To Be Or Not To Be OmniReadi?

From ramping up free shipping offers to lowering prices on product offerings across multiple channels, merchants are constantly realigning their omnichannel strategy.

What works well for merchants one quarter may not necessarily work the next. And what works successfully for one merchant may not work for another. Google, for example, is challenging the need for physical stores to sell its smartphone by pre-packing customer service on a support tab in its smartphone. Amazon, on the other hand, is betting on the value of pop-up stores in malls.

The PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index Report Card takes a step back to analyze the omnichannel strategy of 102 merchants studied for the last year in the PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index and reflects upon the trends that have emerged or are emerging. The Report Card drills down to identify trends surrounding the availability of 142 features across four channels: mobile app, mobile web, in-store and website.

And as it turns out, for consumers, there’s good news, and there’s bad news.

Between Q2 2015 and Q2 2016, the number of merchants offering price matching to their customers went up from 15 percent to 27 percent. And to add to customers’ convenience, merchants now accept close to nine payment methods — up from seven in Q2 2015. Product selection across multiple channels, however, took a hit. It went down from 98 percent in Q2 2015 to 86 percent a year later.

Other key takeaways from the October 2016 OmniReadi Index Report Card include:

More and more merchants are now offering free shipping. In Q2 2015, only 72 percent of merchants offered free shipping compared to 86 percent in Q2 2016.

Also, 86 percent of merchants offered product guarantee or refund in Q2 2016, up from 76 percent a year before.

On the down side, merchants cut down the ability for consumers to purchase products across all four channels. Eighty-eight percent supported multichannel product purchase compared to 91 percent in Q2 2015.

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About The Index

The PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index, powered by Vantiv, was designed to quantify the consistency between the web and in-store shopping experience and determine if the mobile channel is helping, hurting or simply neutral to the overall situation.