What Is Omnichannel Retail? How Shockoe Helps Create Unified Shopping Experiences

Shoppers do not think in channels. They look something up on a phone, check a store’s stock, and pick it up on the way home. The brands that handle this well make every touchpoint recognize the customer. In a Harvard Business Review study of just over 46,000 customers of a major U.S. retailer with hundreds of stores, only 7% shopped online only and 20% shopped in store only. The other 73% used multiple channels during their shopping journey.

What is omnichannel retail?

Omnichannel retail connects every shopping channel (stores, websites, mobile apps, social media, and customer service) into one customer experience. Unlike multichannel retail, which offers several disconnected ways to shop, omnichannel treats the journey as one, no matter where the customer interacts with the brand.

A connected experience lets customers:

• Start research in a mobile app and finish the purchase in store
• Buy online and pick up in store
• Return online purchases at a physical location
• See consistent pricing and promotions in every channel
• See inventory across locations
• Keep a cart across devices
• Get the same level of service in every channel

In our view, this is now what shoppers expect, and friction between channels is where a retailer loses them.

How is omnichannel different from multichannel retail?

Multichannel retail offers several ways to shop, but the channels usually run on their own inventories, pricing, and customer databases. A store might run one promotion while the website runs another. A customer might see an item in stock online and find it sold out at the store.

Omnichannel connects those channels around the customer’s journey. These are general tendencies, not rules:

	Multichannel	Omnichannel
Channels	Run independently	Connected around the customer
Inventory and pricing	Often separate	Shared across channels
Customer data	Often separate	One profile across channels
Teams and goals	Each channel has its own	Shared goals across channels

The difference reaches past the technology. It affects how teams are organized and how customer data is managed.

What are the benefits of an omnichannel strategy?

Does omnichannel improve the customer experience?

It can remove the friction between channels. In Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” research (sixth edition), a survey of 14,300 consumers and business buyers worldwide, 79% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 55% say it generally feels like they are dealing with separate departments rather than one company.

In practice, that means customers do not repeat themselves when they switch channels, and they get consistent answers from whoever they talk to. We wrote about where that friction shows up in grocery in how to save the in-store experience.

Does omnichannel increase sales and loyalty?

The best evidence we found is the Harvard Business Review study. After the authors controlled for shopping experience, omnichannel customers spent an average of 4% more on every shopping occasion in the store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. Customers who used four or more channels spent 9% more in the store. Within six months, omnichannel customers made 23% more repeat trips to the retailer’s stores and were more likely to recommend the brand.

The authors are careful about cause: it remains an open question whether richer experiences led customers to spend and return more, or whether loyal, engaged customers simply use more channels. It is one retailer’s data, so treat it as a strong signal, not a guarantee.

What does a successful omnichannel retail model need?

How do you integrate every touchpoint?

Integration depends on backend systems that share customer data, purchase history, and preferences. Retailers often start with a mobile app that connects the in-store and online experience. We cover how mobile rewired grocery retail separately.

Why does unified inventory matter?

Real-time inventory visibility is the backbone of omnichannel. With Target’s app, shoppers can check an item’s availability at their store, and on Target.com a check other stores feature shows availability at other specific stores.

Why does consistent branding matter?

When visuals, tone of voice, and offers stay the same across channels, the experience feels intentional. In our view, that consistency is as much a design decision as a technical one.

What does omnichannel look like in practice?

How does Nike connect its app to its stores?

The Nike App’s in-store features for members include scanning any product barcode to see available sizes and colors in store and online, “hearting” a favorite style so Nike can help the member find it in store, and using the Member Pass at checkout to link a purchase to their profile. Members can also buy online and pick up at a Nike store.

What did we build for Hy-Vee?

At one of its innovation stores, Hy-Vee worked with us on an in-store kiosk for finding products. Shoppers search for a product, see pricing and nutrition information and the aisle it is on, use a store map to get there, and browse the weekly ad. Because the kiosk runs on a public device, we measured usage in sessions and successful searches, and an in-app survey asked shoppers how the kiosk helped. The kiosk has logged 2,100 sessions per week and answered more than 8,400 questions a month. You can see more in our work.

What did we build for Lucyd?

We built a virtual try-on kiosk for Lucyd’s smart eyewear. Shoppers see how the frames and lens tints look on them before buying, and an FAQ answers common questions. The kiosk also records which frames and tints people try and how long they spend with it.

What did we build for Anderson’s Masonry Hearth & Home?

For Anderson’s Masonry Hearth & Home, we built an augmented reality fireplace visualizer that lets customers and sales representatives see the actual size of a fireplace in the room where it will be used. Our case study describes it as a proof of concept for Anderson’s team to begin rolling out and testing with customers.

What challenges do retailers face with omnichannel?

Why do legacy systems get in the way?

In our experience, many retailers struggle because their online and in-store systems do not share data. The result is inventory mismatches, disconnected customer interactions, and extra manual work. The fix is to connect digital and physical touchpoints so each one sees the same information.

How does organizational structure affect omnichannel?

McKinsey’s report on omnichannel operations says that as a first step, companies need a cross-channel omnichannel team, and that without one it is very difficult to break down siloed thinking and operations. If in-store and online teams have separate goals, the customer feels it.

What is next for omnichannel retail?

In our view, two areas are worth watching: personalization that adapts to a shopper’s behavior in the moment, and immersive tools that help customers picture a product in their own life. Our Anderson’s and Lucyd projects are early examples of the second, because they give an online or in-store shopper confidence before they buy.

We have built apps and kiosks for retail and grocery brands for more than a decade. At Shockoe, we design connected experiences that work with the systems a retailer already has. Our services page explains how we work with retail and grocery teams.

Planning a connected shopping experience? Talk to us.