Omni Channel Marketing Week 3

Group Activity - Omni-Channel Fulfillment

#1. A retailer I've used a few times for click-and-collect has been Sephora. It's been a great experience each time and I think they do a great job! I started using it this past Christmas to avoid how busy the mall gets that time of year. I placed my order online, paid, and within two hours I got an email saying my order at the store I chose was ready. When I got there, a customer service representative was at the front with all the other orders, all I had to do was provide my name and order number. So easy. I found it especially great since, because of COVID, each store had limited capacity and because it was Christmas there were huge lines at each store - I got to bypass the lines and was in and out of mall within 10 minutes! #2. An example of ship-to-store I've experienced in my life was throughout my undergraduate degree at Western University. As a struggling university student, to save money on shipping costs and because I have an unusual shoe size, I would choose to pick the ship-to-store option at ALDO Shoes. At the time, I could not justify spending c$7 to c$10 on shipping to my residence, so I would take the bus to the mall when I got a notification that my package from ALDO Shoes had arrived. The savings would ultimately disappear because once I got to the mall then suddenly, I had plethora of other purchases to make. #3. The most recent ship-from-store delivery was from PetSmart, not far from my home. I ordered hay and a couple more items for my rabbit, which all together were pretty heavy, and I wanted them to be delivered right to my door, so I didn't need to carry them from the car (as if I were doing curbside pickup). This was the second time I bought from this store and used the ship-from-store delivery method. PetSmart has same-day delivery, which is an incredibly convenient option! The experience was very smooth; there were no issues. I have an account on the website, so I don't need to fill out payment and shipment information every time, making the check-out as fast as possible. PetSmart is definitely doing a great job on its delivery system.

B2B Channels - Events

- Exhibitions - Seminars - Workshops - Trade shows - Conferences

Lowe's CAC Opportunity

60% of Lowe's ecommerce purchases are picked up in-store and when picking up their orders, about 40% of Lowe's shoppers make an additional purchase.

Customer Service as a Channel

Activities undertaken by a retailer in conjunction with the basic goods and services it sells. This includes: - Store hours - Parking - Shopper-friendliness - Credit acceptance - Salespeople

Omni Success - Follow Your Customer and Consolidate Data

Buyers will use as many as a dozen channels or devices before making a purchase decision, and those touchpoints involve hopping between the digital and physical worlds.

mCommerce

By 2021, analysts estimate 53.9% of all ecommerce sales will happen on mobile devices. Since consumers switch back and forth between devices on their path to purchase, optimizing the mobile experience is crucial—and it goes beyond a responsive site. (Shopify, 2020)

Retailer-Supplier Relationship Management

Channel conflict may occur in the following areas: - Control over channel (private label) - Profit allocation (resale price control) - Number of competing retailers (exclusive, selective or intensive distribution) - Product displays - Promotional support (cooperative advertising funds and restrictions) - Payment terms (payment on time) - Operating flexibility - Gray market sales - Markdown monies, chargebacks by dominant retailers

Click-and-Collect

Click-and-Collect (Advantage)

Direct Selling

Customers are four times more likely to follow through on a purchase in-store through online. - The International Council of Shopping Centers

DTC Channels 1

DTC Channels 1

DTC Channels 2

DTC Channels 2

Drop Shipping

Drop-shipping sources inventory from a vendor, and it flows directly to the shopper without the retailer actually storing inventory.

Curbside Pick Up

During the pandemic the trend toward "buy online, pick up in store," also known as curbside pickup, increased 62%. (Shopify, 2020)

Modern vs Legacy Systems

For omni-channel retail, Modern is the POS of the future.

End-to-End Omni Channel Example Betsey Johnson

From social channels, shoppers can click through to visit the online store, which immediately offers incentives to opt in to email marketing. Shopping across channels to the Ecommerce Site: Once customers have opted-in to email, they will receive opportunities to shop across digital channels, with a push back to the website for new arrivals. To curbside pickup, and some user-generated engagement.

