Every day we get closer to Christmas, the more important omnichannel becomes. For those unfamiliar with the term, omnichannel is the seamless integration of online and physical commerce. For those in the business, it’s also called BOPIS: Buy Online, Pick-Up In Store.
Here’s the ideal omnichannel experience:
- Search for the item on the retailer’s site or mobile app.
- See real-time availability at stores near you.
- Place the order with immediate confirmation.
- Get a notification when the order is ready.
- Find your way to the pick up spot.
- Press a button in the app to indicate where you are waiting.
- Someone from the store comes and brings it out to you.
I’ve been following omnichannel since before it became a word. The dearly departed Circuit City (closed in 2009) was an early leader in the experience. In one humorous experience, someone went to the check out register to purchase an item and was told that the item they were holding was out of stock. It was “out of stock” because I’d purchased it online and their system subtracted it from salable inventory!
Retailers have gotten better over the years as omnichannel has become more common, both at messaging and at execution. (Though the race condition will always exist. It’s near-impossible to guarantee that an employee will have a picked an item before a store shopper grabs it.)
In the past year, I’ve tried omnichannel experiences at Walmart, Target, Walgreen’s and Best Buy.
- At Walmart, there wasn’t any signage that made it obvious where to go. I only found the pick up location by driving around the building. The items were brought out promptly, but one was damaged in a very obvious way that they should have noticed. Ideally there would be obvious signage in the parking lot and the app would navigate you directly to the pick up area.
- At Target, an overworked employee took too long to bring the items out.
- The experience was similar at Walgreens. She also had multiple orders in the shopping cart she brought out and had to separate the orders curbside.
Best Buy had the best experience: the item was brought out promptly, directly to my car.
Omnichannel provides a number of advantages over the traditional retail experience:
- Consumers don’t have to deal with inclement weather. I liked not having to walk out in the rain to Best Buy.
- For people with young children, it eliminates the hassle of unbuckling the kiddos from the car seat, getting them into the store and then reversing the process. And, of course, it eliminates the fighting over whether to buy candy in the checkout.
- Consumers know, with a high likelihood, that the products they want will be there.
Retailers benefit from something that Amazon (mostly) can’t offer: immediate access. Sure, if you’ve got two days to spare, you can wait for Prime delivery. If you’ve got one day, you can pay extra for overnight. But same day is much harder.
Consumers also get the benefit of convenient purchasing of items that are too expensive to ship, such as soda.
If you’re racing for gifts on Christmas Eve check out the omnichannel experience.
redesign | mobile 