Omni-Channel: Taking Time, Money, Commitment, And Technology

By Brian Kilcourse and Paula Rosenblum, managing partners, RSR

March 2016 Innovative Retail Technologies

RSR and RVCF explain how true omni-channel retailing requires time, money, and technology and why predictive analytics and accurate measurement are critical to growth.

From Competitive Advantage To Table Stakes In Three Short Years
For as long as we’ve been discussing omni-channel, we have had the presumption, born from retailers’ responses, that consumers who shop across both digital and physical channels are more profitable. In fact, for many years, our retail respondents reported that these shoppers were “significantly” more profitable than single-channel shoppers. However, the number of retailers reporting multichannel customers as significantly more profitable has dropped by 50 percent in just three years. That’s a staggering statistic, and it has had tremendous implications on the industry. Retailers that did not make the leap to omni-channel, and those who stopped after taking early measures, have been rushing to realign their organizations, implement new technologies, and generally do what early adopters did: “brute their way” to cross-channel consistency. Almost every day we read about retailers wanting to “reinvigorate and recommit to their omni-channel retail experience.” This signals a belief that while they are currently driving revenue across their multiple selling channels, they may be leaving a lot of money on the table. Whatever their beliefs, organizational realignment and technology will be required to help solve their problem.