Multi Channel Retailing - How to get it RIGHT

A multichannel retailer is a company that sells through more than one type of distribution channel. For a long time retailers happily stuck with one channel - bricks and mortar stores. Now there is the online store, an essential distribution channel for any retailer wanting to grow their revenue and build their brand. Most of us know by now why it is important for apparel retailers to have a webstore as a second channel, they have lower overheads than a physical store, provide massive customer reach, increase sales and revenue, give your customer the ability to research your products (50-70% of who do so before entering your store to purchase the products) and have good branding implications. These days’ customers typically expect their favourite retailers to have a solid online store. Now it’s a matter of getting multichannel retailing RIGHT.

How to get multichannel retailing right:

Your customers will have expectations about your physical stores based on their experiences shopping there. They might know that they can get a refund on a faulty product, redeem a gift card at any of your stores or have a salesperson suggest a matching item to their new purchase. They also have expectations about your webstore, the main one being that your webstore acts the same as your physical stores. Because of this perception it is extremely important to coordinate customer service and protocols between your physical stores and your webstore. A bad online experience will negatively affect their perceptions about your brand as a whole. Some important things to keep in mind when creating multi channel consistency are:

-Product range.

If a customer goes in and sees something they like in one of your stores, they expect it to be on your webstore when they go online to research/buy it. If you have a large in-store product range but only a few products on your webstore then people are going to get frustrated with your website. Next time they won’t opt to use your site as they know they can get a much larger range at your physical store, or worse, at someone else’s store entirely, someone who DOES have a full online range for them to enjoy browsing. If a customer’s expectation of your store is one with a full product range, they will expect this from your webstore, and will be disappointed if they get otherwise.

-Sales advice.

When a customer is in your physical store they have your sales assistants to answer any questions they may have about your products. To break down any resistance your customers may have towards buying online you need to consider any questions a customer may have and provide them with the answers. You should have a size guide, a product care guide and detailed information regarding the type of fabric and how it wears. Your site should make recommendations of what items match other items, or have a lookbook to show the user how they can wear a garment.

-Returns.

When you’re clothes shopping the thought of having to return a faulty product generally isn’t much of a deterrent. You get home and notice there’s a button missing – not a big deal, you’ll just take it back to one of the stores tomorrow and swap it for a new one. Online, the thought of returning something becomes a much bigger deal. Customers don’t want to have to re-package up the garment, fill out a returns form, and pay to courier it back to you. This is time consuming, costs them money, and means that they have to wait even longer to receive the new garment. If your in-store policy is that customers can return a faulty garment to any outlet, then apply this to your webstore as well. Customers will have far less hesitations about buying online if they know they can easily swap their faulty product for a new one next time they’re at the mall.

-Promotions.

Having a sophisticated promotions module for your webstore is an absolute essential. If your webstore can’t run the same promotions your physical stores are running at the same time then people are going to become concerned about missing out on an in-store deal and shy away from shopping online. All sales, deals, competitions and promotions should be rolled out on your webstore and work in the exact same manner as they do in-store. Your customers expect all outlets to run the same promotions and sales, again, your online store can be no different to your other shops.

Case Study – Overland Footwear

Leading New Zealand footwear retailer Overland (www.overlandfootwear.co.nz) is a company succeeding in creating a seamless and satisfying customer experience across multiple channels. They go to extra measures to ensure their webstore is robust enough to handle the functionality required to provide customers with an identical brand experience both online and offline. Anita Kimpton, Overland Marketing Co-ordinator says “At Overland one of our main focuses is on the Customer Experience, we want to ensure our customers feel valued and have the best shopping experience available both in store and online”. Overland strive to develop a trusted and reliable brand for their customers by providing online customers with the same level of stock variety, and service and experience levels that match in store shopping. “Our website displays the same offering of styles as available in store. It is a showcase of our range in its entirety making the shopping experience both simple and enjoyable. We have integrated with our database to show ‘real time’ stock levels and availability as well as where the stock is available should the customer want to go to store. The design elements of our site reflect those displayed in store. The face of the site is changed out seasonally to echo seasonal imagery changes and tabs are changed to reflect current in store promotions. This is an area of ongoing focus for Overland and we aim to continue to improve the online experience for our consumer.”

Multichannel retailing is a necessary strategy to employ now that consumers have got to a stage where they are beginning to expect their favourite brands to have a quality webstore. The gist of it is that consumers do not differentiate between your channels, and they expect your webstore to work and look the same as your bricks and mortar stores. Think about what processes you run in store and how you can apply them to your website in order to give your customers the best possible brand experience and create that ever important brand loyalty.