NEW STUDY: SMBs Closing The Omnichannel Gap

Heavy lies the head that wears the omnichannel crown.

According to the latest edition of the PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index, a Vantiv collaboration, the merchants traditionally thought to be the least effective across multiple purchase channels are closing the gap with top-ranking merchants.

The Index finds that while the average merchant is better equipped for omnichannel commerce now than they were a year ago, progress has largely been made by those with the thinnest omnichannel resumes. The average Omnireadi Index score — which measures how effectively merchants are serving customers across multiple purchase channels — increased slightly, from 72.8 out of 100 to 73.4 out of 100 over the course of the past year. That means that overall, merchants are becoming incrementally more efficient.

But, while the average score for the Bottom 10 merchants in our scorecard jumped from 59.9 out of 100 to 61.6 out of 100, the Top 10 merchants suffered the opposite fate. Scores for those sellers dropped from 88.4 out of 100 last year to 87.4 out of 100 in the most recent edition.

So, what’s keeping top merchants from taking the next step? According to Index data, features like Product Reviews and Price Matching continue to be stumbling blocks for Top 10 merchants. Meanwhile, lower performing merchants are relying on popular features like Skip Data Entry, Live Help and Pricing.

Other key takeaways from the November 2017 Index include:

Fourteen merchants saw their Index scores improve, while 60 scores stayed the same and nine merchants saw scores decrease.

Mass Merchants retained the highest OmniReadi Index score of any industry, but scores in the space fell from 81.7 out of 100 last year to 81.3 this year.

Purchase Histories, Wish Lists and Account Profiles were among the main differentiators for Top 10 merchants.

When it comes to omni success, one size doesn’t fit all

While Top 10 merchants largely offer features like Purchase Histories and Wish Lists, there is no one true path to finding omnichannel success.

The Index also includes an interview with Drew Green, CEO of custom suit maker Indochino. Green told PYMNTS why the company first felt the need to expand beyond its original online roots, and why he and his team plan to continue working to expand Indochino’s brick-and-mortar footprint.

“We were one of the first business to be able to provide made-to-measure, custom apparel online,” he said. “But, as we continued to grow, we really felt that a transition to a retail model that was entirely our own was going to be necessary to get to where we wanted to be. So, we decided to open our own showrooms across North America. And, in the three years since we’ve done that, our revenue has gone up by 300 percent.”

To read the story, check out the Index.

To download the November 2017 PYMNTS OmniReadi Index, a Vantiv collaboration, please click below.

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.