The 6 Major Omnichannel Trends

What does this mean in practice? Omnichannel strategies integrate and synchronize all customer touchpoints, including physical stores, online shops, mobile apps, and social media. Data and information about products, availability, and customer preferences are shared in real-time across all channels. This ensures that customers, regardless of the channel they use, receive consistent information and can seamlessly engage with a unified brand.

In an era where customer loyalty is both essential and more challenging than ever, omnichannel helps to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately improving market position and driving higher revenue.

Even in 2024, omnichannel strategies continue to play a pivotal role in retail, driven by the need to meet the ever-evolving expectations of customers. Companies are constantly exploring innovative ways to meet these expectations while also stabilizing and enhancing the efficiency of their operational value chains. In this context, clear trends and developments are emerging that are shaping the retail industry. Accordingly, we provide an overview of the most significant omnichannel trends and how they can further transform retail.

Unified Commerce goes beyond omnichannel or multichannel approaches by integrating all sales and interaction channels into a single, centralized platform. This allows for the comprehensive, real-time management, synchronization, and availability of customer transactions and interactions. At the same time, system complexities and potential errors can be significantly reduced. This ensures that all elements of the omnichannel strategy are optimally aligned, making it easier to achieve the goal of seamless processes.

AI is revolutionizing retail, much like it is transforming countless other industries and sectors, through advanced data analytics and automation across the entire value chain. In an era where maximum customer centricity is the goal, AI enables hyper-personalized shopping experiences, accurate predictions of customer behavior, and optimized inventory management processes. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide 24/7 support, significantly enhancing first-level customer service.

We’re here to help you evaluate your unique opportunities for leveraging AI.

Mobile Apps and Mobile Payment services have become an indispensable part of any omnichannel strategy, making the shopping experience even more convenient. Through their smartphones, customers can shop, access exclusive discounts and offers, participate in loyalty programs, and now even complete their purchases directly. Mobile apps are a crucial driver of customer loyalty.

Social media has gained immense significance across all industries over the past decade and has become a core element of any modern marketing strategy, especially in the B2C space. Social commerce focuses on selling products directly through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, while leveraging targeted influencer marketing to reach a broader audience and promote engaging shopping experiences.

Customers can also purchase the advertised products directly through these platforms, reducing potential barriers to purchase and increasing the likelihood of sales.

AR and VR expand the possibilities for customer engagement through immersive shopping experiences. While Augmented Reality enhances the real world with an additional virtual layer, Virtual Reality creates a completely new virtual environment. In retail, this means that customers can, for example, try on clothes using AR without having to go into a fitting room. For interior purchases, customers can project new furniture into their living room without having to buy and place it first. VR can create entirely new shopping worlds where customers can experience the company's products in, for example, sales-boosting environments. With the help of these two technological innovations, customer interaction can be significantly deepened.

Learn more about AR and VR in e-commerce here.

"Headless" is one of the current major buzzwords when it comes to developing or optimizing omnichannel strategies. Headless refers to the separation of the frontend and backend of an e-commerce system. Companies that adopt a headless approach enjoy greater flexibility and faster adaptability, allowing them to create different user interfaces for various channels or integrate new technologies and innovative features more easily. A headless architecture offers a lot of freedom on the frontend level without altering the backend logic, enabling companies to quickly respond to changing market or customer demands.

You can find a deep dive into the topic in our white paper, "Headless Revolution in Retail."

In summary, all these trends require a flexible and future-proof omnichannel strategy. Only by doing so can you swiftly respond to new developments and trends, meet customer demands comprehensively at all levels, and optimize customer acquisition and retention sustainably.

With the rapidly advancing digitalization in companies, the range of new digital measures and opportunities available for implementation to continuously improve the customer shopping experience is also expanding. In retail, there are numerous measures that have sustainably established themselves over the years and can now be considered almost "state of the art":

• Mobile Shopping Apps: Mobile applications with customer portals, discounts, and other digital services.

• Loyalty Programs: Seamless integration of proprietary loyalty programs across all sales channels.

• Click & Collect: Order products online via the online shop or mobile app and pick them up in-store.

• Real-Time Product Availability: Up-to-date inventory information across all channels.

• Recommendations: Personalized shopping experience through the analysis of purchase history in line with the customer portal.

However, time does not stand still, and retail companies must continuously explore additional innovative and digital concepts for their online and offline channels, such as Smart Carts, Self-Checkout, or Endless Aisles. To better understand the range of different possibilities, we will look at a few examples from the grocery retail sector and the fashion and beauty industry, providing a practical insight into the current state of retail companies in this regard.

Click & Collect / Delivery

Before the pandemic, many people routinely went to the supermarket for small purchases or to do their weekly big shopping. This has changed significantly in some households since the pandemic. Nowadays, some—especially younger people—use the Click & Collect and delivery services offered by their preferred supermarkets.

