Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Retail: Which is Better?

In most cases, a successful multichannel retail model allows brands to increase their sales volume wherever possible, but does little in the way of creating a personalized customer experience. Fortunately, many technology partners today assist businesses with product optimization and listing, order fulfillment and have experienced customer service and support teams that make it easy to expand to more channels. Some challenges in multichannel retail include keeping operations scalable, meeting requirements for expanding to additional channels and delivering a consistent experience across all channels. In multichannel retail, the customer’s experiences on any given channel are siloed, or happening in relative isolation from each other. Multichannel retail maximizes exposure for a brand and gives consumers more choices about where to purchase products, but it is not an integrated experience like an omnichannel model. A multichannel retail model can be part of a multichannel marketing approach that utilizes email, social media, the company website, and other channels to reach customers.

For example, merchants who create Google Shopping campaigns can have their Google Merchant Center accounts suspended if they violate Google’s policies. This is a common multichannel approach that uses advertising, marketplaces, direct sales, and wholesale to reach as many customers as possible. They can return their product to a brick-and-mortar location, receive a refund, and the store handles the return process from there.

Companies can do all of this themselves, but they need to invest a significant amount of time and money for in-house development, channel expertise and continued maintenance of their data feeds. Having the right technology solutions makes this process considerably easier, especially for companies that have a high SKU count in their catalogs. Modern ecommerce platforms have many direct integrations, tools, and partnerships for helping a business solidify and streamline its online presence.

Example 1: Starbucks

Multichannel marketing is a strategic approach where a business interacts with its customers across various distinct communication and distribution channels, such as email, social media, physical stores, SMS, and direct mail. On average, companies market across 10 channels, and marketers who can successfully engage customers in real time across these channels are more likely to be high performers. This is because one of the challenges of omnichannel marketing is that it requires a complex, adaptive ecosystem based on customer data. As mentioned before, the multichannel strategy communicates to customers via select channels that are relevant to your brand, making it a business-focused or company-centric strategy. Because it helps you collect real-time customer data at various touchpoints, you can use it to create a smoother customer experience.

Level of integration

Another model, buy-online-return-in-store, or BORIS, improves the online shopping experience because customers don’t have to worry about mailing a package back to the merchant if they need to return it. BOPIS surged in popularity during the pandemic but should retain its popularity due to the increased convenience it provides. In a multichannel strategy, businesses try to put products in front of as many valuable customers as possible, but the emphasis is primarily on increasing their online presence, omnichannel vs multichannel marketing not on deepening the customer experience. To fulfill orders from a marketplace, a business must receive the order, match the ordered item to the correct product, ship it and return tracking information to the marketplace so that the customer is notified.

Omnichannel strategies are designed to deliver seamless and consistent customer experiences across all channels and touchpoints. Following a purchase, shoppers receive an automated thank you email or a request to review the product or their overall experience. This still requires an investment in the right technology to make expansion manageable and scalable, and ensure that the channels don’t become a liability to the brand’s overall reputation. Offers like BOPIS and in-store product reviews, as well as loyalty programs that are accessible on mobile, desktop, or in-store, can make the shopping experience feel seamless.

On the contrary, omnichannel marketing meets the customer at all touchpoints with uniform messaging, which means personalization can happen at the customer level. Speaking of omnichannel vs multichannel marketing, another term, ‘cross-channel marketing’, may pop up in your mind… Now things are starting to get confusing! Google’s research revealed that using omnichannel strategies contributed to 80% of customer visits to physical stores. Today, with 73% of customers engaging across various channels such as online, in-store, and mobile, understanding these differences is crucial.

Learn why brands on Shopify have better customer experiences and bigger conversions. Through these reports, Astrid & Miyu found a five-times increase in shoppers who purchase more than four times when shopping omnichannel. Weigh the benefits of omnichannel and multichannel marketing — and decide which works best for your business.

• This helps to build trust and loyalty between the customer and the business and increases sales.
• When implementing a multichannel strategy, staying consistent is key to building trust and loyalty with your consumers.
• Now that we have a solid base of understanding about both types, let’s unpack the main differences between multichannel and omnichannel marketing.
• Learn about top differences & which tools to use for stellar customer support and customer service.

Many companies choose to use ecommerce platforms for organizing their inventory and product data. According to a report from Omnisend, a multichannel approach has a 90% higher customer retention rate than a single-channel approach. This includes ads on search engines, social media, direct sales on a marketplace, and a company’s own website.

Retailers have the ability to blend features of online and physical stores to deliver a convenient and memorable customer experience. The goal is to increase customer convenience and personalize the customer journey to spur greater engagement and customer retention. Multichannel is a good option for businesses that don’t want to invest in a full omnichannel approach, but the right tech stack is still necessary to streamline their multichannel operations. Companies that want to reach more customers can find success listing products in more places. Retailers have proven success with omnichannel and multichannel strategies, so the key is choosing the right strategy and executing it effectively and consistently.