Omnichannel: The Future of Retailing for the Alcohol Retail

[Source: Unsplash]

Not so long ago, shopping was a simple, linear task. You would go to the store, buy what you need, pay at a register, and walk away. 

Today, the customer journey looks very different. It is multi-dimensional, interconnected, and driven by new digital technologies.

Modern buyers are in control, and their path is unpredictable. Before they reach their final purchasing decision, they will be in constant back-and-forth motion between social media, ads, blogs, search engines, etc.

Alcohol retail businesses, like any other business, needs to adapt to these new trends and support its consumers across all channels in their decision-making journey. This is where the omnichannel marketing strategy comes in place. 

Let's get into more details.

What is an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?

An omnichannel strategy is a sales and marketing method that aims to develop a seamless customer experience across all the channels – online and offline. This consumer-centric approach creates a consistent brand experience for every stage of the customer journey.

Does Your Alcohol Retail Business Need an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?

The Covid-19 pandemic forced alcohol retail businesses to find new ways to reach their customers. This is why alcohol eCommerce value increased more than 43% in 2020 and is expected to increase even more in the following couple of years.

In the meantime, online business models for alcohol retail are becoming more diverse as consumers are progressively crossing between channels to find the best way to purchase the desired beverage.  

So, does your alcohol retail business need an omnichannel strategy? If you want to follow your customers wherever they go, the answer is yes, it does.

How to Implement an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Into Your Alcohol Retail Business

The following four steps will help you understand what you need to do to implement an omnichannel marketing strategy in your alcohol retail business:

1. Create a connection between your online and physical presence

Before you begin with an omnichannel strategy, identify what channels your customers use the most – website, mobile app, social media, webshop, physical stores, etc. and build your online and offline presence accordingly.

Make sure your content, such as beverage descriptions and prices, is the same on every channel. For instance, if you offer a 30% discount in your physical store, you should offer the same discount on every channel. You can sign up for an SEO audit service to determine this.

2. Create a seamless user experience

Enforce consistent brand experiences, such as style, visuals, messaging, and fonts, to deliver the same quality for your customers across all channels and make your brand or a store easily recognizable.

3. Include omnichannel contact center services

An omnichannel contact center includes customer communication across multiple channels. Most businesses have call centers, but omnichannel contact centers provide more personalized customer support, including:

• Incoming and outgoing voice calls

• Integration with customer relationship management (CRM)

• Analytics for customer engagement

• Email correspondence

• Webchat

• Social media

4. Share data across all channels

Collecting data in one place from both physical and online channels is crucial for analyzing your customers' journey. This should provide you with insights that will help you know your consumers better, understand their behavior and deliver a more tailored, personalized user experience.

You can find valuable data visualization tools for the alcohol industry to help you organize information and pinpoint main alcohol trends. Also, with the help of an experienced Data Ops engineer, you can employ a systematic approach to understanding and managing data and related operations. You’ll be able to blend all your unstructured data against essential operations, as well as manage overall analysis time.

If you are an alcohol retailer in the US, make sure you align your business with the open or closed state's laws.

What are the Benefits of Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

Omnichannel marketing comes with many benefits, including:

• More accurate data analytics – tracking the behavior of your consumers across all channels will help you gain more precise insight into the customer journey and understand their intents and needs better.

• Improved brand visibility – omnichannel marketing allows you to share your brand message across all channels in a consistent way. Seamless experience creates more opportunities for your consumers to interact with your alcohol retail business in whichever way they prefer.

• Sale boost – with an omnichannel marketing strategy, you will encourage your customers to make repeat purchases. Studies have shown that the purchase rate of companies that use three or more channels is 287% higher than those that use only one channel.

Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Success Stories

Drizly

Drizly is a company that offers alcohol delivery services for more than 100 cities across USA and Canada. Their consumers can use various channels to buy a wide range of products and have them delivered to their doorstep. 

Drizly's senior vice president, Michel Di Loremo stated: "Now, we can instantly personalize the shopping experience for each consumer, no matter which screen they are shopping from, and no matter if they are a long-time or first-time shopper."

Drizly also uses the latest engineering innovation by BlueConic to help them gather valuable customer data across all channels and create more personal bonds with their buyers. 

Starbucks

One of the companies that managed to implement an omnichannel strategy successfully is Starbucks. This company's omnichannel strategy included creating incentives, forcing channel adoption, and rewarding loyal customers with unique offers.

For instance, Starbucks offers a free drink to the customers who sign up for their loyalty program. This gives them access to their customers' emails and phone numbers where they can continue to engage with them.

As a result, Starbucks company experienced increased customer loyalty and retention and is now recognized as the leader in omnichannel marketing.

What is the Future of Omnichannel in Alcohol Retail?

An omnichannel marketing strategy will democratize alcohol retail businesses and provide customers with more control over their shopping experience. 

One of the challenges omnichannel marketing will face in the future is keeping up with customers' constant behavioral changes. The business will have to adapt to the customers' need for finding new ways of shopping that will save them time and money.   

FAQ

What is the omnichannel trend?

An omnichannel trend refers to the multichannel approach to sales and marketing, where businesses provide a seamless experience to their customers across all channels – physical store, social media, website, etc. It’s where your process of website development, social media presence, and physical marketing should meet.

Why is omnichannel important?

An omnichannel marketing strategy is important because businesses need to reach their customers wherever they are, and today's modern consumers are everywhere.

About 47% of digital shoppers conducted their shopping journey moving from one channel to another. At the same time, 90% of customers expect a consistent user experience across all channels.

How effective is omnichannel marketing? 

Companies with an omnichannel strategy have an average of 89% retention rate compared to the 33% for companies with a weak omnichannel strategy.

Omnichannel customers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who only use one channel to shop.

What are the benefits of omnichannel marketing?

An omnichannel marketing strategy improves customer lifetime value, reaches more people, increases overall business efficiency, boosts sales, and enhances customer retention rates.

Is Starbucks an omnichannel?

The Starbucks company is regarded as one of the pioneers in omnichannel marketing strategies. They offer an engaging mobile retail experience, tactful SMS, and various incentives for rewarding their loyal customers.

What is the future of omnichannel?

The future omnichannel marketing strategies will be consumer-centric, provide a seamless customer experience, and help physical stores adapt to digital growth.