Let’s cast aside the limitations of conventional retail and embrace a future where the digital shopping experience rivals the excitement of an in-store visit. In this digital transformation era, brands find themselves at the crossroads of engaging customers through various channels. Adopting a robust omnichannel retail strategy is necessary to stand tall amidst fierce competition. However, video commerce emerges as the true game-changer, redefining retail possibilities in the digital age to revolutionize this strategy and captivate customers in unprecedented ways.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore omnichannel retail strategy, the benefits of integrating video commerce, how to get started, and showcase examples of excellent omnichannel retail strategies. Follow down the blog, or utilize our table of contents to jump to certain sections.
What Is an Omnichannel Retail Strategy?
An omnichannel retail strategy is an integrated approach that provides a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels and touchpoints. It goes beyond the traditional multichannel system by ensuring the customer journey is cohesive and personalized, whether the customer interacts with a brand’s physical stores, website, mobile app, or social media platforms. The goal is to create a unified brand experience that enhances customer engagement, builds loyalty, and drives sales.
What Is the Difference Between Omnichannel Retail Strategy and Multichannel Retail Strategy?
The terms omnichannel and multichannel retail are often interchangeable. However, there are significant differences between the two strategies.
Multichannel retail refers to selling products through multiple channels, such as brick-and-mortar stores, online marketplaces, and social media platforms. This approach aims to provide customers with various options to purchase products. While this encourages convenience, it often creates a more cohesive and consistent customer experience across channels.
On the other hand, omnichannel retail takes a customer-centric approach. It focuses on creating a unified experience across channels, providing seamless integration between online and offline channels, consistent brand messaging, and personalized customer interactions. The aim is to create a holistic customer journey, regardless of the channel the customer chooses to engage with.
Research shows that customers prefer omnichannel retail experiences. According to a Harvard Business Review study, 73% of customers use multiple channels during their shopping journey, and those who shop through multiple channels are more loyal and spend more money than those who use a single channel.
Benefits of Implementing an Omnichannel Approach
Omnichannel retail also helps drive sales and customer engagement. According to Omnisend, marketers using three or more channels in a campaign earned a 494% higher order rate than those using a single-channel campaign. Incorporating an omnichannel approach into your retail strategy brings numerous benefits for retail and luxury brands:
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers feel valued and supported throughout their journey by offering a seamless and consistent omnichannel retail experience across channels. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, and ultimately, brand loyalty.
- Increased Customer Engagement: An omnichannel approach allows brands to engage customers through multiple touchpoints. By using a variety of channels such as social media, websites, and physical stores, brands can capture and retain customers’ attention, leading to increased engagement and conversion rates.
- Personalization and Customization: Omnichannel retail strategy enables brands to gather and analyze customer data from various touchpoints. The data can be leveraged to create personalized and customized experiences, delivering targeted messaging, product recommendations, and offers that resonate with individual customers.
- Fluid Customer Journey: With an omnichannel retail strategy, customers can seamlessly transition from one channel to another without disruptions. This fluidity in the customer journey reduces friction, enhances convenience, and increases the likelihood of completing a purchase.
Incorporating Video Commerce into Your Omnichannel Retail Strategy
Video commerce refers to using videos to engage, educate, and convert customers throughout their purchase journey. In today’s visually-driven society, incorporating video commerce into your omnichannel retail strategy is crucial for several reasons:
- Capture Attention: Videos can capture viewers’ attention and convey information in a visually compelling manner. By leveraging video content, brands can engage and captivate their audience, ultimately increasing brand awareness and consideration.
- Showcase Product Benefits: Videos allow brands to showcase their products in action, highlighting their features, benefits, and unique selling points. This visual demonstration helps customers make informed purchasing decisions and reduces buyer hesitation.
- Foster Brand Trust: Videos allow brands to establish trust with their customers. Brands can humanize their offerings and build credibility by featuring real-life testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage, or product demonstrations.
- Combine the In-Store with Digital: Capture your brand’s in-store experience and deliver it to the digital marketplace with video, fostering more customer connections. ‘Phygital Customer Experience’ combines the benefits of physical surroundings (tactile exposure to products) with all the entrapments of the online environment (speed and comfort). By creating this combination, you can increase sales opportunities and create a better customer experience.
How Video Commerce Enhances the Omnichannel Experience
Inserting video commerce into your retail strategy amplifies the overall customer omnichannel experience in several ways:
- Immersive and Interactive Experiences: Video commerce enables brands to create immersive and interactive customer experiences. Whether through product videos, virtual tours, or live streaming, brands can give customers a deeper understanding and engagement with their products.
- Personalized Recommendations: Video commerce platforms can leverage customer data to deliver personalized video recommendations. By understanding an individual’s preferences and browsing history, brands can deliver relevant video content, showcasing products that align with the customer’s interests. This personalized approach enhances the customer experience by showcasing products and solutions that are most relevant and appealing to each customer.
- Seamless Integration: Video commerce can seamlessly integrate into various channels within an omnichannel retail strategy. Whether it’s embedding videos on websites, mobile apps, or social media platforms, brands can provide a consistent video experience across different touchpoints. This ensures that customers receive a consistent video experience across various touchpoints, enhancing brand engagement and leaving a lasting impression.
- Increased Conversion Rates: Video shopping is proven to drive higher conversion rates. By strategically placing videos at critical points in the customer journey, brands can effectively address customer concerns, provide additional product information, and ultimately increase the likelihood of a purchase. The visual and interactive nature of videos aids in boosting customer trust and engagement, ultimately increasing the possibility of a successful conversion.
