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The misleading Omnichannel...thing

Interesting article in Forbes titled "Retail in Crisis: "These are the changes brick-and-mortar stores must take". It is a guest post by Brian K. Walker, VP at Hybris.

I knew this article was fun to read. I really like it and I think Brian hammers home many points. The one I love is his bashing of the omnichannel concept (he wouldn't say that he was engaged in a bashing exercise though :-).  I recently blogged on a related topic: It's the customer, stupid!.

Two excerpts that resonate greatly.

The problem is that the term “omnichannel” still contains the word “channel.” For many retailers this means trying to slide by with in-store pick-up of online orders, or taking returns in-store of orders customers placed via the Web. However, the business case extends well beyond these tactical initiatives to satisfy basic customer needs—increasing the lifetime value of customers, delivering faster inventory turns in-store and creating higher margins through reduced markdowns of stock stuck at the wrong store.

End quote. Then he goes on to identify three mandatory changes that retailers have to embrace if they want to flourish in our digital era. Guess which one I picked up?

Integrate channels relentlessly, to the point that channel disappears. Retailers must look at their systems landscape, operational approach and performance metrics, and relentlessly erode the notion of channel.

End quote. This is fantastic. To repeat myself: customers don't think in terms of channels. For retailers this means that they have to "focus on the broader benefits and understand the full customer engagement across all touch points in order to optimize the experience."

This is not solely a technological problem. Retailers must realise and nurture a culture that embrace the customer journeys from the call center to shipment. This is what makes Zappos, Amazon, Blueberry, Macy's, stellar brands.
Granted technology and technology-enabled disciplines play a crucial part. Commerce platforms, assortment planning, master data management (MDM), product information management, analytics, social, etc. All must be reconsidered and adapted to this new context.

Picture source: http://abduzeedo.com/retro-mag-covers-omni-magazine

Comments

Ruth said…
Thanks for the information. Hope devotes will be careful after reading this post.Regards



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