Customers believe they are engaging with one unified brand or organization, regardless of the device or touchpoints that they use. Retailers must ensure the continuity of information and resources across digital and store touchpoints — or risk losing customers to competitors that do.

A truly omnichannel operation that spans the customer lifecycle will optimize revenue, deliver capital efficiencies such as cost savings, spawn operational efficiencies, and improve the customer experience overall. Leading retailers are building the supporting technology, skills, processes, and organizational structures to develop these capabilities, even if this journey is complex and requires heavy investment.

Forrester has updated the landscape report within the omnichannel commerce playbook for 2020.

Key takeaways include:

  • Retailers are moving beyond omnichannel fulfillment. Retailers are extending omnichannel capabilities beyond fulfillment to in-store digital technology, marketing, merchandising, and customer service.
  • Customers engage with organizations, not channels. Digital business executives need to enhance their omnichannel capabilities to attract and retain valuable omnichannel customers. Today’s customers expect a consistent and connected experience across shopping touchpoints — but those expectations still exceed retailers’ current capabilities.
  • Invest in core capabilities to execute omnichannel services. To drive digital customer experience and operational improvements that foster omnichannel capabilities, retailers first must enhance core back-end systems. Many retail organizations are implementing enterprise inventory and order management systems, developing a single enterprise view of the customer and breaking down internal operational silos.