More tools, more data, less noise to win in omni-channel

Back in June 2014, we first discussed omni-channel marketing and what it actually means for retailers. A year on, has omni-channel marketing changed the way retailers are engaging their customers? Or was it just another passing trend?

We spoke to Chong Lee Fong, director of product marketing for emerging businesses at Singtel, for her thoughts on omni-channel marketing, and what’s next.

[Singtel's Tao of Shop will be exhibiting at Marketing magazine’s 3rd annual Shopper Marketing conference, on 11 June in Singapore.]

Marketing: What was wrong with the multi- or omni-channel approach?

Chong: Frankly, there is nothing wrong with it. As a marketing approach, it is very intuitive and progressive. Customers today are using more than one channel, platform and device to browse, shop and buy. We will see more of these customers, and they will be using even more new platforms to interact with businesses.

Besides the growth in online customers, platform providers are also creating more ways for them to buy. You will see a “Buyable Pin” popping up on Pinterest in the next few weeks, which they are launching together with Shopify. With wearable technology and devices, there will be even more new channels to add to the omni-channel marketing mix.

It is critical to be “omni” - in all ways, because this is how customers are shopping today. Businesses need to interpret how to serve and facilitate customers in the shopping experience and complete the transactions intuitively and conveniently.

What has gone wrong is not the approach but the application of omni-channel.

Very often another channel is interpreted as just another medium to do more of the same. The same products, offers and conversion process are being used across all channels. Each channel may be targeted at different customers, and sometimes the same customers may behave differently in varied “shopping” conditions. For example, if I am browsing on the phone, I may have only 10 minutes while waiting for a friend and I'm not likely to be going through a catalogue like I would in front of my computer. What do you show to your customers if they only have 10 minutes?

More often than not, businesses will create a mobile-optimized site but not necessarily an optimised shopping experience for customers who are on the go. The customer may not be ready to add the item into their shopping cart, but businesses need to let them continue to shop, in short intervals, leading up to when they decide to make the purchase be it at home or in their office.

Our interpretation of the customers’ journey, creating the right experience and designing the optimal outcome (which sometimes might not lead to a “buy”) are potential areas where omni-channel marketing can go wrong.

Marketing: What’s next after omni-channel? What are innovative retailers doing to take omni-channel forward?

Chong: It’s almost an oxymoron but I think it’s about the granularity we can drive with omni-channel engagement. It’s about getting to know how each segment of customers, or even how each customer wants, to be targeted and served differently across many channels. Customers will be overwhelmed with too much of everything, and the only way to serve them well is to figure out how to serve them relevantly.

The world is moving towards self-nomination and selection. I can imagine a world where customers can directly influence the content and how we serve, personalising omni-channel for themselves. For instance, a customer can choose what they only want to see when they visit a store - once a customer connects to the Wi-Fi in store and identify themselves, a map is pushed to the phone to show where the items are physically located.

Another example is to filter items based on what I want to be recommended to me. A store can only push “books that are rated 5-stars by readers” to my mobile because I only have time for a quick browse. Based on my preferences on another platform like Goodreads, I only want to see and buy the books that are highly recommended, so serve that to me only.

Eventually, omni-channel will become noisy and ineffective if we use it to push more products that are not relevant. Less is more when it is specific. This is where omni-channel is heading.

To start this journey, many innovative retailers are starting to apply “close loop” marketing. How do we know what promotions trigger the customers? Customers are triggered differently. How do we create promotions that are specific and effective?

We see retailers starting to deploy solutions such as Tao of Shop, to precisely do that. Retailers are able to push promotional coupons to customers into their mobile app, and when they redeem the digital coupon in-store, retailers can have a view on the type of promotions and products that will trigger each type and even each customer. Over time, insight becomes granular and promotions can become personalised.

The power of this is the concept of “customer life-time value”. Innovative retailers understand that besides competing on brand, product and prices, they have to draw customer insights from the omni-channel interaction with close loop mechanics to create “my” shopping preference. Customers are more likely to buy from retailers who already know their preference, not just what they like, how they like to be reached, what they want to be informed about, and how much time they have to shop. Many retailers are already creating ‘rewards and membership’ programmes in mobile apps. There is no reason to doubt that one day, we can ultimately create a personal “shopper” for each customer, by combining omni-channel with close loop marketing mechanics and technology.

Marketing: What will retailers have to do to evolve the customer experience?

Chong: Retail is a very direct and ferocious business, and there is no recourse for retailers who don’t understand that the job to be done is to understand and serve the customer well. What retailers need is the awareness of new technology, the interpretation and the discussion on how they can be applied to facilitate their work. Traditionally, retail is not a high tech industry and not very well connected with developments in the technology world. What is happening is that the consumers can outpace the retailers in their exposure to technology and even the use of it. I think retailers who attend conferences that introduce new technology and new perspectives are already doing the right thing. Be exposed, get cross-disciplinary dialogues going, develop an interpretation of technology to enhance and enrich how they are doing their job today.

Retailers should not chase after every new technology but they should always keep their eyes on technology, because they can disrupt the business or they can introduce a brand new proposition.

Technology can improve how they get to know their customers better, and I think that is where they should start immediately, in the right dose. The evolution, if any, is really for retailers to get closer to the technology world and develop a new perspective of “supply-chain” – of technology partners and service providers.

Chong Lee Fong is director of product marketing for emerging businesses at Singtel.

Singtel's Tao of Shop will be exhibiting at Marketing's annual Shopper Marketing conference, happening 11th June in Singapore.

To register, please click here or contact Nadiah Jamaludin at nadiahj@marketing-interactive.com or call +65 6423 0329, +65 8389 8454.