Omnichannel has been a buzzword in the industry for years, but after the disruptive changes of the COVID-19 pandemic, simply having multiple marketing channels is no longer an advantage, but instead a must-have — especially for retailers.
What are omnichannel loyalty programs?
Omnichannel loyalty programs focus on the best shopping experience across all channels. This means delivering a meaningful engagement through each and every touchpoint, from website to offline stores. Customers engage with your brand on a variety of platforms, devices, and channels, and they expect each one of them to work together seamlessly.
In essence, omnichannel loyalty is the art of seamlessly implementing brand-specific touchpoints across all three major channels: offline, online, and mobile. This provides customers with more ways to interact with brands and have an overall positive and uniform experience.
Consistency is a key component of omnichannel loyalty program. Omnichannel loyalty programs often include personalized recommendations and offers, a streamlined purchasing process, and instant access on different devices. Retailers should be ready to adapt and innovate their programs on a regular basis.
The benefits of omnichannel loyalty programs
Data-driven Insights
The biggest benefit of having an omnichannel loyalty program is that it provides an all-encompassing view of each customer’s activity. Unlike multi-channel strategies, which often siloes valuable customer information, an omnichannel strategy gives you the full picture of your customers’ shopping habits, including buying frequency, preferred channels, and more.
Improved Sales and Traffic
Incorporating an omnichannel strategy is worth your money, effort, and time. According to a study of 46,000 shoppers by Harvard Business Review, customers who made use of the omnichannel approach spent more money than consumers who used single channel. Those who preferred more than four channels were logged as spending almost 10% more in the store than single-channel users.
Seamless Customer Journeys
From the customer’s point of view, the major selling point of omnichannel is that they can make purchases whenever and wherever they want. And with an omnichannel loyalty program, you can extend this convenience to other interactions as well, to create smooth and enticing customer experiences.
Higher customer retention rate
According to a report by Aberdeen Group, companies with omni-channel customer loyalty strategies have 91% better year-over-year customer retention rates than others. Customer retention is key for every business as it’s 5-25X more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer and a 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by up to 25-95%. Also, retained customers buy more often and spend more than newer customers as they’ve learned the value of a product or service and keep coming back, again and again. That’s why an omnichannel loyalty strategy can be a powerful tool for boosting your business revenue.
An omnichannel strategy helps brands fit the customer data puzzle pieces together to form a 360° view of who their customers are. This data drives personalized communications, and experiences. Brands are then able to build meaningful relationships with customers to encourage greater spend, engagement and satisfaction
