack of technological systems may hamper various service-level agreements (SLA).
So, how do you overcome these challenges?
Try these hacks:
– To avoid running out of their hot-selling goods, set the safety stock to 2 so that distributed order management system (DOM) makes sure that the store starts stocking up before accepting any more online orders.
– Find different ways and means to incentivize store associates for every online order they fulfill.
– Create a mobile app to empower the store associates so that they can search for inventory as promised to consumers, offer walk-in customers alternative options such as picking up items at a store close to them and avoid the awkward situation of selling them an unavailable product.
– Utilize a robust DOM system to meet your SLA requirements.
Responsive Website
Over 80% of internet users surf the net from their mobile devices. Now, that’s a large chunk, especially if you’re a retailer. For your business to be relevant to mobile users, your website needs to be responsive and certain demands need to be met to appease the audience such as:
– A website loading speed of not more than 3 seconds.
– An option to self-checkout.
– Ability to honor in-store orders and facilitate pick-up.
While this is easier said than done, businesses with rigid e-Commerce system is likely to struggle with keeping up. These companies might simply lack the time and investment to equip their associates with the tools and training to support a shoppers’ preference, companies often fail to implement mobile technologies which engage consumers and increase performance and much more.
For such issues, try these hacks:
– Introduce an API-first headless commerce platform and progressive web applications (PWAs) which will help connect to consumer touch points and their purchasing behaviors, while the PWA will take care of your loading speed.
– Train your sales staff on using this mobile technology so that they can focus more on servicing the customers behind the register while encouraging the customer to use the mobile app and speed up the checkout process.
– Educate the customer on how to use the mobile app by strategically placing signs around the store.
– To avoid creating merchandising promotions for your site by choosing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution which integrates with your existing site on various mediums.
Despite all the possible challenges that come with an effective omnichannel approach, these are some of the ways and means to solve these problems. Whether you start out as a traditional brick-and-mortar retailer or you’re a digital native who’s found online success, follow these steps and your business shall sail smoothly.
And if you’re not able to overcome these hurdles or face new hurdles and need some expert help, feel free to contact us.
Why us?
Because, at FinPlus Business Solutions, we are dedicated to bring your business to the right set of audience with various digital strategies. Whether it is developing your web shop or improving your digital presence using social media marketing, or driving sales and successfully fulfilling them with positive reviews, we have done it all. Over time, we have helped over 300+ brands to consistently improve their E- Commerce presence and, grown their business by minimum of 150% within a span of months. As being official partners with Amazon we help brands to maximize their outputs on market places. Our Proprietary inventory management system for various businesses helps with creating multi digital stocks on numerous market places simultaneously and fulfill them centrally thus creating efficient and robust sales channel. With the help of our digital experts we make sure your audience see your product through different mediums including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn etc. while also optimizing your search results by effectively using Google tools. We also create influencer contents for that instant boost of visibility through our 200+ influencer network covering each categories on platforms like YouTube and Instagram
Get in touch with us and lets chat to see how we can help your grow your business while not being heavy on your pocket.
