Below we will discuss:
- What omnichannel retailing is
- 5 Key facts about omnichannel shoppers
- How you can benefit from omnichannel selling
- The problem selling with new concessions and marketplaces
- How to fix this problem
- Key benefits of automated data syndication
- How to get started
What omnichannel retail is
The world of online shopping is growing more and more every day and has changed drastically over the last 10 years, and with that omnichannel selling has taken off. Previously, many retailers would have believed that being omnichannel meant having both bricks-and-mortar stores and a single online presence. But this concept has been expanding beyond just a physical and digital store into many different marketplace channels, with social commerce the newest of them all. Omnichannel selling is having your products for sale on multiple platforms, including concession ecommerce platforms, various marketplaces, and offline.
“Either you become a platform, or you become part of one”
Belen Sienknecht – Head of KAM and Sales, Zalando
5 key facts about omnichannel shoppers
- 41% of UK internet users have discovered new brands via search engines and 33% discovered new brands via retail websites such as John Lewis and Next.
- 23% of online shoppers check Amazon for inspiration when they do not have a specific product in mind for purchase.
- Nearly 50% of consumers who engage with their favourite brands on ten or more channels will buy from them at least once a week. That number dips to 21% if they use four or fewer channels.
- Omnichannel shoppers spend three times more than your average single-channel shopper.
- 63% of UK internet consumers use shopping apps every month.
How you can benefit from omnichannel selling
Some of the top 30 marketplace and concession websites include ASOS, Zalando, John Lewis, and Next, with Amazon unsurprisingly coming in at number 1. These high-ranking retailers have smart online capabilities such as strong delivery propositions and payment options that appeal to the masses to bring in more shoppers. There are lots of pros to adding new online concessions and marketplaces to your sales process, with the top 3 being:
- Acquire new customers: By increasing the number of opportunities for buyers to find your brand you increase the opportunities for buyers to buy from your brand.
- Generate new sources of revenue: If an online retailer sells on one more site other than their own then their revenue will increase by 38%. If they sell on two more sites in addition to their own, then that becomes a 120% revenue increase.
- Reduce barriers to entry: Setting up any additional channels online is much easier and cheaper than opening a new brick-and-mortar store.
“Origin Product Management gives our users the ability to build their own data translation logic, adapting our own business data to multiple host partner needs.”
Ian James – CIO, Reiss
The problem selling with new concessions and marketplaces
Listing on numerous marketplaces does not come without its logistical challenges. In the world of retail, years of reactive technology decision making have led to legacy solutions that inhibit rather than enable. Different ecommerce channels have unique, and often strict, requirements when it comes to product data. Collating and transforming the data that you have available to you can be extremely time consuming and demanding, and it only gets more complicated as SKU counts and product categories increase. Errors in product data can lead to stock being rejected, fines being issued, and huge delays to stock going live and revenue coming in.
How to fix this problem
Retail247’s Product Information Management platform, Origin, delivers a robust and scalable single view of product data to enable modern retailing. By introducing Origin to your business, you can transform your existing product data into the needs of concession partners such as John Lewis, Debenhams, and House of Fraser, allowing you to reduce product go-live times and therefore increase sales with the use of automated and validated data.
Key benefits of Retail247’s PIM for data syndication
- Single version of the truth for all product data and digital assets
- Flexible product schema and hierarchies to meet the needs of your business
- Ability to manage multiple product types
- Highly scalable, cloud-based platform
- Control complex data mapping to meet the needs of trading partners
- Managed service ensuring data delivery success
- Increased turnover and profit through accelerated speed to market
- Reduced costs through the reduction of errors
- Faster creation of new routes to market
How to get started with Retail247
People are increasingly shopping in a fragmented fashion, hopping from device-to-device, and channel-to-channel.
Being an omnichannel retailer isn’t just a tactic, it’s about always being everywhere. Put your brand at the front of the customers mind with technology enablement for retail.
Contact Retail247 to discuss your options and requirements for data transformation.