Get more revenue from your omnichannel operation

With well-organized omnichannel commerce, you can generate more revenue from the customers, stores and inventory you already have.

How much revenue are you missing because a product shows as out of stock online while it is still available in a store? Or because a customer cannot find their size in one store, even though it is available at another location? And how many customers drop out because they cannot buy, collect or return a product in the way that suits them best?

Now imagine a situation where it hardly matters to the customer where a product is physically located. Store inventory is visible and available for sale online, an employee can order a missing size from another location, and an online order can be fulfilled from the inventory location where the product is available.

Stores, inventory, online sales and fulfilment no longer operate as separate parts of the business, but as one commerce operation. This creates more opportunities to turn missed sales into revenue.

Make more of your inventory available for sale

A product can still be widely available within your organization while remaining inaccessible to a customer. For example, your webshop may only show inventory from the central warehouse, while the same product is still available in several stores.

In a well-organized omnichannel operation, the location of that inventory matters much less. Store inventory can be shown and sold online, made available for click & collect or used for ship from store.

This also creates more sales opportunities in-store. If a particular size is no longer available at the location where the customer is shopping, an employee can see that it is still available elsewhere and order the product for the customer.

Inventory is therefore less tied to the location where it happens to be stored. You increase the share of your total inventory that is actually available for sale and, with it, the chance of selling products before markdowns become necessary.

Make it easier for customers to buy

Customers do not think in terms of systems, inventory locations or sales channels. They simply want to buy a product in the way that suits them best at that moment.

One customer may want to collect an order today, while another prefers home delivery. Someone else may research a product online but want to see it in-store before buying.

When online and stores work together, customers do not need to think about how your organization is structured behind the scenes. They simply choose where and how they want to buy, receive or return their purchase.

Reliability is just as important as choice. If your webshop says a product is available in a particular store or can be collected today, customers need to be able to trust that this is actually the case.

This allows your commerce operation to adapt to the way customers actually shop, rather than the other way around.

Get more value from your stores

A physical store network represents a significant investment in locations, staff and inventory. Yet the value of a store is often measured primarily by the revenue generated at its own checkout.

Within an omnichannel operation, a store can contribute much more. A location is not only a point of sale, but can also play a role in fulfilment, service and the online customer journey.

A store can, for example, contribute to an online sale without that revenue being generated at its own checkout. A customer collecting an online order in-store also comes into contact with your assortment again and may make an additional purchase during that visit.

This changes how you look at the return from your store network. The value of a store is determined not only by its own in-store revenue, but also by its contribution to sales that start or end online.

Increase the value of existing customers

Acquiring new customers costs money. That makes it just as important to get more value from your existing customer relationships.

Customers who can shop both online and in-store have more opportunities to buy from you again. A store customer can place their next order online, while an online customer can visit a store for advice, service or a future purchase.

When customer data and loyalty are used across channels, you can also serve customers more relevantly. Purchases and preferences are no longer known only within a single webshop or store, but become part of the same customer relationship.

Omnichannel therefore increases not only the number of opportunities for customers to buy from you, but also the possibilities to build longer-lasting customer relationships.

Use data to make better commercial decisions

When online and stores are managed as one commerce operation, you also get a clearer view of where commercial opportunities lie.

You can see where demand is emerging, where inventory remains unsold and how different stores and sales channels contribute to the overall result. This information helps you make better decisions about assortment, inventory and fulfilment.

If a product remains unsold in certain stores while online demand is high, for example, you can make that inventory available for online sales or adjust how stock is distributed.

Instead of managing individual stores and channels separately, you can focus more on the results of your entire commerce operation.

More revenue without proportionally more work

More sales opportunities are only valuable if you can process the additional revenue efficiently.

Orders need to reach the right location automatically, inventory needs to remain up to date and returns need to be correctly added back to available stock. Employees should not have to constantly check different systems, manually re-enter orders or resolve exceptions between the webshop and stores.

That is an important difference between offering omnichannel services and organizing omnichannel effectively.

When every new capability also creates additional manual work, integrations and exceptions, revenue may grow while the operation becomes increasingly complex and expensive.

The business case for omnichannel is therefore not just about selling more, but about selling more without operational complexity growing at the same pace.

Omnichannel requires a strong foundation

To make this possible, stores, inventory, orders and fulfilment need to work together across channels. Not only at the front end for the customer, but especially in the processes behind the scenes.

This is where the underlying commerce architecture becomes important. As your organization grows and adds more capabilities, you want to avoid continuously increasing the number of manual processes, integrations and dependencies.

A strong omnichannel foundation therefore does more than enable click & collect, ship from store or in-store returns today. It also allows you to continue growing without making your operation increasingly difficult to manage.

NextChapter makes omnichannel work

NextChapter specializes in omnichannel commerce. Our multiˣ suite is developed for retailers and brands that want to organize their commerce operation across stores, online sales and other sales channels.

multiˣ brings the core commerce processes together while integrating with ERP, POS, WMS, payment providers and other specialized systems within your existing IT landscape.

This creates a foundation that helps you get more from your customers, stores and inventory without every new sales opportunity also creating more manual work and complexity.

Are you getting everything out of your omnichannel operation?

Curious where revenue opportunities are still being missed within your organization? In a no-obligation consultation, we look at your current omnichannel operation and identify opportunities to make better use of your customers, stores and inventory.