Why implementing an omnichannel strategy is essential in retail?

In a world as connected as ours, companies, particularly those in the retail sector, can’t afford to overlook the importance of an omnichannel strategy. But it’s essential to know what kind of omnichannel strategy to deploy for your own needs, while adapting to the expectations of your target market. Here’s how.

What does omnichannel mean for the retail sector?

No, omnichannel is not one of those trends that blow over quickly – quite the contrary. It is gradually reshaping the business objectives of companies that have no choice but to integrate it.

In the retail sector, the need is even greater. Today, more than half of all consumers (55.2%) are omnichannel enthusiasts, according to a ShipStation and Packlink study. However, this trend should not overshadow the fact that the culture of the physical store is still very much alive among consumers. Consumers see digital as a complementary tool to physical retailing, rather than as an innovation designed to replace

Ghislain Esquerre, CEO of Equadis, states in an article published in LSA that: “For many retail players, an omnichannel srategy is above all about sales. This is a restrictive vision, since it does not address all the channels used to establish a relationship with the consumer. Focusing solely on sales means neglecting channels of influence and reassurance that are not linked to an act of purchase.”

For retail players and brands in particular, “omnichannel” describes a number of realities, all equally important. Among these are the major, unavoidable aspects:

• commercial: beyond physical stores, the ambition of brands and distributors to invest in e-commerce sites and/or marketplaces is becoming increasingly strong due to the new consumption habits of consumers, who are gradually turning to digital channels to make their purchases.
• influence: this is an area underestimated by many brands, as its direct objective is not sales. Investing in channels of influence such as social networks or consumer applications (Yuka, INCI Beauty, ScanUP, MyLabel) is essential to reinforce your presence and generate a sense of belonging that will influence the purchase decision and, in the best case, lead to a repeat purchase.
• organizationnal: If the consumer is the final recipient of an omnichannel strategy, it is also imperative to pay close attention to communication both internally and with the other stakeholders in the sector. There is a real interest in mastering the transmission of data across the entire value chain, from the product management tool to the finance solution, as well as the order management tool. Not only will this facilitate interaction between brands and distributors, it will also improve time-to-market.

Choosing the right targets and the right message: the challenge of an omnichannel strategy

Understanding omnichannel retail strategies involves dealing with a wide range of targets that need to be segmented according to a brand’s objectives, needs and the types of persona they wish to reach.

There’s no point in trying to reach everyone in the same way across all channels: this approach is pointless, if not counterproductive. So the first step is to segment customer profiles, including :

• male or female consumers
• consumers who buy from e-commerce sites or in-store, or both
• consumers who use social networks or consumer applications to form an opinion
• urban consumers and non-urban consumers;
• and consumers by age.

These few examples are obviously non-exhaustive, but they do illustrate the need to introduce segmentation into a brand’s omnichannel strategy at a very early stage.

This will make it easier to adapt the brand message from one channel to another, thereby creating another, even finer, form of segmentation.

In all cases, developing an omnichannel approach that is tailored to your targets, while at the same time intelligently evolving, requires a considerable investment of resources. And the players in the retail sector are well aware that it is essential to be well-equipped to successfully implement such an approach.

Equadis PIM to deploy your omnichannel strategy effectively

Equadis, the syndication expert

When a brand has different product ranges, it reaches different targets across a number of channels. As a result, they cannot manage their omnichannel deployment without a digital solution. As a multi-sector expert in product data, Equadis offers the only omnichannel PIM on the market.

With its expertise at the heart of retail, Equadis already supports more than 14,000 brands and retailers in the management and omnichannel distribution of their product data.

What is a PIM?

A PIM, or Product Information Management is a software solution designed to collect, exploit, enrich and distribute product-related information. This data concerns :

• products (marketing information, quality, logistics, etc.),
• digital assets (media assets, documents, etc.),
• prices (permanent and promotional),
• and any specific information relating to the company’s organisation.

Choosing the Equadis PIM allows you to build and optimise your omnichannel strategy thanks to several major benefits:

• centralising all the product information, images and documents you want to provide to your target consumers for each channel;
• improving content creation and management via AI integrated into Equadis PIM: automatic translation of content, management/generation of written content, generating and editing visuals, etc;
• optimum syndication of product data: with more than 2,000 connectors, Equadis PIM is capable of distributing data to all distribution channels (physical distribution, e-commerce sites, marketplaces, social networks, etc.) worldwide, both for internal and external software, at the click of a button
• easy to install: a turnkey SaaS solution, without an integrator, that can be adapted to suit your needs. Get up and running quickly and easily with our user-friendly platform.

The right human support

At Equadis, we know that this kind of approach can be a long and complex process to integrate into your organization.

This is why we put in place an omnipresent human support through the presence of a CSM (Customer Success Management) expert, unique for each of our collaborations. His or her expertise and attentiveness provide peace of mind and trust in understanding the omnichannel strategy at the heart of the Equadis PIM.

The Equadis method means: a 98% customer satisfaction rate over the last 5 years.

To find out more, contact our teams today: