The last two years have been a wild ride for many markets, including retail and e-commerce. Consumer buying behavior has shifted permanently toward online purchases, even for brick-and-mortar retailers. Some brands and retailers have floundered, while others have thrived.
Why? What’s separating failure and success at this point? In a world in which the lines have blurred into hybrid models—for the workplace as well as the shopping experience—success depends on an omnichannel e-commerce strategy.
Developing and executing on an omnichannel marketing strategy is challenging. Doing it well requires deep insight into your e-analytics and access to superior business intelligence. This is where the performance analytics platform Line Item is your lifeline to more effective, targeted, and profitable e-commerce.
Omnichannel marketing strategy
Omnichannel is a multichannel marketing strategy intended to deliver seamless customer experience whether a customer is buying in store or online via a mobile device or computer. Even before the pandemic, omnichannel was on the rise, as nearly 75% of all consumers were engaging with brands and products across multiple channels during the buyer journey. And where did most of these purchases begin? Often on a mobile device, as a customer discovered a product or realized in the moment—while waiting in a school pickup line, for example—that they needed something.
Of course, the last two years have accelerated transformation in consumer behavior, making the new omnichannel environment even more complex. Today, consumers have more options than ever before, from pure online purchase and delivery to buy-online, pick-up-in-store and curbside options. Yet, while how we shop has changed, what we expect hasn’t—we want a seamless experience whether we’re shopping from a smartphone or cruising the aisles at Target.
And it’s not only a “nice to have”—it also benefits the bottom line. In Q2 2020, while many Americans were still under stay-at-home orders, Target notched one of its most impressive quarters. The explosion in e-commerce was a major driver, but so was omnichannel. As it turns out, multichannel customers spent four times more than those who only bought in-store.
Clearly, omnichannel strategy pays off, but it isn’t simple for e-commerce marketing managers to deliver on. Omnichannel requires leaving behind the traditional struggle between resourcing brick-and-mortar and online marketing and instead looking holistically at the purchase pathway as one that can originate in either and touch both—but that ultimately serves the business in stronger marketing performance and higher profitability.
An effective omnichannel approach requires insight into what’s driving sales, from product attributes to SEO and campaign performance. This level of business intelligence is a must for CPG and e-commerce—and it’s what Line Item can deliver. Let’s look at some key considerations.
SEO strategy and search results. It’s true that most purchases begin online—and perhaps as many as 63% start with Amazon, even if the purchase ultimately takes place elsewhere. With a digitally influenced purchase pathway, it’s critically important to ensure that SEO is working for your brand or products. Line Item can help you optimize your search results to get your share of page one rankings—or determine why you’re falling short.
Identifying and tracking competitors. Are you tracking the competition—those you know as well as foreign and low-priced? Monitoring pricing and competitor activity is essential, and Line Item can help you do both for your omnichannel strategy, including flagging third-party activity and pricing violations. Pricing strategy in omnichannel marketing can be particularly complex, with options including omnichannel pricing and channel-specific pricing, so it’s key to have strong business intelligence capabilities.
Out of stocks. Consumers are in a hurry—and they won’t wait for your product to be back in stock. Maintaining inventory levels can be challenging, but out-of-stocks cost you sales and hurt revenue. Line Item can help you evaluate how out-of-stocks are affecting your e-commerce and ultimately your omnichannel strategy.
Reviews. Savvy customers read the reviews, and what they say can either help or hurt. With a single tool like Line Item, you can monitor how reviews might be affecting your e-commerce, so you can address necessary reputation management that might cost you sales.
Omnichannel is here to stay, with continued rapid growth in e-commerce predicted—by late 2023, it’s estimated that e-commerce will account for nearly 25% of worldwide retail sales. Yet success in omnichannel marketing requires business intelligence—and ideally, via a platform built specifically for the CPG and e-commerce sectors. This is why Line Item’s detailed insight into e-analytics and sales is so powerful. Learn how Line Item can be your lifeline to more profitable e-commerce—and more sales across all your channels.