Omnichannel Strategy Evaluation

I've been thinking about what DTC brands get wrong about omnichannel expansion recently. The temptation is to try to be everywhere at once. But the real winners are strategically aligning each channel to build a holistic growth engine. Here’s how to do it right → First, you must have channel-specific thinking. Every channel needs its own playbook. A helpful framework to structure your efforts... DTC Website: • Focus on basket building • Higher AOV targets • Full-price strategy • Data collection hub • Customer relationship building TikTok Shop: • Single-product purchase reality • Organic content engine • Lower AOV expectations • Limited data access • Treat as a retail channel Amazon: • Multi-pack strategy • Bundle economics • Marketplace presence • Competitive monitoring • Specialized management Next up, the Integration Challenge → The biggest mistake brands make is trying to force the same strategy across all channels. Example: One brand we spoke with increased shipping costs on TikTok Shop to push customers to their website. Instead of fighting the platform's natural behavior, they should have optimized for it. You must also consider your unit economics because each channel has its own cost profile. - TikTok Shop might be a loss leader but drive retail success. - Website sales might have better margins but higher customer acquisition costs. - Amazon might have lower margins but better operational efficiency. Here is the new omnichannel playbook: 1. Channel Optimization - Build channel-specific content - Adjust pricing strategies per platform - Create platform-specific bundles - Set realistic KPIs for each channel 2. Data Strategy - Accept data limitations on newer platforms - Focus on first-party data where possible - Build cross-channel customer profiles - Use creative solutions for retention 3. Team Structure - Specialized expertise per channel - Clear ownership of metrics - Flexibility to shift resources - Mix of in-house and agency support The brands that will win aren't the ones just running around trying to be everywhere - they're the ones being intentional about how they show up in each place. Success also isn't about ideal profit extraction across all channels. It's about understanding each channel's role in your broader ecosystem and optimizing accordingly. Key Takeaway: Don't try to make every channel work the same way. Start building channel-specific strategies that work together to drive overall growth. 

From my last 10 years of building an omnichannel brand with significant offline presence, one of my biggest learning is that irrespective of whether you are a founder building a consumer brand or an investor evaluating a consumer brand, the one metric to obsess about while looking at the health of the offline business is “retailer repeats” Doing primary sales by appointing distributor is the easiest thing to do. Doing secondary sales by placing the product in retail counters is a bit tougher than primary, but still fairly straightforward But what is really difficult and really bares whether you have PPCMF( Product Price Channel Market Fit) is repeat and regular sales from the same counters where you have placed your product If you are not able to get repeat sales month on month from the same counters, it means either of the 2 things: a) You have placed your products in wrong counters ( Eg: If I sell premium fans and place products in counters which sell only economy fans, it is bound to fail). This often happens when sales team is incentivized on reach( number of counters you place the product) and they take shortcuts to achieve the reach target b) The product at this price point with current awareness levels is very difficult to sell from this channel So, track M1 repeats( repeat billing in next 1 month) and M3 repeats( repeat billing in next 3 months) obsessively. Unless you are in a very seasonal/slow moving category, M1 repeats should be 50% at least. M3 repeats should be 80% plus For investors investing in Series A/B stage in omnichannel brands who just went offline , start looking at quality of revenue. Because offline market in India is so deep, brands can get away just by doing primary and placement secondary sales for 9-12 months. And without repeats it will come crashing down at some point. And if investors valuing these brands on a revenue multiple will find themselves in a tough spot And in case you don’t have access to system secondary sales data, look at hard metrics like collections and geography split of sales. If the accounts receivables also keep on increasing with revenue, it is a sign of channel stock increasing. If the brand has to keep opening new markets and expanding to new geographies to get sales, it is a sign of no PPCMF The best brands will have high repeats, continuously increasing throughput from existing retailers and will not be spreading themselves too thin from a geography point of view in the early stages of offline expansion

