Multichannel Retailing
Posted by:
Jade Fu, Class of 2012
What defines Multichannel Retailing? Multichannel Retailing is a retailer that has multiple shopping avenues and channels for its customers, such as Brick and Mortar physical stores as well as ecommerce online stores. This provides the customer with various options to do their shopping and purchasing. Customers not only want, but they expect, retailers to provide a consistent cross-channel shopping experience. Studies have shown that cross-channel consistency is important for two-thirds of customers. In Gartner’s article Multichannel Retailing: Customers Want Consistency in Cross-Channel Shopping Processes, it mentions customers that find consistency in cross-channel important, 70% believe that charging the same price for the same product in all channels is the most important aspect of consistency that defines a good shopping experience. Having the same products in stock and identical return policies across all channels ranked as the second and third most important aspects customer believe define a good shopping experience.
Culture and Communications in Global Workplace and Marketing Strategy have taught us that technology has played a significant role in the success of our present day. It has helped globalize our world as well as increased the sales of retailers. For retailers that do not have an online site, they are lagging behind their competition and others. Companies cannot be complacent with what they currently have, but need to consistently look for ways to improve.
Social media has become a critical channel for retailers to advertise and promote to their customers. Gartner notes social media ranks in the top four action points for retailers through 2013 and social media trends is their top concern. Retailers lack a quantified measure of social media’s business value, but it is on an upward trend with great potential to engage customers thus it cannot be ignored. U.S. and Canada retailers are becoming aware of the important of social media and its effects in marketing and the overall multichannel customer relationship. Facebook is an avenue where retailers go to market their products. Facebook’s ad revenues (in billions) have more than quadrupled since 2009. Top 10 US Ad Publishers, Ranked by Online Display Ad Impressions, includes Facebook, Yahoo sites, Microsoft sites, Fox Interactive Media, Google sites, AOL, Turner Network, G!am Media, eBay, and ESPN. All of these companies generate billions of dollars alone via online advertisements. Social media has not only taken up our social life, but it looks like it will be highly incorporated into our consumer side of us as well.
Categorised as: Jade Fu