Does Omnicommerce Spell The Death of Big Data?

Understanding consumer preferences, expectations and shopping patterns and mapping those to retailer capabilities is all about having access to data and lots of it. Right? Well, maybe not. Maybe, better data, delivered faster is the ticket to omnicommerce success. This month’s Vantiv Omnicommerce Tracker benchmarks a number of situations where bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to getting consumers engaged.

Forty-three percent of consumers who say they use their phones to shop online in-store also use their phones an average of 11 minutes to aid them in shopping, says Vantiv. For retailers, data on consumer in-store and mobile behavior can be used to offer discounts, coupons and promotions to spark spending. Engagement, particularly through various social media platforms and new technologies, has become key to driving customers to buy more in physical stores.

This month’s Tracker shows that retailers are being more enticed by customer data to implement these marketing tactics to engage with and drive customers to buy more (and decrease their show-rooming activity). Data is also being used to track loyal shoppers, allowing them to earn rewards for sharing experiences with their networks.

In addition, while some mobile payments apps like that of Starbucks and other food industry players have taken off, consumers are still preferring to use traditional credit payment forms, and are preferring cash just as often as debit. However, 1 in 10 consumers expect to be using mobile payments for restaurant visits in 5 years. The actual use of mobile apps and payments forms in restaurants currently remains low, but there is interest. In the meantime, restaurant owners are looking for ways to entice consumers to migrate to mobile ordering and payment methods.

Consumers are already adept and accustomed to using mobile technologies, and are becoming more willing to use them as part of their shopping experience. But retailers need to be sure that they are providing “seamless” experiences when offering incentives and rewards, while remaining consistent with the “look and feel” of the website and the product pricing and inventories.

As learned at PYMNTS Summer School, says Vantiv, it may not be possible to create a seamless customer experience just yet, but consistency within a channel is possible and critical to omnichannel.

 

Key insights from Vantiv indicate the following:

1) To engage customers, regardless of the technology used to enable mobile payments, financial institutions and network card providers are still in prime position for offering a digital wallet solution, each by more than 1/3 of consumers surveyed.

2) To enable customers, nearly 2 in 5 consumers are interested in using the restaurants’ mobile device to order or pay when dining in, especially young adults (48% interested in both) and smartphone and tablet owners (49% interested in paying the bill and 45% are interested in ordering).

3) To serve customers, in addition to incenting users to adopt mobile apps and payment forms through incentives and rewards, it is also critical for retailers to create a consistent user experience with the same or similar content accessible across channels

 

More retailers have started to adopt such mobile and social strategies to engage with and reward customers:

1) To engage customers, Coca-Cola’s launched digital extension of its “Share a Coke” campaign called “Tweet-a-Coke,” allowing users to send soft drinks for $5 to friends by using the handle @TweetACoke, the word “enjoy” and their friend’s Twitter handle

2) To enable customers, Starbucks announced plans to allow consumers in one undisclosed geographic test market to start placing pickup orders from the Starbucks app later this year, allowing users to make and pay for coffee and food orders via smart phone before arriving to a shop.

3) To serve customers, some online retailers like Bonobos are adding more physical locations. Bonobos’  “Guideshop” store locations serve as mini showrooms where “guides” serve customers before they make purchases from the company’s website.


This report will, on a monthly basis, document the moves these progressive retailers are making to enable omnichannel across three critical lenses:

Engage the Customer: Strategies merchants are enacting to drive customers into their store or online including loyalty programs, contextually relevant offers, and leveraging data to make relevant product recommendations.

Enable the Customer: Tools merchants are deploying to arm customers with the ability to shop and buy whenever and wherever they want including apps, enabling payment within the app, location-based services, and the ability to shop and fulfill purchases regardless of channel.

Serve the Customer: Ways in which merchants are stepping out from behind the counter to deliver enhanced shopping experiences such as mobile-point-of-sale, ability to check inventory in real-time, etc.

The report will also feature industry-spanning statistics and factoids curated by Vantiv, whose solutions help merchants more easily make that transition. These statistics and factoids will help to arm retailers (and those who power them) with data to make smarter decisions when considering various options for enabling omnicommerce.

 

For more on the developments across the omnicommerce ecosystem, download the full version of this month’s report by clicking the button below.

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