Omnichannel Is the Future: Bridging the Gap Between the Offline & the Online
Introduction
Let's face it: the old way of doing things in retail or DTC no longer works
Brands often have a complete disconnect between offline and online interactions but want to provide their customers the ability to shop wherever they'd like.
Old-fashioned methods like sign-up cards and surveys don't provide brands what they need - preventing them from learning anything about the customer lifecycle.
With the right omnichannel strategy, brands have the opportunity to bridge the gap between the physical and digital realms, between pre-sale, in-store and post-sale interactions.
Brij has a solution to rebuild the bridge between brand and customer, offline and online, and usher in a new era of connection and engagement.
What is Omnichannel?
Omnichannel is being wherever your customers are. Wherever they like to shop - whether that’s in retail, on your DTC site or on Amazon.
Why do Brands Need to be Omnichannel?
Given the rising cost to acquire customers digitally, it is simply not a scalable or sustainable growth strategy for brands to be entirely DTC. Channels like retail and Amazon provide more scalable distribution channels. Further, customers have grown to expect the ability to purchase their product wherever is most convenient for them.
The Challenge With Omnichannel.
The challenge with meeting your customers exactly where they are is that brands have to rely on other companies to get their product where it needs to be – the traditional wholesale model. In the process, brands lose the customer relationship - it’s literally a black box for them.
When retailers control the customer relationship, brands lack the ability to nurture that customer, provide relevant content, and service the consumer. For the consumer, it's a fragmented experience. What they experience in retail is nothing like what they would experience on the brand’s web and social presence.
There is where building an omnichannel strategy that is focused on finding ways to build direct connections to the customer is so important.
Brands empowered with data on their customers can motivate their customers to shop wherever that customer wants to shop. It’s a win-win for the brand, retailer and consumer.
Best in Class Omnichannel Strategies.
Going Omnichannel requires 3 simple steps:
1️. Having a presence in more than one channel
2️. Making your customer aware of the array of channels
3️. Reminding them of that presence often
An omnichannel strategy will help you bridge the gaps between:
- Your brand and the customer
- The offline and online
- The digital and physical
- The pre-sale, point of sale, and post-sale
An effective way to do this is by creating custom digital experiences that are accessible to your customers wherever they engage with your brand or product. The entry point to these experiences is through a QR code and/or its corresponding short link.
Pro Tip: To incentivize a customer to scan/click and share their information, be sure to have a valuable offer and a clear CTA on your product and digital campaigns.
Feastables does a great job of this on their product packaging and in-store displays:
Note how their visuals around the QR code are clear and they’re leveraging multiple CTAs which gives them the flexibility to change their content behind the code as needed.
How Brij Powers High-Growth Omnichannel Brands:
Brij works with brands like Conair, Black Diamond Equipment, Feastables, Patchology and Health-Ade to effectively scale their business across all channels.
Through their AI-powered, no-code platform, omnichannel brands “bridge” the data gap across all online and offline channels, including black boxes like retail & marketplaces.
Brands use Brij’s digital rebates, QR code experiences, & dynamic links to drive retail velocity, share content, and collect valuable zero & first-party data.
In the Feastables example above, customers are incentivized to exchange their data (i.e. email address) with a chance to win a sweepstakes and have access to exclusive Mr. Beast content.
Brands also utilize Brij's rebate and product registration capabilities to drive more data collection and customer insights. These connections also serve to meaningfully enhance the customer experience by flipping traditional frustrating processes on their head, like couponing or mailing in a physical registration card.
For example, cold brew brand Wandering Bear runs rebate campaigns to drive in-store purchases, offering a $2 rebate. They pushed this campaign on socials as well, so this omnichannel rebate strategy touched customers both online and offline, as they placed necktags around their product in Whole Foods.
For hard good brands like Canopy, which makes a high end humidifier, an effective omnichannel strategy can touch customers at the initial point of purchase and throughout their lifetime.
Conclusion
Brij makes product registration and warranty activation possible with one click. Taking it a step further, Canopy also placed a QR code inside of their product so at a common point of user frustration - changing the filter - there is a delightful experience with a how-to video and one-click order for replacement filters.
To learn more about Brij and all things omnichannel strategy, check them out at https://brij.it/ or on LinkedIn.
