Top 100 Best omnichannel retailers in 2018 (By TotalRetail)

Total Retail's 2018 Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers

In its second annual ranking of 100 publicly traded retailers based on their omnichannel capabilities/programs offered and the execution of said programs, Total Retail, in conjunction with Radial, a leading omnichannel commerce technology and operations provider, uncovered the brands leading the way in giving consumers the seamless purchase journeys they’ve come demand. Likewise, we’ve exposed the brands that have a lot of work to do in getting their businesses prepared to compete in today’s omnichannel environment. Your competition isn’t going to wait for you!

The retailers were judged on the following seven omnichannel criteria — does it offer buy online, pick up in-store; does it offer the ability to search for in-store products on its website, including access to stock availability; does it offer a shared cart across channels (e.g., mobile to desktop); can loyalty points be earned and redeemed across channels; can products be returned across channels (e.g., return online purchases in-store); does it offer five or more channels for customers to engage customer service staff; and is product pricing consistent across channels. The research was compiled in the first quarter of 2018. A breakdown of how the scoring was calculated can be found in the Methodology section at the conclusion of the report. 

There are some familiar brands at the top of this year’s rankings. For the second straight year, DSW and UGG tied for the top spot (along with LIDS). These companies have shown a willingness to invest in technologies that enable the types of seamless omnichannel shopping that consumers demand. On the flip side, for the second straight year, off-price retail chains can be found at the bottom of the rankings. Ross Stores, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx (the latter two both part of TJX Cos.) all are in the bottom half of the rankings, in large part due to their lack of e-commerce websites.


The companies to make the biggest improvement in the rankings year-over-year include footwear brand Steve Madden (from 11th overall in 2017 to fourth overall this year); Sears (from seventh in 52% 78% of retailers offer some form of a buy online, pick up in-store program. of retailers offer a shared cart, down 5 percent from 2017. Executive Summary s the Department Stores category in 2017 to third this year); and LIDS (jumped up to first in its category, Apparel and Accessories, after finishing sixth in the category in 2017). Likewise, the companies that saw the biggest decline in their ranking year-over included Lumber Liquidators (dropped to last in its category, Home Improvement, after finishing second in 2017) and Macy's (fell from the second spot in its category, Department Stores, to fifth place this year).

To read more, download full here!

---
Related Posts:
>> What does O2O mean?
>> What does Omnichannel retail mean?

Omnichannel Marketing Definition and 6 Tips to Plan

In 2017 and those previous years, people witness the prime time of Omnichannel which now is the dominant trend in the market race. A plenty of firms and businesses being sensitive to change quickly adapt and run this system, which leads to an innovation in the way other departments working. In this section, let’s focus on how Marketing could be affected by Omni-channel and stay in the know of notion Omni-channel Marketing.

Definition Of Omni-channel Marketing.

Let’s be wise to distinguish traditional marketing strategy and Omni-channel one. Due to the difference in user experience, Omni-channel also requires a different way to create Marketing strategy. People should bear in mind that the prominent factor of Omni-channel is offering the seamless connection among various selling channels. Thus, marketers based on this criteria to build up a brand new definition in this field. In other words, we have a notion of Omni-channel Marketing.

Omni-channel Marketing marks a significant shift to provide seamless experience regardless the number of devices or channels, which means that everything touching customers will be the same even when they access by PC/Laptop, mobile or tablet. All accessing ways lead to the mutual content which is personalized for each customer. And then, it is exactly the core value of Omni-channel Marketing: Creating an ecosystem of unified content surrounding customers, use it as a leverage boosting clients to make purchases in the convinient and satisfactory way.

Related Post: What is Omnichannel Distribution?

Challenge When Started Creating Omni-channel Marketing.

It exists 2 main reasons causing challenge to create Omni-channle Marketing. The first one moving from business-centric to customer-centric and the other is the roadblock of silos as well as the free of traditional marketing campaign.

