Retail digital business executives must challenge the status quo and deliver omnichannel excellence across the customer lifecycle. Changing consumer behaviours, new technology, and an evolving competitive landscape mean that traditional organizational structures, processes, and channel-centric measures are no longer fit for purpose. A truly omnichannel operation that spans the customer life cycle will optimize revenue, deliver capital efficiencies like cost savings, spawn operational efficiencies, and improve the customer experience overall.

Forrester has updated the landscape report within the omnichannel commerce playbook for 2018. Key takeaways include:

Retailers Are Moving Beyond Omnichannel Fulfilment. Retailers are now extending omnichannel capabilities beyond fulfilment to in-store digital technology, marketing, merchandising, and customer service.

Customers Engage With A Unified Organization, 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.