- 1:1 Video Chat: Incorporating Firework’s 1:1 video chat enables brands to leverage visual communication, build trust, and create meaningful connections. It adds a human touch to the digital shopping experience, fostering loyalty. This feature offers customers an accurate view of products of interest. Representatives can demonstrate features, answer questions, and help customers make informed purchasing decisions. The 1:1 video chat feature can be integrated across multiple touchpoints, ensuring consistency.
Video commerce can be a game-changer for omnichannel retail strategy. It offers immersive experiences, personalized recommendations, seamless integration, and increased conversion rates. By leveraging the power of video, brands can elevate the customer experience and achieve greater success in today’s digital landscape. Explore the possibilities and unlock the full potential of your omnichannel strategy with video commerce.
How to Create Your Omnichannel Retail Strategy
Creating an effective omnichannel retail strategy with video commerce requires careful planning and execution. Here are 4 steps to get you started:
Assess Your Current State and Setting Goals
Before diving into the implementation stage, assessing your current state and defining your goals is crucial. Evaluate your existing channels, customer touchpoints, and technology infrastructure. Determine what’s working well and where there are gaps. Set clear objectives for your omnichannel retail strategy and align them with your business goals.
Identify Key Channels and Touchpoints
Identify the key channels and touchpoints relevant to your target audience and industry. These touchpoints may include your physical stores, website, mobile app, social media platforms, etc. Understand the customer journey and where video content can enhance the experience. Map out the different touchpoints where video commerce can be integrated for maximum impact.
Build a Seamless Customer Journey
Creating a seamless customer journey is the backbone of a successful omnichannel retail strategy. Ensure that the transition from one channel to another is smooth and consistent. Maintain a unified brand identity, messaging, and design across all touchpoints. Incorporate video content that complements the overall experience and guides customers towards conversion.
Considering Integration of Physical and Digital Experiences
Integrating physical and digital experiences is crucial for retail brands with physical stores. Explore how you can leverage video commerce to bridge the gap between the offline and online worlds. This could include displaying interactive product videos in-store, offering virtual reality experiences, or incorporating QR codes that link to relevant video content.
Example of Excellent Omnichannel Retail Strategies with Video Commerce
To illustrate the effectiveness of omnichannel retail strategies with video commerce, let’s look at some success stories:
Beekman 1802
Beekman 1802, a goat milk-based skincare company, partnered with Firework and Live Rocket to create a hybrid in-person and online shopping event. The approach that merges the excitement of in-person shopping with the reach of a livestream event is an excellent example of an omnichannel retail strategy. The event included interactive chat and real-time engagement in the livestream broadcast and showcased products such as skincare items, advent calendars, and masks.
Despite being shorter than previous marathons, sales from the event accounted for a significant portion of the day’s sales. The engagement metrics achieved in the event exceeded industry benchmarks, indicating a high level of interest from viewers. By merging physical and digital shopping experiences, Beekman 1802 was able to build a global community, drive sales, and enhance brand awareness.
American Girl
American Girl’s live stream and use of video commerce, supported by the Firework platform and native integrations with media partners, showcased how brands can leverage livestream events as part of their omnichannel strategy. The engaging content, high viewership, and strong purchase intent demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach in reaching and engaging customers.
The livestream featured engaging content hosted by celebrity and figure skating gold medalist Tara Lipinski. It included a quiz, a craft activity, and interviews. Firework’s technology-enabled real-time tracking of viewer engagement, highlighting the most engaging segments of the livestream. The livestream achieved a 25% engagement rate, indicating strong interest from viewers.
The livestream garnered impressive viewership numbers, with over 250,000 live and replay viewers, surpassing expectations by 11 times. This was made possible by Firework’s reliable bandwidth infrastructure powered by AWS. To amplify the live stream’s reach and awareness, American Girl leveraged targeted programmatic ads and native publisher integrations through the Firework Ad Suite.
Product discovery and purchase intent were crucial components of the livestream. Six American Girl doll products were featured and pinned, with 25 products available for viewers to explore. The livestream audience demonstrated strong purchase intent, as indicated by the 11% click-through rate on the highlighted products.
Best Practices for Implementing Video Commerce in Your Retail Strategy
To make the most of video-enabled omnichannel retail strategies, consider the following best practices:
- Choosing the Right Video Commerce Platform: Select a video commerce platform that aligns with your business needs and objectives. Look for interactive video capabilities, seamless integration with existing systems, and advanced analytics to track performance.
- Creating Engaging and High-Quality Videos: Create high-quality videos that captivate and resonate with your target audience. Consider using professional videographers, scriptwriters, and video editors to ensure the content is visually appealing, informative, and aligns with your brand’s identity.
- Leveraging Personalization and Interactivity: Leverage the power of personalization by using customer data to deliver tailored video recommendations and customize the video experience based on individual preferences. Add interactive elements such as clickable annotations, quizzes, or shoppable hotspots to engage viewers actively.
- Optimizing Video Distribution and Promotion: Develop a comprehensive video distribution strategy encompassing multiple channels, such as your website, social media platforms, email campaigns, and paid advertising. Promote your videos through targeted marketing efforts, influencer collaborations, and paid media to ensure maximum reach and engagement.
Insert Video Into Your Omnichannel Retail Strategy With Firework
Successfully implementing an omnichannel retail strategy with video commerce can provide a significant competitive advantage for retail and luxury brands. By creating a seamless and engaging customer experience personalized at every touchpoint, brands can drive customer loyalty, increase conversions, and foster lasting relationships. If omnichannel is the best strategy for meeting your customers where they are, then it needs the best content to deliver to those customers. If you’re ready to integrate seamless video into your omnichannel strategy, book a meeting with the experts at Firework today!
