Even for established retailers with years of experience in one sales channel, providing a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels — brick-and-mortar, online, mobile, and beyond — can be challenging.
Omnichannel retailing recognizes that consumers control the buying process and seeks to remove the barriers between potential customers and the way in which they shop.
Thus effective omnichannel merchants deliver a consistent and good shopping experience regardless of the channel. If a shopper wants to buy from a mobile device, let her. If she wants to order online and pick up in store, let her. The idea is to meet shoppers where they want to be.
Simple in Theory, Not Execution
Unfortunately, while omnichannel commerce is simple in theory, is not necessarily easy to execute.
The chief executive of a mid-market retailer with hundreds of millions in annual sales expressed it like this: “Amazon is offering free next-day shipping to Mars and knows my wife’s favorite color, but we can even get basic product information on our site.”
The problem is, in part, that many of the merchants most interested in omnichannel retailing are traditional brick-and-mortar sellers who recognize that they have to get a lot better at ecommerce and selling through other channels if they are going to compete and grow.
These same companies, however, may not have the experience, personnel, or infrastructure to do what just about any Shopify merchant does in the evenings and weekends — collect orders online or via mobile and fulfill those orders.
While the omnichannel problems a retailer will face vary from business to business, here are five of the most likely reasons why omnichannel retailing fails
1. Lack of Investment
Brick-and-mortar retailers will invest millions of dollars to open a new store location. They buy or lease the building, pay for remodeling, purchase…
