Your customers already use multiple channels to get in touch with you and buy your products. As well as browsing your online store, they might send you an email, call you on the phone, or contact you via one of your social media channels.
Omnichannel ecommerce is all about promoting your online retail store across all these channels in a seamless way, creating a unified buying and support experience no matter which channel or device your customers are using.
9 out of 10 consumers want omnichannel marketing. By giving them the best experience possible, you’re more likely to increase brand loyalty and your customer retention rates. Omnichannel ecommerce also provides an effective means to retarget your customers and encourage them to come back to your site to make a purchase.
Here’s your guide to embracing omnichannel ecommerce to bring customers back to your Shopify store.
What is omnichannel ecommerce?
Let’s start with the basics. What is omnichannel ecommerce?
Omnichannel ecommerce is a retail strategy that provides customers with a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels. This means that customers can browse and purchase products through various touchpoints, including ecommerce stores, online marketplaces, social media platforms, mobile apps, and sometimes also brick-and-mortar stores.
With omnichannel ecommerce, retailers aim to create a unified brand experience for their customers, enabling them to interact with their brand in the way that's most convenient for them at any given moment. The goal is to provide a consistent and personalised customer journey across all touchpoints, ultimately driving sales and customer loyalty.
How to use omnichannel ecommerce to retarget customers
Many stores already have a strategy in place already for retargeting customers, such as those that abandon their carts online. But more often than not, that strategy is limited to a single email reminder. Relying on just one channel like this could mean that you’re bypassing customers who prefer to be contacted via other channels.
Let’s use abandoned carts as an example of how omnichannel ecommerce could work to support retargeting. With this approach, you’d use different channels in combination with each other to grab the shopper’s attention and encourage them to complete their purchase.
So, 30 minutes after cart abandonment, you’d send a friendly web push message and/or email campaign reminding your visitor about the item they left behind. 50 minutes after cart abandonment, you’d send a second reminder, this time by SMS, and with the inclusion of a time-limited discount.
SMS is a very effective, though more expensive, channel compared to web push or email. This is why you might not want to use it straightaway.
Text message open rates are very high, typically 98%. In terms of the different types of SMS campaigns you can send, abandoned cart messages convert the best.
Why retargeting is important for Shopify stores
This screenshot below relates to data from more than 3,000 Shopify stores to understand when conversions are most likely to take place after a website visit.
This data confirms that just over half of all sales happen during the first site visit. This means that almost 50% of visitors won’t purchase straight away. 2.76% of sales happen the day following the first visit - and more conversions occur in the days that follow. Over 30% of conversions take place between 12 and 30 days afterwards.
Some buyers require more time to think about purchasing, especially if the item in question is expensive. Either way, the time lag in conversions is fascinating. It reiterates just how crucial retargeting is, and how an omnichannel ecommerce approach can be the key to achieving it.
By putting in place a solid retargeting strategy for abandoned carts, you can entice people to return to your store and, most importantly, get that conversion from interested visitor to paying customer.
Ramp up your sales with omnichannel marketing
An omnichannel retargeting strategy helps you make the most of the traffic you’re already getting to your store. It’s particularly useful if you’re running paid ads as you can significantly boost your ROI by retargeting paid-for traffic.
By using channels like email, web push notifications and SMS to embrace an omnichannel ecommerce approach, you can deliver abandoned cart reminders and other retargeting campaigns cohesively. Not only will this help you to drive more sales for your store, but it’ll also help you increase customer satisfaction and retention rates too.
