What is Omnichannel eCommerce?
Omnichannel ecommerce refers to an eCommerce strategy that holistically integrates a business’ consumer touchpoints for a more seamless, convenient, and frictionless customer experience.
Common omnichannel ecommerce experiences include:
- Buy online and pickup in store
- Buy online and return in store
- Reward apps that connect customer accounts between mobile devices and websites
- Curbside pick up In-store mobile self-checkout
Why Should Businesses Leverage an Omnichannel eCommerce Strategy?
The advent of the smartphone and expansion of IoT has digitized and convoluted the customer journey. Businesses looking to keep up with competition and scale their business will need to navigate new dynamic behaviors and trends to meet customers at their level.
Consumers crave convenience, easy access to product information, and prefer personalized shopping experiences; And in our modern digital age, expect them. An omnichannel eCommerce strategy empowers companies to deliver on these demands by enabling customers to carry their experiences across touchpoints and shop according to their timeline, needs, and preferences.
Benefits of Omnichannel eCommerce
Elastic Path recognized by Gartner as a Visionary in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce.
Multichannel vs. Omnichannel eCommerce
Many businesses today operate with a multichannel approach, a strategy that leverages a myriad of sales and marketing channels, such as web, mobile, & in-store. The key difference between a multichannel and an omnichannel strategy is that the channels in an omnichannel approach are interconnected and synchronized. Multichannel ecommerce strategies focus on building, maintaining, and optimizing each channel in silos.
Simplify Your Omnichannel Strategy With Elastic Path Commerce Cloud
Connecting with your target audience at their convenience is the key to success. Keep up with your customers by quickly and easily building unique B2C, B2B2C, or B2B ecommerce experiences on any digital touchpoint.
Expand your reach and scale your omnichannel business by easily transforming any customer touchpoint into a revenue generating channel. Our ShopKit shopping cart plugin allows you to commerce-enable any digital interface with just a few lines of code, meaning you can engage customers wherever they are, including:
- Websites
- Mobile device
- In-store
- Chatbots
- IoT
- Voice search
No need to manage multiple catalogs separately for each of your channels. Product Content Management centralizes and decouples your product data from price books, hierarchies, and catalogs. Then Catalog composer leverages the decoupled architecture of Product Content Management to empower compose and manage multiple catalogs across all routes-to-market.
This flexibility enables you to seamlessly manage your product information from one location, create unlimited catalogs for any touchpoint, geography, or business model, and seamlessly cater pricing or discounts to your customer’s preferences.
Learn more about Catalog Composer
Crafting a successful omnichannel business doesn’t have to be time consuming or risky. Our modular architecture will enable your team, regardless of technical expertise, to compose omnichannel experiences based on your requirements.
Brands can leverage business-ready Pre-Composed Solutions, like our solutions for D2C Commerce, which pre-integrate 3rd party tools like search, with Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, so you can get up and running quickly.
Integrating your channels means customer data will not only be centralized, but exposed to new risks as well. Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is the only headless omnichannel solution in the market today that is officially SOC2 compliant.
You can also provision or restrict data on an individual employee basis, contingent on their roles and responsibilities, with our Role-Based Access Control feature. You’ll feel confidently secure against data breaches and any internal mishaps.
Expand your reach and scale your omnichannel business by easily transforming any customer touchpoint into a revenue generating channel. Our ShopKit shopping cart plugin allows you to commerce-enable any digital interface with just a few lines of code, meaning you can engage customers wherever they are, including:
- Websites
- Mobile device
- In-store
- Chatbots
- IoT
- Voice search
No need to manage multiple catalogs separately for each of your channels. Product Content Management centralizes and decouples your product data from price books, hierarchies, and catalogs. Then Catalog composer leverages the decoupled architecture of Product Content Management to empower compose and manage multiple catalogs across all routes-to-market.
This flexibility enables you to seamlessly manage your product information from one location, create unlimited catalogs for any touchpoint, geography, or business model, and seamlessly cater pricing or discounts to your customer’s preferences.
Learn more about Catalog ComposerCrafting a successful omnichannel business doesn’t have to be time consuming or risky. Our modular architecture will enable your team, regardless of technical expertise, to compose omnichannel experiences based on your requirements.
Brands can leverage business-ready Pre-Composed Solutions, like our solutions for D2C Commerce, which pre-integrate 3rd party tools like search, with Elastic Path Commerce Cloud, so you can get up and running quickly.
Integrating your channels means customer data will not only be centralized, but exposed to new risks as well. Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is the only headless omnichannel solution in the market today that is officially SOC2 compliant.
You can also provision or restrict data on an individual employee basis, contingent on their roles and responsibilities, with our Role-Based Access Control feature. You’ll feel confidently secure against data breaches and any internal mishaps.
Demo Library: Explore Elastic Path, No Call Needed
Want to see more of Elastic Path in action? Check out our collection of 2 minute to 30 minute product and solutions demos, and discover more of our features and functionality on your own.
Quick Omnichaannel eCommerce FAQ
Additional Omnichannel Resources to Augment Your ECommerce Strategy
The customer journey is dynamic and buying behaviors are constantly changing, so it’s vital for businesses today to focus on meeting consumer demands. An omnichannel approach to commerce will empower brands to meet customers at their level. Check out our comprehensive guide to omnichannel ecommerce to learn how.
You’ll discover:
- The Three Cornerstones of an Omnichannel Strategy
- The benefits and challenges of an omnichannel approach
- How headless commerce will simplify omnichannel logistics
- What the future will look like for an omnichannel business
The B2B purchasing process has undergone rapid digitization with buyers today looking to engage and complete transactions as they would with any other retail experience. This presents a huge opportunity for B2B businesses looking to keep up and meet customer demands. Check out this webinar on creating an omnichannel B2B experience and discover:
- How headless commerce can make any touchpoint transactional
- Ways to stay in front of the customer while empowering your traditional sales and distribution channels
- A design methodology you can use to create innovative omnichannel ecommerce experiences for your B2B business
- How to leverage your customer data to make the purchasing process easier and more convenient
Feeling overwhelmed and unsure if building an omnichannel strategy is the right move for your business? Check out this list of omnichannel examples from well-known brands to see how they’re leveraging the approach to commerce. You’ll read about brands like:
- Disney
- Dunkin Donuts
- Starbucks
- Bank of America
- And more!
Ready to Connect with Your Customers?
Discover how to propel your omnichannel strategy with Elastic Path Commerce Cloud today. Easily make any customer touchpoint a revenue generating channel and give your consumers the seamless, frictionless, convenient shopping experiences they demand.