With the digitization of consumption patterns, being present on all channels is no longer enough to capture the attention of consumers. Multichannel strategy needs to be redesigned to benefit from an omnichannel strategy, which is essential today to support consumers throughout their purchasing journey.
Which steps do the customer take before making their final purchase? How much time goes by before their first visit and final purchase? Did they only purchase online? These questions help improving customer journey knowledge and put an effective and coherent marketing strategy in place.
Digital: The gateway to stores
With the rise of e-commerce, many predicted the end of physical stores. These two retail spaces are largely complementary and are far from being in competition. Studies have shown consumers often prepare their purchase online before realizing it in a store. Today purchase decision is made well upstream: eight out of 10 in-store purchases are preceded by at least one online visit. An observation that can, and should, strongly influence the budgets allocated to Digital directors. Looking at the numbers, a brand’s website turnover represents between 3 and 7 percent of global turnover. When digital is integrated in the shopping journey, it amounts to around 40% of the sales of the brand. To demonstrate this correlation, retailers need to reconcile «first party» data with navigation data, to better understand consumer behavior and purchasing patterns.