Delivery Channels

It took a pandemic for some of these delivery channels to emerge, yet they are here to stay. - Your Delivery Promise

Merchandising

Merchandising is any behaviour triggering stimulus or pattern of stimuli, other than personal selling, that takes place at retail or other points-of-sale.

Online Marketplaces

More than 50% of global ecommerce sales were made via online marketplaces in 2019.

Inventory Management and Product Visibility

Most shoppers will assume when they click "buy" that the item is in stock. You frustrate them if it isn't (...) You may even lose that customer. But managing inventory can be complex if you sell across various channels (say, eBay, Amazon and your own website). ("Canada Post," 2020)

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Channels

Otherwise know as eCommerce and mCommerce...

Relationship Retailing

Rather than act as if each sales transaction is a new encounter, retailers seek to maintain long-term bonds with customers by: - Concentrating on the total retail experience - Monitoring satisfaction - Staying in touch with customers

Research shows a need for a physical store. Biggest motivator? Ability to touch or try on an item

Research shows a need for a physical store. Biggest motivator? Ability to touch or try on an item

Physical Channels

Still a huge part of the omni experience.

Autonomous Checkout

The number of stores with autonomous checkout is set to rise from 350 in 2018 to 10,000 by 2024, with their payment volume positioned to jump from under $70 million to over $20 billion. ("BI Intelligence," 2020)

Omni Fulfillment

The true power of omnichannel is realized when channels work together in harmony to immerse consumers in a highly personalized experience that also respects the stage of the buying cycle the consumer is in. ("Shopify," 2020)

Managing Inventory

This helps you have the right inventory in the right place at the right time, which is crucial to executing your strategy across channels. ("Shopify," 2020)

Canadian Omni Case Studies

What are their physical/retail channels? David's Tea - Driving Customers In-Store Lululemon - Building Brand Loyalty Through Events Mountain Equipment Co-Op - Live availability through the MEC app What are their ecommerce channels? David's Tea, Lululemon, MEC Online Stores David's Tea Curbside Pick-Up MEC App How did they blend the two to create an omni experience? MEC then checks the shelves of their closest store for stock availability on the app. Lululemon does one smart way it maintains connections with its customers it through local instore fitness classes and large-scale events. Then you share it on social media. David's Tea has a rewards program (called the Frequent Steeper) that assigns equal points to in-store and online purchases, and a cross-channel strategy for getting customer info - users that complete their online profile are rewarded with a free cup of tea in-store.

Understanding Digital Channels

What is a potential weakness for social media as a channel? Social can drive some direct conversions but social tends to have more of an assisting role in driving sales though it can sometimes directly drive sales of low-cost products. How is the success of display best understood? The success of display is best understood in terms of how effectively you can reach your target audience and serve your ads enough times that audience recall of your offering increases. What are the best metrics to measure PPC? Which are similar/different for SEO? Paid search, or PPC, keywords that are used by your target audience to buy products. Organize your keywords into ad groups and campaigns with compelling copy and ad extensions to encourage clicks from searchers who are actively interested in your product or brand. Total sales, leads, cost per sale, conversion rate and other conversion metrics are best suited to measure success for PPC. PPC will drive more clicks on a mobile device, as it takes a few scrolls to get past the PPC results to the organic results below them. PPC and SEO, ideally, work together to try to capture as many searches as possible. Metrics used to measure the success of the SEO activities include conversion metrics, total sales, leads, conversion rate, and when assessing blog engagement, use metrics like repeat visits, average time on site, traffic levels to understand the value of SEO. What does email drive for the most part? Those on your mailing list are ideally engaged with your brand, that's why they signed up. Distribute content to engage, special offers to entice and build customer loyalty over time. Email can directly drive conversions and, depending on the type of email program, this metric can be used to measure success, but for the most part, email drives retention. What can content drive? Content marketing will feature in all aspects of digital marketing from videos to blogs, copy and whitepapers. Repeat engagement of content will have a positive effect on customer engagement and retention. It can drive awareness and assist in conversion activity.

Returns Policy and Process

Your policy dictates the terms for making returns. Your process is all about the steps, their cost and the resources you put in place.