Retailers' Omni-Channel Blind Spot: Digital The Death Of The Single-Channel Shopper

By Nikki Baird and Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partners, RSR

One year ago, in RSR’s last benchmark of retailers’ omni-channel strategies, we found retailers in something of a funk. They reported that they were no longer seeing as significantly profitable results from omni-channel shoppers as they had in the past. They had made little progress on synchronizing their omni-channel processes and continued to be plagued by a lack of understanding of rapidly evolving consumer behavior. What’s more, they had difficulty just achieving order and inventory visibility internally and, therefore, couldn’t even begin to try to attain one view of the customer.

Their pessimism was understandable. Amazon seemed unstoppable, the cost of stores was poised to increase as more states moved to raise the minimum wage, and consumers seemed less interested in the store experience than ever. Since then, Walmart has announced a billion-dollar investment in e-commerce, and Macy’s CEO, the leading retail spokesperson for omni-channel strategy, is stepping down.