Archive for January, 2011

Align Your Organization For Success

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Cross-channel optimization for multichannel retailers is more than a nice-to-have. What sets one retail brand apart from the rest is the shopping experience. And in this dynamic era of e-business, mobile devices, and social media, retail leaders have discovered the keystone to delivering a truly cohesive customer experience across multiple channels and touch points: cross-channel optimization.

Many doors, one experience

Optimizing your channels is the key to success—evolving siloed channels, delivering powerful new capabilities, and building a strong platform for profitable growth in both revenues and market share. For companies of vision and rigor, such a shift can create competitive advantage by transforming your enterprise into a customer-centric organization. By integrating sales channels and touch points flawlessly, your customers can shop how, when, and where they choose.

Cross-channel optimization is not simply about executing the same activities across multiple channels. Nor does it focus on integrating or synchronizing channels to support cross-channel shopping. Instead, it necessitates a vision as well as a systematic strategy to exploit the strengths of one channel to complement the relative weaknesses of other channels. As well as migrating costly activities from one channel to a lower cost basis in another.  (more…)

Why “Multi-Channel” isn’t Enough

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Multi-channel is the buzzword in retail. There is no escape. From in-store, to mail, to the web and mobile – there are very few retailers these days without some sort of “multi-channel” play. I mean, Sears had a multi-channel strategy in 1925 when they operated through a retail store and catalog. So multi-channel has been around for a long time, and all of the recent noise about multi-channel is just that – noise.

For “multi-channel” to be successful retailers need to take it a step deeper. Not every customer buys the same thing, in the same size or style, in the same place, or in the same way. Smart retailers recognize this and tailor experiences for each customer. Amazon.com is the gold standard – every logged in customer sees a customized homepage based on browsing and purchase history. But many traditional retailers are also taking steps to become more relevant across touch points. For example, JCrew knows that I’ve never purchased a single piece of women’s clothing from them, so I get a catalog with just men’s clothes. Other brands continue to toil in the dark ages: Dear AT&T, please stop sending me information about becoming an AT&T wireless customer. I’ve been one for 5 years. That’s why you have my email and home address.

The traditional model of brand centric channels has been turned on its head. New, successful outreach models utilize customer-centric touchpoints designed to provide relevant brand experiences anytime and anywhere a customer could want them. (more…)