Building the multi-channel road to the future of shopping

By Kees Jacobs, Vice President of Global Consumer Goods and Retail Sector, Capgemini

The rise of e-commerce has undoubtedly been the most substantial change in the past 10 years of retail, sparking a new wave of digital-native retailers and challenging traditional operators to change the way they do business.

In turn, consumers have become more demanding in how they shop and are embracing retail innovation wherever they can find it. Many retailers have struggled with the considerable challenge of simultaneously competing on price, differentiating their proposition and integrating an online offer. 

Even putting current global challenges aside, looking ahead to the next few years we’ll see a very different retail experience across every channel, and brands need to already prepare for the magnitude of change that will come. 

A glimpse at future shopping channels

As online and mobile channels grow and purchasing digitally becomes even more convenient, consumers will naturally seek something different from their store visits, causing a shift in the retail format landscape.  

The logistics of online delivery can be an expensive endeavour for retailers, and for those with physical spaces, things like consumer enjoyment, hands-on experiences, consultations and services will become increasingly important in encouraging footfall. 

Superstores will continue to offer a comprehensive food and non-food assortment, relating to lifestyle, health and personal care; but to keep driving traffic into the bricks and mortar units, the future superstore must harness technology that enables them to personalise the store visit for each customer and improve the service they receive. 

Retailers are already trialling technology which guides customers to their favourite products via a mobile device, while digital displays dynamically change to a promotion appropriate for the passing customer. Loyalty points can be automatically calculated as the consumer pays by mobile phone and credited to the user’s central account which then informs their next personalised shopping experience. 

“Consumers can tell when digital innovation is pursued for its own sake because it’s rarely actually helpful; focusing only on new technology that makes a genuinely positive intervention to a shopper’s experience is what will make retailers stand out”

The look and feel of online shopping will also change substantially as customers’ behaviours and expectations evolve. Consumers are likely to expect a more feature-rich experience, and sophisticated new merchandising technologies will mean that previously store-only activities will be able to be carried out outline. 

Online visits will likely become more personalised, with landing pages showing tailored offers and services to each shopper on platforms such as Netflix – something consumers already understand and expect from other sectors. 

Retailers will need to use multiple customer dimensions to achieve this, moving beyond simple customer segmentation towards individual customer marketing. Automation will also be critical, made possible on an individual level so that customers can have automatic replenishment for regular purchases based on their online shopping history and preferences.

What’s vital, though, is that none of this can feel like a gimmick. Consumers can tell when digital innovation is pursued for its own sake because it’s rarely actually helpful; focusing only on new technology that makes a genuinely positive intervention to a shopper’s experience is what will make retailers stand out.

The importance of a multi-channel approach

The roles and objectives of individual shopping channels are changing, presenting their own opportunities and challenges; however, the fundamental question is how to make them work together to provide the consumer with the seamless experience they desire. 

A customer’s typical sales journey takes them from awareness to choosing, then transaction, delivery and aftersales care, and, increasingly, consumers expect to be able to move seamlessly across channels at any part of this journey – after all, it’s not uncommon to browse in-store and subsequently buy online, or vice versa.

Planning and running each channel separately will simply not deliver a compelling enough shopping experience, which could lead to loss of business. Only the right multi-channel proposition will drive the innovation future shopping experiences require. 

Personalisation is a key element here, and it needs to be supported by integrated multi-channel delivery in both operations and technology. The demands on technology will be great, so to succeed retailers will need to understand the rapidly changing landscape and have a single, corporate-wide view of the roadmap. 

This holistic view and strategic plan will also need to apply to the operations of the organisation – fail to do so and there’s a risk of being left behind. It’s imperative that retailers have a strategy and roadmap that takes a multi-channel approach to planning, and a proposition that meets their customers’ needs across the whole sales journey while considering the separate channels as a single unit. 

Only this approach will enable retailers to successfully deliver the future shopping experience that customers expect.