Is «classic» retail becoming a showroom for global #Marketplaces? The ultimate weapon to overcome is in their hands! Marketplaces like #Amazon, #Allegro & #Bol are an existential threat to «classic» O+O #retail. Today, the pushback are defensive strategies. O+O is trying to beat suppliers into submission threatening to de-invest brands that grow strong in pure online channels. Can this really be a winning strategy? Definitely not! Traditional retailers undervalue & underutilize their unique advantage - offline presence. By combining it with a strong #Omnichannel strategy and #retailmedia capabilities, retailers can redefine the competitive landscape, offering unparalleled services to shoppers and suppliers alike. According to the latest IAB Europe report: ▪️Retail media is projected to represent 15.1% of global ad revenue in 2024, up from just 1.5% a decade ago. ▪️In Europe, ad spending on retail media is growing four times faster than the total ad market, with investments forecasted to hit €31B by 2028. Omnichannel strategies integrate online, offline, and loyalty data, enabling retailers to deliver a 360° shopper view and measure campaign impact with closed-loop attribution. Combine it with brands #media consumption data via clean room solutions - you have the ultimate shopper activation toolkit unbeatable by online pure players. Omnichannel Retail Media Can Deliver ▪️Enhanced Customer Experience Shoppers demand seamless journeys. Omnichannel retail media integrates physical stores with digital platforms, allowing for smooth transitions from online research to in-store pickups. Or home delivery after a physical trial in-store. ▪️Maximized Supplier Value Retailers’ loyalty programs provide first-party data that supports precise targeting. This helps suppliers deliver tailored media & promotions and measure success with real-time attribution. ▪️Exceptional Shopper Convenience Combining offline trust with online ease, extended assortment, click-and-collect, same-day delivery, and in-store returns enhances customer satisfaction. ▪️Effective, high-margin investments Retailers can offer suppliers highly targeted ad slots—where purchase intent is highest. This strategy is already fueling the growth of retail media networks like Walmart Connect, which saw a 30% YoY growth in ad revenue. And don’t forget - this revenue is virtually pure margin! Online capabilities & transparency remain a barrier in Europe: ▪️Only a fraction of Brand Account teams are highly proficient in the online toolkit ▪️Low focus on online growth within O+O teams ▪️Retail prioritizes monetizing data vs retail media revenue ▪️Low investment of retail in online infrastructure ▪️Parnerships in silos: retail vs brand instead of working together True #Parnerships of O+O Retail and Global Brands in building a strong and collaborative Omni channel strategy TOGETHER is the absolute key to surviving the marketplace tsunami. 2025 is the time to start!

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗢𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 Excited to share our latest piece in Harvard Business Review - the managerial implications of our research (w/ Pedro Amorim & Fredrik Eng Larsson) on a topic that affects nearly every omnichannel retailer: fulfillment failures in online retail. More than a century ago, Au Bon Marché (arguably the world's first department store) was already using horse-drawn carriages to deliver catalog orders picked from its store. Fast forward to today: retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have brought this ship-from-store model into the digital age. It’s a core component of omnichannel strategy, offering fast, local fulfillment at scale. But there’s a problem: Online orders are often accepted based on forecasted - not real-time - in-store inventory. At the time of picking, items may be unavailable. To avoid losing sales, many retailers substitute missing items with “similar” alternatives. This may seem like a customer-friendly gesture, but is it? Our research, recently published in the Journal of Retailing, suggests otherwise. Using transactional data from a leading European grocery retailer, we examined how customers respond to fulfillment failures, and how retailer mitigation strategies affect these responses. 🔍 Key findings: • When an item is missing and reimbursed, customers delay their next order and spend less - about 24 hours longer and €1 less. • When the retailer substitutes all missing items, the delay nearly doubles, and the spending drop persists. • The negative effect is stronger for promoted and non-perishable items—products customers are more emotionally and economically invested in. • Substitutions intended to “save the sale” often amplify dissatisfaction when mismatched or unexpected. • Over time, the cost of these failures (and poorly handled mitigations) leads to a expected revenue loss exceeding 12%; slight over half of that due to a direct loss in revenues, the remainder due to adverse customer behavior. 💡 Our takeaway for retailers: Don’t treat all stockouts, or customers, the same. We advocate for a selective prevention and smart substitution approach: → Prevent failures where they hurt most (e.g., promoted and non-perishables). → Use advanced analytics to personalize substitutions based on past purchases, preferences, dietary constraints, promotion switching. → Learn from rejected substitutions to improve future matches. ⚠️ Fulfillment decisions made today have long-term consequences. Even minor frictions in online fulfillment can quietly erode customer trust and loyalty. Integrated systems, real-time inventory, and customer-centric policies are no longer optional, they are strategic imperatives. 🔗 Links to both the HBR article and the original Journal of Retailing research in the comments. #RobertOnRetail #Omnichannel #Fulfillment #ShipFromStore #CustomerExperience #RetailAnalytics  