It is appropriate for people to consider Omnichannel a factor bringing forth a revolution for marketing field. It totally changes the way Marketers worked before and marks the shift from business-centric to customer-centric. In other words, with Omni-channel, we create and offer personalized content for individual, the slogan “one-fits-for-all” is the story of yesterday.

Besides, adapting to new things required people to adjust or even break down some old ones. To Omnichannel Marketing Strategy, it’s not a simple thing to deal with, which means you will have to break down the silos as well as the free of traditional marketing campaign to create an unitedly relevency content based on personalized data, spread it across various channels where customers may touch point with real-time updated progress. Moreover, in the prime time of Omnichannel Marketing Strategy, some organizations also face up to the requirement of buy-in entire company and and a shift in company’s culture. To explain for this statement, people might know that any marketing campaign need budget to grow and the interval to promote effectiveness. So if something went wrong right from the start, the cost would be relevant. Choosing the right strategy is actually a bet!

Related Post: How to implement an Omnichannel retail strategy?

6 Tips To Plan And Create A Perfect Omni-channel Marketing.

Marketers may notice this reality: The path of purchasing products can start and done anytime, in any location, at any devices. Thus, once again, it’s essential to creat a seamless experience for them. According to Google research, 90% of multiple devices owners switch between an average of 3 per day to complete a task.

And here are 6 tips supporting you to make an ideal Omnichannel Marketing

1) Walk on customers’shoes
To create an unforgettable experience for customers, it’s essential for marketers to put their viewpoint as clients’one. Regularly review and update system to bring in friendly-interface for users to use. Testing by searching products, interacting with several channels, placing orders and purchasing products. It would be better to have a tester team taking responsibility of ensuring seamless experience. This team should include both internal and external manpower.

2) Measuring to see the real result
It’s all about the problem of using customer data wisely. Marketers are increasingly savvy and know how to take advantage of customer data without becoming invasive.

Julie Bernard of Macy’s summed things up at Data Driven Marketing conference:

“We can now measure success in terms of the response of real people over time, in addition to measuring individual campaigns. We have enough data at the customer level to see how she interacts both online and in the store, so we can tailor messaging and offers to her appropriately by channel. We strive to balance the use of customer data to inform content relevancy with the use of consumer insights to ensure that the relevancy is coupled with a sense of discovery and inspiration.”

3) Segment audiences to know them more
To get well known about customers and pursuade them successfully, you can keep the gold key named Customer Journey. You can capture scattered information, list out, pick and choose the valuable one to put in Customer Journey. Then, segment this path into several parts and create specific content and marketing method for each of them.

4) Creating content bases on understanding clients
This will make sure you send the relevant content which is really valuable to recipients. Moreover, nowadays, go along with the trend flitting from bussiness-centric to customer-centric, clients became more savvy and they fully expect personalized experience even in the small details such as the notification or email.

5) Take advantage of cases and customers’ data to boost Sales/Marketing
Message and content is the gold key of Marketing Strategy. If a customer accessed to your site, pick some items into cart but somehow they abandon it. Let’s pay high attention to this action as well as the cart they haven’t check out yet to send them reminders or suggestions which help boosting motivation to call out an action. Send them some notice about remaining quantity of product they have picked but abandon, or you can also give them some vouchers, discount. Or you may use a more sophisticated trick by suggesting some items relevant to things they have chosen before. It’s called complementary tactic. For example, if a customer put a charming dress into cart, let’s send her specific recommendation to match it with gorgeous accessories.

6) Listen by all ears and respond from bottom of your heart

It’s rare to see a completed purchasing progess happened just by one device. They may switch across various channels, utilized different devices to search product, access services or make purchase. The long journey is divided into several small paths. Purchasers in each of them may leave some useful spots for marketers to exploit. Make sure that you are able to listen and respond to those interactions in time to serve them as well as you can. Marketers can create a strategic brand position inside of consumers by content they send and respond. Make each of them special and no one would deny to joy the seamless personalized experience like this.

Related Posts:
- Magestore's Omnichannel Solution for Magento Retailers
- What is Omnichannel Retail?