Multichannel
As incredible as it may seem, even today, it is very common to find people and even articles on the internet that confuse the concept of multichannel with omnichannel. These are things that are intertwined, but completely different in their concept and approach. Let's go back in time a little and imagine a convenience store in your neighborhood. We don't have the internet yet, so the main point of sale is the physical store. But the owner of this store is not satisfied with selling only in the store, and has the idea of distributing a catalog in the neighborhood itself where you can see the latest offers, call, buy and have it delivered to your home. This establishment has just created a new sales channel by phone, initially serving only the region, because that is what it can handle.
It is clear that our friend is a very smart businessman, so naturally when the Internet came along, after a while he created his website and realized that to reach a region larger than his neighborhood, he no longer needed to print catalogs and distribute them to faraway places; people just had to access his website, see the prices and call him. With the success of the website, the few phone lines that served online purchases were insufficient and he discovered that his website could be an e-commerce site. Now our smart businessman has three sales channels: physical store, telephone and internet. This is basically the concept of multichannel. You have different sales channels so that the customer can choose the one that best suits them.
Omnichannel
Omni is Latin for “all” or “everywhere” in free adaptation. The words omniscient and omnipresent code number of philippines derive from this prefix. You already have an idea of what omnichannel is about, right? But then you might ask, what is the difference from multichannel, since if I have many channels, am I not everywhere? The reasoning is correct, but the concept of omnichannel is different. The main difference is that omnichannel integrates all existing channels (online and offline) in order to cover the entire consumer purchasing journey, providing them with an experience to help them convert.
Today, we have access to an almost infinite range of content on the internet. We search, comment, like, favorite, forward, rate, and perform countless other actions all the time. Our attention is very valuable to digital media, so when an ad finally reaches us, we can quickly lose focus, click on another link, and forget about the product we were looking at. To help in this scenario, omnichannel integrates all your sales channels into a single experience so that, even if you lose focus, you can find the product again at another point in your purchasing journey.
Examples of using Omnichannel
There are many creative examples of omnichannel use. One of the success stories is Magazine Luiza, which, by applying an omnichannel strategy, increased its sales by 241% in the digital environment and 51% in physical stores from 2015 to 2018. According to the company's own financial report, its shares, which were worth R$8 in 2015, increased to R$180 in 2018, bearing in mind that this period was not favorable for the economy in Brazil. The retail giant has interconnected its sales channels very effectively, one example being online purchases through the website and pickup by the customer at a physical store that suits them best, a practice that reduces the time the customer has to wait for delivery and also eliminates shipping costs. According to the company, this resource is responsible for 30% of its online sales.
Attribution and omnichannel models
The differences between multichannel and omnichannel are clear, but the challenge is knowing how to measure and implement all of this. The performance of the respective channels, the influence of the omnichannel or action on the customer's purchasing decision, which model to use within the scope and integration of your channels, etc. Just as the possibilities for action are countless, so are the metrics, models and KPIs.
We’ve already talked about the main attribution models in this post , in case you need a refresher. But when we talk about omni, things tend to get a little more complex. We’ll tell you: the possibilities are endless! And if the possibilities are so great, a standard attribution model won’t always work. You need to adapt your attribution model according to the strategy you’ve designed, and this will vary depending on the scenario or client you’re working with.
We like the simplicity of organizing the steps that Avinash Kaushik puts on his blog Occam's Razor . Check it out.
1 – First, clarify what problem you are solving to your management team.
2 – Use the appropriate solution set.
3 – Get really good at understanding your multi-channel funnel reports. They’re free. They’re awesome.
4 – Start experimenting with simple models. You’re moving away from the Last Click model, you’ll abandon it first and very quickly. Spend some love and attention on the Time Decay attribution model (ideally with multiple mathematical options to apply).
5 – Experiment with changes to your digital portfolio based on the time reduction results.
6 – Measure results. Go back. Analyze the data. Change some more.
7 – Once you master this, slowly move on to playing with controlled experiments using the media mix modeling type.