Almost every supermarket now offers or plans to implement such pick-up or delivery options in various forms. For example, Alnatura provides customers in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Potsdam with the option to order their groceries via the Alnatura online shop, which are then delivered directly to their homes by an employee using an eco-friendly electric delivery van from the nearest Alnatura store. REWE customers can use the REWE app to assemble their shopping list and pick up their groceries at a selected store the same day. In most cases, payment is made at a separate Click & Collect register to ensure that regular store operations are not disrupted and to enable a quicker pick-up process.

Mobile Apps with Digital Loyalty Cards and Payment Options

Today, many major supermarkets like Lidl, Rewe, Edeka, Kaufland, Alnatura, Aldi Süd, and Aldi Nord have their own mobile apps with numerous included services and additional features. Customers today not only look up product information and store hours but actively use these apps to browse recipes or offers, create shopping lists for upcoming trips, or redeem their loyalty points in the linked online shop.

Additionally, Kaufland and Lidl offer their own payment services, allowing customers to create a personal wallet in the supermarket app and manage and pay for their purchases more easily. The various touchpoints within the apps also provide improved opportunities to fully analyze customer behavior and preferences, enabling more targeted offers for individual customers and gradually personalizing the shopping experience.

Unmanned Supermarkets and Self-Checkout

In addition to the introduction of self-checkout stations, such as those at Edeka or REWE, Germany has seen the first stores operating completely without service personnel since 2021. One example is the innovative autonomous startup supermarket “Hoody,” which opened in Hamburg in 2022 and implemented the concept of a cashier- and staff-free shopping experience. Customers use the Hoody app to enter the store, scan their items, and ultimately pay for their groceries—without queues and with 24/7 availability.

WhatsApp as a Communication Channel

In the fashion industry, many fashion players are already leveraging the latest technologies to provide their customers with a seamless experience. An increasing number of fashion companies are expanding their communication channels, with new methods now available: for example, customers of Inditex brands such as Zara and Pull & Bear can now communicate with customer service via WhatsApp. This simplifies interactions for customers by using channels they are already familiar with and regularly use. There is no longer a need to be stuck in a phone queue, wait a long time for an email response, or search for a chatbot in the app. Other brands, like Temu, use WhatsApp to suggest personalized items to customers or offer exclusive access to special discounts.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs today should be seamlessly accessible across all channels. H&M, for instance, offers its customers the H&M Member Club, allowing them to earn points both online and offline. This includes not only discounts redeemable online but also Member Days, where discounts can be redeemed in-store or selected items are offered at a special price for members. Other brands, such as the American underwear brand Lively and the skincare brand 100%Pure, demonstrate how loyalty programs can encourage cross-channel interaction by offering additional points when customers make in-store purchases, follow the brand on social media, interact with it, or write reviews.

Social Commerce & AI-Driven Support

Dior has expanded its customer experience on social media channels with its Facebook Messenger-based digital concierge service, "Dior Insider." Customers interested in the latest news from Dior or who have product-related questions can interact with an interactive, AI-powered chatbot. The chatbot provides small previews of products and a link to Dior’s website with a single click for specific queries. As the interaction progresses, customers receive an invitation to visit a Dior store for personalized advice. Although the luxury sector is heavily focused on concierge services, only a few luxury brands, aside from Dior, currently promote their exclusive in-store services online.

The success of an effective omnichannel strategy is determined by several factors that ultimately help a company achieve its goals of strengthening its market position through sustainably increased customer satisfaction.

Customer-Centricity and Personalization: A key driver of omnichannel success is the fundamental focus on customer-centricity, where the expectations, needs, and desires of customers are at the center of all activities. The goal is to provide a unified and consistent shopping experience across all channels. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and strengthened customer loyalty.

The topic of "personalization" is central when discussing customer-centricity. By strategically and systematically collecting, structuring, and analyzing customer data, companies can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. Based on this, businesses can offer personalized and more relevant products and services tailored specifically to their customers’ desires and needs. This makes the target audience feel valued and better understood, which ultimately enhances their satisfaction and loyalty.

Adaptability and Scalability: In a constantly evolving digital landscape that rapidly presents new opportunities, it is crucial for companies to quickly and effectively adapt and develop their omnichannel strategies. The prerequisite for this is high adaptability and agility. Companies must be able to respond directly and swiftly to market changes, optimize existing processes, and integrate new sales channels and measures.

The foundation for this is a robust and scalable technological infrastructure. This ensures that systems and platforms are flexible enough to handle increased demand, integrate new technologies, and accommodate changing user requirements. A well-structured technological setup enhances the efficiency of your value creation processes, ensures organized and optimized data management, and improves customer communication. This, in turn, continuously increases operational efficiency and enables a seamless customer experience with consistently high service quality.

Do you see a need for improvement in your omnichannel approaches?

We at diva-e are happy to assist you in evaluating your individual requirements and finding the right solution for your company.