Why the Omni-Channel Movement is so Important to Retail Now
Omni-channel retailing is not just a byproduct of the COVID-19 era. It was a movement that began well before the disease started to spread and was only accelerated by necessity. Now retailers find that this is becoming an expectation and no longer a nice to have service. What are you doing to embrace omni-channel services in your store?
Offering buy online, pickup in-store, and curbside pickup suddenly is the norm. For many managers, this is new and can seem like an intrusion to your previous processes. As most of us have seen over the past several months, it cannot be viewed as an intrusion or secondary business. Customers are choosing to shop this way for convenience as well as safety. Patience was extended by shoppers early during the pandemic, but as many retailers and restaurants have improved their level of service in that time, the bar is being raised on what customers now expect when they place a digital order. For store and district leaders and the teams supported, Omni-Channel is now a critical part of the service you provide. This must be seen as an enhancement to your business and not an interruption.
Think of it as scheduled business
Think back several years, before pickup in-store was widely available and curbside was only a dream. Every customer who came into your store or restaurant came in on their time and schedule and expected you to be ready to serve them. Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew when customers would be coming into the store? How about if we already knew what they wanted to buy? If we could only read their minds - when and what - we could have their order ready for them when they showed up at the store. They could just come in, grab it, and go. Or, even better, we could take it out to them in their car. That would be an amazing level of service. Wait. Didn’t I just describe what buy online pickup in-store is? Curbside? You bet. The benefit to these services can be that we know what our customer wants, and we know about when they will come into the store. We’ll even send them an email telling them it's ready.
For most retailers offering digital services, a window of time is provided to allow the stores to pull the order together. This can range from a one hour promise to something as wide as one day. Either way, we are essentially scheduling our ability to serve each customer. Let’s assume a two-hour pick-up window. Instead of a customer walking into the store at the busiest possible time and working hard to serve them immediately, we have a customer who sends us their order information. We now have two hours to serve them, and they will be happy. This seems like a ‘win’ in many ways to me. Sometimes, it can be a matter of turning the situation into a different perspective to make what seems like an intrusion into a benefit.
Its the future
Even if we look past the pandemic, the world is not going to get a lot easier. Convenience will still be key, and everyone will have more than enough to do in their busy lives. Providing customers with the ability to shop for what they want, when, where, and how they want it will be imperative for every business, especially retail. This was already a trend heading into 2020; now we have accelerated the expectation and even necessity for it. Fine-tuning the offering of digital services to provide things like - buy online, pick up in-store, curbside pickup, ship from store, ship to store, and same day (or scheduled) delivery will all be on every customer’s radar. We are all consumers ourselves - don’t you want more options and convenience for how you get your...well everything? It is our role as retail leaders to bring that to life for customers in a seamless way.
COVID-19 has been a disruptor (in so many ways), it has been an accelerator of business change (in so many ways), and it has been an agent of behavioral change (in so many ways). With disruption and change comes opportunity and the potential for prosperity. The experiences of the last eight months of this year are the beginning of a new era in consumer behaviors, customer experience, customer expectations, and retail as a whole. These omni-channel services are no longer something we can afford to see as an add-on business. The more we embrace this as a new way to lead our business, serve our customers, and build a stronger future, the more we will see our success levels grow.
How are you embracing omni-channel services in your business?
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