🔍 Understanding Omnichannel Strategy: An omnichannel strategy is an approach to marketing and sales that aims to provide customers with a seamless experience across various channels and touchpoints—be it websites, mobile apps, social media, physical stores, or customer service. The idea is to meet customers wherever they are and ensure consistent interaction with the brand, regardless of the channel they prefer. 💡 The Reality Check: a) Aspirational? Absolutely. Achievable? Not always. Few companies have the scale, resources, and skills to truly nail omnichannel. b) The landscape is ever-changing, with regional differences, evolving social media platforms, and shifting consumer habits. Being everywhere at once? A Herculean task. Doing it consistently? A chimera! c) Many claim omnichannel status, but often it's just a fancy way of saying they're not operating in silos and encouraging cross-channel collaboration. That’s all great, but true omnichannel requires deeper integration, which can be costly and demanding. d) Today's customer journey isn't just physical and digital—it's also virtual. Navigating this three-dimensional journey adds another layer of complexity to seamless integration. e) Channel proliferation means an attribution nightmare, especially for those companies that are not vertically integrated. If the store is now owned by the company, would it incentivise a customer to purchase online? 💥 The Optichannel Alternative: Instead of chasing the omnichannel unicorn, let's embrace optichannel. This strategy focuses on optimising the most relevant channels for a brand's target audience, rather than trying to be everywhere. It involves identifying key channels that drive value and engagement and allocating resources accordingly. The goal is to prioritise channels that effectively deliver the brand's value proposition and meet customer needs. 📢 Join the Conversation: Do you agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts and let's dive deeper into the omnichannel debate. -gs

Omnichannel Marketing: Reaching Customers Where They Are Introduction & Overview Omnichannel marketing is crucial in today's landscape, focusing on a seamless, integrated experience across various channels. Unlike multichannel marketing, which operates independently, omnichannel meets consumers where they are, offering a smooth, personalized journey. This approach enhances customer satisfaction, boosts conversion rates, and strengthens brand loyalty, driving growth. Key Concepts -Cross-Channel Integration: Ensures consistent messaging and experience across all channels. -Customer-Centric Approach: Focuses on understanding customer needs to create personalized experiences. -Personalization: Tailors messages based on user behavior, enhancing relevance. -Data-Driven Insights: Uses analytics to optimize channels based on customer behavior. Challenges Omnichannel marketing faces challenges like integrating diverse platforms for a seamless experience, managing and securing customer data from multiple sources, and balancing personalization with privacy concerns. Additionally, coordinating offline and online efforts to ensure consistent branding requires effective team collaboration. Strategies & Solutions Enhance your omnichannel marketing by creating detailed customer profiles, maintaining consistent branding, and using marketing automation for timely communication. Optimize the mobile experience, engage customers through social media, connect online and offline interactions, and continuously analyze data to refine your strategies. Benefits & Insights Omnichannel marketing enhances customer experience and engagement, increases retention and conversion rates, and provides valuable insights through integrated data collection. This approach builds a competitive edge by offering a seamless, personalized journey that meets customer needs across channels, fostering loyalty and driving sales. Conclusion Omnichannel marketing helps brands deliver a consistent, personalized experience by integrating online and offline channels, using data to enhance customer journeys. Though it requires initial investment, the approach strengthens customer relationships, boosts engagement, and drives sales growth. Next Steps Start with an audit of your marketing channels for consistency, then develop a strategy for gathering and using customer data while maintaining privacy. Invest in cross-channel marketing automation, explore online-offline integrations, and use data analysis to continuously refine your omnichannel strategy. #omnichannelmarketing #customerengagement #digitaltransformation #reachyourcustomers #marketingstrategy

