The digital revolution enabled entrepreneurs to start new businesses with innovative business models. In the online retail industry, more and more companies implement an omnichannel model as business model. Omnichannel firms provide shoppers excess to their products across multiple channels. This customer-centric approach focuses on providing a great personalized and seamless experience on both online and offline channels. These firms have great knowledge of their end customers and control their value chains. Nowadays, the challenge for these companies is to gain more knowledge and insights of their customers to create that seamless customer experience (Van Ossel, 2014). 

Benefits of Omnichannel

Omnichannel companies provide better customer experience since their customer journey is optimized. The customer journey exist of all the experiences (“touchpoints”) that customers go trough when they are shopping. There are more touchpoints in this journey and therefore, a seamless integration of these points and services is needed. Another benefit is a rise in sales and traffic of your business. Research points out that shoppers purchase more on average on omni channels than on single channels. Besides, the customers of an omnichannel business are more loyal and recommend the company to other persons (e.g. friends and family). Moreover, more data will be collected since multiple channels are used in omnichannel businesses. In every channel, the firm collect data to gain more knowledge of the end consumer. These insights will lead to a better understanding of the customer and better services in the future (Sopadjieva, Dhhholakia, Benjamin, 2017).

The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand.

Coolblue – Anything for a smile

Dutch successful e-commerce company Coolblue offers their customers an omnichannel experience, focusing on multiple channels both offline and online. Due to their main focus on data and two key performance indicators (NPS and EBITDA), Coolblue increased exponentially over the last years. With the slogan “anything for a smile”, their aim is to provide the best customer service with a personalized experience.

References 

Van Ossel, G. (2014). Omnichannel in retail: het antwoord op e-commerce. Retrieved: 24 of September 2021, by https://www.bruna.nl/images/active/InkijkPDF/cb/9789401416702.pdf

Sopadjieva, E., Dhhholakia, U.M., Benjamin, B. (2017). A study of 46,00 shoppers shows that omnichannel retailing works. Harvard Business Review.