Give customers the best omnichannel experience with an integration platform

Consumers are ordering more and more online, but they also continue to need physical stores. They expect an optimal experience through multiple channels: whether that is on social media, via e-mail or in the webshop. Retail companies are therefore focusing more on customer experience, omnichannel, personalization and innovation. They will have to work data-driven to streamline business processes and perform better. To make this possible, applications must be linked and integrated. After all, information is rarely stored in one system. In this blog you will read how an integration platform can make a difference for retail companies.

Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for ways to make the difference in the battle for the customer. This customer has increasingly higher expectations, partly due to the lightning-fast delivery times of online players such as Coolblue, Amazon and Bol.com. In addition, more and more webshops are being added, and the call for transparency is getting louder. Customers want to know where products come from and whether they have been produced and transported in a responsible manner.

An important trend is 'omnichannel', which allows you to offer a pleasant buying experience through various channels. On average, there are five to seven channels that a customer comes into contact with before making a purchase. This can be a store, webshop or social media message, but also a blog, newsletter or folder. Omnichannel revolves around a connection between the physical store and webshop. For example, an online purchase must be exchangeable or collectible in the store. Online, the customer must be supported with instructional videos, or receive a notification when a temporarily sold out product is back in stock. Optimal service ensures an optimal customer experience, and with it loyalty and growth.

Bring data together for a successful omnichannel experience

To successfully implement the omnichannel experience, it is important that promises are kept. You must not disappoint customers and must ensure that stock management and logistics processes are in order. To achieve this, it is important to keep the ERP and CRM system up to date. After all, customer and order data are rarely located in one system, but are stored in different places.

Bringing this data together provides many benefits:

• Personal data, preferences and search behavior can be seen at a glance, making personalization more possible;
• By analyzing collected data, trends become visible, enabling data-based decisions;
• Based on forecasts, logistics and administrative processes can be optimized, and customer needs can be responded to faster and better.

That may sound futuristic, but it isn't. With the right integration platform, you can easily deliver an omnichannel experience. Such a platform makes it possible to allow different applications to communicate with each other and to bring data together. This provides you with a complete customer view. An integration platform is a future-proof solution to optimize processes.

As a result, you can respond faster to change, bind customers and perform better on a structural basis. In order to do that smartly, it is important to ask yourself what exactly it is that you want to achieve. Once you know that, you can explore how to achieve it. An integration platform is an important foundation for this.

Want to learn more about implementing an integration platform for a successful omnichannel experience? Read our e-book 'The right digital foundation: prerequisite for omnichannel success'. Or contact us today!