5 Omnichannel Strategies Essential for Success During the Holidays

The holiday season is (almost) upon us, and once again the latest telecom devices promise to be on everyone’s wish list. That means retailers in this space are facing both opportunities for increased sales and a rise in stiff competition during the heaviest shopping months of the year. But 2020 moved the goal post on what makes or breaks a positive retail experience. 

In order to ensure customers can find more of what they want, retailers are using omnichannel strategies to help with holiday shopping. By combining the helpful (yet, distant) human interaction of in-person shopping with the simplicity of online ordering, wireless retailers can delight shoppers and drive sales at the same time. It’s all possible when processes are powered by omnichannel.

Here are five strategies to help you introduce omnichannel opportunities that help you optimize sales opportunities this holiday season.

1. Leverage Your Email List

Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with customers. Research shows that every dollar invested in email marketing leads to $38 in revenue. Connecting with customers through their inbox is a sound strategy throughout the year, but becomes absolutely essential around the holiday season. Your business can optimize this method of staying in touch to alert shoppers about new phones, special deals, and holiday events happening in-store. This approach costs very little, and once customers engage on a digital platform it’s far easier to funnel them towards other marketing touchpoints.

2. Update Your Social Media

Social media is a potent tool — Facebook and Instagram posts can help key pieces of content be promoted far beyond your own following. Harnessing the power of your store’s social media platforms to inform customers of sales, build excitement for specific phones and products, and keep customers up to date about holiday events in-store is a great way to generate interest about your store’s offerings. 

Retailers can also using their social pages to drive sales by producing gift guides, making stocking-stuffer suggestions, or offering special perks to their social followers followers. Want to see this work for you? Be sure to expand your store’s social media reach with targeted ads that offer incentives to customers who follow your accounts. 

3. Optimize for Mobile

Online marketing efforts must be designed to display perfectly on mobile devices. This means the page just be easy to read, navigate, and use on a device just as it would be online. If it’s not, potential customers who come to you through their cell phone to your website may decide to purchase from someone else.

Phones and tablets are the easiest way for customers to engage with a retailer online, regardless of where they are. Everything from the website itself, to emails and apps must be optimized for mobile and designed for multiple platforms. The best wireless retailers realize that mobile is more than an alternative to a traditional computer — it’s an extension of their arm almost 24/7. For instance, by implementing the Endless Aisle platform, customers who are already in-store can easily shop inventory from iPads.

4. Accentuate Omnichannel

In the highly competitive world of wireless retail, there is only so much room to compete on price. Considering how stressful the holiday shopping season is, consumers may even be willing to pay extra for the item they want if your store makes their life easier. Wireless retailers should highlight the elements of their omnichannel approach they employ in-store by customizing the shopper’s purchase experience. The right retail management solution can maximize the omnichannel initiatives by doing more than just ring customers up. There are some retail management and POS systems, like RQ, that can send texts and emails to loyal customers and store valuable customer information so that returning guests receive personalized service and offers online and in-store. Adding these larger, innovative technologies will help to provide omnichannel for the holiday season and far into the New Year.

5. Focus on the Store

Of course, an omnichannel approach is just as much about physical stores as it is about digital interaction. By dressing up the store with holiday decorations or seasonal cheer is a great start but omnichannel solutions like queuing technology or mobile, contactless payments can align the in-store experience with the safety customers expect. A robust sales management module also reminds associates to upsell valuable products, collect contact information for follow-up, and personalize the experience with customer history at their fingertips. 

On a more operational note, focusing on updating in-store processes to make them omnichannel focused is part of providing a safe, 2020 holiday experience. The ability to pay for in-store purchases from a mobile device is a great way to bridge in-store customization with the physical distancing of online purchases. Another way to combine physical and virtual retail is through queuing. With a queue management solution, customers can visit your store but not have to wait due to reduced in-store shopping capacity. This injects some much-appreciated flexibility into a restriction-filled retail world. 

Remember that the busy shopping season continues after the holidays are over. Consumers have gift cards to spend, cash gifts burning holes in their pockets, and time off from work and school to browse your store. Successful omnichannel strategies implemented before the holidays can bring benefits well into the New Year.

The iQmetrix omnichannel suite is a set of award-winning software. See why it was chosen as Business App of the Year in the 2020 Mobile Breakthrough Awards.