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑼𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑬-𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 Below is an illustration of how MER helps in tracking the omnichannel media strategy for an FMCG brand at 120cr ARR we handle at Hovers, it will give you a hidden insight into how big brands scale MER doesn’t get bogged down in platform attribution. It simply looks at the overall revenue generated by the campaigns. It compares it to the total spend, evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing strategy as a whole rather than just individual campaigns. So if all the Meta, Google, YouTube, DV360, Amazon, etc ad campaigns contributed to the final sale, neither gets individual credit. Still, instead, the credit goes to the omnichannel strategy at play. It acknowledges the synergies and interdependencies among various marketing channels, giving credit to the omnichannel strategy. For example, if a customer was influenced by your Meta and Google campaigns before purchasing on Amazon, neither platform gets individual credit; instead, the credit is attributed to the combined efforts of the omnichannel strategy. How do you then assess the performance of individual platforms? There are specific tactics for this. The key is ensuring all channels have visibility on one another and, most notably, that your tests and budget changes are structured and timed strategically rather than made ad hoc. Integrating your data sources and establishing precise tracking mechanisms to capture the interactions and touchpoints across different platforms is vital. By having a comprehensive view of your customer’s journey, you can understand the overall impact of each platform within the context of your omnichannel strategy. So, setting platform-specific KPIs based on historical performance and future objectives remains crucial, especially from a media buying perspective. These KPIs serve as benchmarks for evaluating the performance of individual platforms and campaigns. However, it’s essential to approach these metrics strategically and avoid making ad hoc changes to budgets or strategies. By strategically structuring and timing your tests and budget adjustments, you can ensure that the insights derived from platform-specific KPIs align with the broader objectives of your marketing strategy and contribute to optimising your overall MER. Setting platform-specific KPIs based on historical performance and future objectives is still recommended, as these KPIs guide media buying decisions with MER. The image illustrates the tracking of Multiple Event Revenue (MER) in an omnichannel marketing campaign, showing the contribution of various ad channels to revenue generated from different sources. #omnichannelmarketing #marketingautomation #marketinganalytics #digitalmarketing #mer #multipleeventrevenue #datadrivenmarketing #marketingstrategy #campaignperformance #roi #roas

Omnichannel isn’t just “online vs. in-store.” That’s an outdated way of thinking. The real question isn’t where the transaction happens, it’s how and why the customer buys. - Did they buy online for delivery? - Did they pick it up in-store? - Did they order through a third-party service? - Did they abandon and return to their cart? These details matter because retail is no longer confined to a single model. Grocery stores now sell ready-to-eat meals to compete with restaurants. Convenience stores are doubling down on pizza and fresh food to go after QSRs. Every channel is blending into the next. So, how do you know if you’re getting omnichannel right (beyond growth)? Focus on retention and look for repeat behavior: - Customers using multiple channels over time - Repeat purchases influenced by digital touchpoints (e.g., app reminders, personalized offers). - Shoppers engaging with loyalty programs - Consistent cart activity across platforms - Increased frequency of purchases due to convenience (e.g., using subscription services, - app-based reorders). One-time purchases may give you a sales spike, but if customers don’t come back, you probably just got lucky. Note: I’ll share more about our expanded Omnishopper panel in the comments below. Better yet, reach out to Jim Presley and they’ll be able to help you further.

The secret to omnichannel retail success: Every touchpoint, from online to in-store, must be connected, and technology is the key. After working across multiple digital retail initiatives, we’re seeing a pattern. The teams that scale fastest aren’t just using the latest tools; they’re the ones who have clear, structured processes connecting channels and data. Here’s what makes the difference: Inventory visibility – Customers expect accuracy across channels. Are your stock levels synced between online and offline? Seamless fulfillment – The fastest deliveries come from orchestrated processes, not ad-hoc fixes. Are your fulfillment systems integrated across regions? Personalization at scale – Recommendations matter when they’re consistent across apps, web, and stores. Are customer interactions unified? Loyalty programs that work – Rewards only matter if they’re integrated with every touchpoint. Can your systems track engagement across channels? Retail media integration – Monetizing digital experiences requires connected platforms. Are your marketing and commerce systems speaking the same language? Teams with structured processes and integrated systems deliver faster, smarter, and more reliable experiences. Teams without them struggle to scale. How are you connecting your channels to create a seamless experience for customers? #DigitalTransformation #OmnichannelRetail #RetailTech #CustomerExperience