July 31, 2017 Industry news
Jacky Broomhead, Market Development Manager at GS1 UK talks to IMRG about why it’s essential for today’s online retailers to understand the true costs of serving omnichannel customers if they are going to increase sales and maintain margin.
From June 2015 to August 2016, Harvard Business Review investigated the shopping behaviour of 46,000 customers. They analysed their entire shopping journey, and concluded that omnichannel retail works.
The study showed that customers spent 4% more in store and 10% more online compared to their single channel counterparts. This is consistent with other reports from Deloitte, Google and other retailers that endorse the higher lifetime value of omnichannel shoppers.
Now that new digital channels are driving sales growth, retailers and brands have more of an opportunity to find out what their shoppers are after and to convert this into sales.
Yet despite all these opportunities, many retailers have a problem. Sales are up, but margins are down. Why is this? It’s because of the higher costs they face when serving the omnichannel shopper.
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