Omni channel

Retailers and anyone having anything to do with retailing, have been crying themselves hoarse over Omnichannel for the past few years. Omni channeling  has been touted as the silver bullet.We have heard umpteen speakers wax lyrical about this phenomenon and read tomes of write-ups by the retail gurus of this world. Let me add my two fils to this knowledge base.

In simple terms Omnichannel retailing is meant to enhance the shopping experience of a customer by providing her/him with more than one option to research, select, buy,pay and procure a product. Having said that, I would like to compare my experiences with omnichannel retailing and otherwise.

The retailing experience starts with recognising one's want and then learning more about it, before acquiring it. One can learn about the product through advertisements which can be print media, audio-visual media or through word of mouth from friends, acquaintances or even from the sales person at a bricks and mortar store. My challenge in such situations has been the chalk and cheese part of such  product knowledge. The latest model of the smart phone has rave reviews in the media but when I look for brickbats, I find there is no dearth of it too. The state of the art anodized aluminum body is praised for its lightness and finish, while the brickbat lobby compares it to the curved OLED screen if the right amount of pressure is applied. But why apply pressure?

Selection is always a dilemma be it on the bricks or the clicks. On the bricks, almost on the rocks hic, I can use some of my senses ie., vision and  touch to support my selection. Of course the sales assistant sometimes do not live up to their designation of assistance and end up sending me out of the store empty handed.  On the clicks I often find it to be a time consuming process which might end up with no selection too. Almost a love's labours lost! I log into this wonderful web-store that sells spectacles. I click through the gender, type of frame and then browse through umpteen number of frames to finally select one. I can see on the screen how the frame looks on a face, which doesn't even look like my cousin a hundred times removed. I wonder why they cant take my mug shot and frame me with the pair of glasses that I chose.Then there another set of clicks to select the lens, its power, and add-ons like anti-reflective, tint etc.. Clickety click and I reach the pay and ship page. I am careful at this stage as my actions now have a direct impact on my wallet. A wrong input on one of these pages and you are back the selection stage.

Buying and paying is, in my experience, less cumbersome in the real world. Though technology sometimes challenge you at this stage too. ' Sir the system is slow today' , 'Sir the price is actually ....', ' Sir our credit card machine is down, can you pay cash',..... In the virtual world the challenge could be different. the most frustrating one is when the credit card details have been punched in and the screen freezes. while you wait there is a 'PING' on your cell phone telling you that your card has been debited. when you return your gaze to the screen, you find a new window that says 'Your payment did not go through, please try again . Good Bye' . Then you start another process of chasing a refund.

At the Bricks and Mortar store, upon conclusion of your transaction the purchase is packed up in plastic and given with a plastic smile and gratitude. On the click side it starts another phase of waiting and querying. Some times the logistics is with a 3rd party and you have to log into another virtual world with a reference number that looks like the last 15 digits of  the value of Pi. When the chase ends and you have the product.

So all the sad stories apart how does one does one have a  happy omnichannel experience. My mantra for this is simple - use the virtual channel for information both product and vendor; walk into the store for touch,feel,buy and pay. In cases where you cannot walk or ride to the store then probably you will have to forego the bricks and resort to clicks.