Five tips for seamless cross-channel selling

In a world where shoppers check online prices via an iPhone and then exit the store to head for a competitor, retailers can no longer afford to manage channels as separate organisational silos. Consumers now engage with brands and stores across channels, using whichever methods suit them best. They may visit a retail website for price and product information, but there is no guarantee that the purchase will be made at that same retailer’s store. As reported in “Shoppers cross channels on both sides of the Atlantic”, up to half of all shoppers in the US and the UK switch retailers when they move from the web to the store.

To compete and win in this market, retailers must not only accommodate the complex behaviour of this new kind of transient consumer, but also provide dynamic, engaging experiences at whichever touchpoint the customer chooses to engage. Retailers must seamlessly accommodate web-to-store, store-to-web, phone-to-web and any other multichannel transactions that shoppers want—not only for buying goods but also for pickups and returns.

Here are my top tips for securing multichannel—and cross-channel—retail success:

1. Be consistent and dependable
According to a study by Genesys, conducted by Greenfield Online, Datamonitor and Ovum, customer defections and abandoned purchases as a result of poor customer experiences lose UK businesses €15 billion (£12.5 billion) in sales each year. Failure to help customers move seamlessly from one channel to another can be deadly.

Today, channel dissonance—inventory and price disparities, dissimilar return policies and digital promotions that are not honoured or recognised—is widespread and often leads to a difficult and frustrating shopping experience for the consumer.

To minimise dissonance, retailers should view all “channels” in a holistic manner, rather than as separate businesses. By ensuring that pricing, branding and promotions are consistent across channels, customers gain assurance that they are dealing with the same brand—no matter where they shop—and retailers begin to foster the dependability that is a basis for customer loyalty.

2. Tailor response on each channel to individual visitors
Observed shopping patterns and behaviours need to be acknowledged, recorded and respected across channels.

In the online channel, retailers need to recognise that shoppers can enter the site through multiple side-doors and dynamically tailor website pages to each visitor based on existing data. Just knowing how the shopper came to the website, via Google keywords on a browser or on a smartphone, for example, may serve as the basis for a personalising the landing page. For instance, serving mobile customers with an optimised website.

Respond to customers directly by recognising them (as past customers) or proactively engaging them (as new customers). With returning customers, the site needs to leverage information it already has about that customer and respond with appropriate offers and messaging tailored to the visitor—within the shopping session. Where possible, the retailer should leverage customer information from all available channels (online, offline, mobile, call centre) in order to better inform offers.

3. Increase shopper engagement time with additional sales assistance both offline and online
Time is a measure of shopper engagement—the actual minutes spent shopping. Studies have found a strong relationship between time spent in store and the shopper conversion rate (SCR), regardless of store type or product category. Online, time spent shopping is perhaps even more critical than in physical stores, because of the ease with which online shoppers can, with a click of the mouse, go elsewhere.

Engaging customers is therefore essential and retailers must make sales assistance available—no matter what the channel—to avoid shoppers clicking or walking away. Online, retailers need to treat each incoming page view as a customer request—just as if a shopper in a store had approached a sales clerk for information. The use of recommendations provides valuable clues to shoppers, offering collective insight derived from the online community—also known as the “wisdom of the crowd”—or past behaviour. In a 2009 Jupiter research study, two-thirds of consumers who are undecided on price rely on product recommendations based only on the items viewed by other shoppers. Even more, 70 percent use recommendations based on the items purchased by other shoppers. It has been shown that online customers who are shown recommendations shop more frequently and spend more.

4. Use common signage and icons both online and offline
Signage is critical in quickly orienting shoppers to where they are on a site and what their options are in terms of product discovery and navigation, Online, product descriptions, images and recommendations are all a part of signage that tells customers “where” they are, and how to get to the next place they need to go.

When moving from one shopping method to the next, the customer requires a consistent experience. Information about product categories, offers, promotions and prices must be carried reliably across channels, throughout the entire customer experience. This can be achieved by implementing concise, consistent and easy-to-read signage that shares the same look and feel across channels.


5. Maximise product exposure via layout and design that captures customer attention
Online and offline store or web design can help or hinder customer exploration.
Configure stores with “hotspots”—locations where the most in-demand products are placed. Display compatible products nearby and guide customers to those locations.

Often, simple best practices in layout and design go a long way towards maximising customer engagement. Retailers can use a solid background for a high-contrast text effect or display product details on the right, employing bright font colours. When it comes to recommendations, placing recommendation messaging in brightly coloured headers and incorporating ratings and reviews also helps to capture and retain customer attention. In one instance, a retailer that moved a recommendation module on top of its search results page (from the bottom) was able to reduce bounce rates on this page by 25 percent.

To create a seamless multichannel experience, retailers must start by analysing how each channel influences bottom-line sales. This may require additional systems and tools, such as CRM systems and web analytics, to verify shopper identity and map consumer behaviour across channels. The use of such data is core to the process of facilitating cross-channel functionality, and promises to deliver a shopping experience that is streamlined, problem-free and customised to the individual shopper; fundamentally differentiating your brand from your competitors.

David Selinger is chief executive of RichRelevance a provider of ecommerce personalisation services.