L’industrie du retail français est un marché complexe en constante évolution, porté par les tendances changeantes des consommateurs et le boom du e-commerce. Dans ce tourbillon de changements, il est impératif pour les retailers français d’exploiter la puissance des stratégies omnicanales afin de prospérer dans cette industrie ultra compétitive.

Omnicanal vs Multicanal : Comprendre la Différence

 Lorsqu’on parle de stratégies omnicanales, il est important de les distinguer des approches multicanales. Bien que ces termes soient souvent utilisés de manière interchangeable, ils ont des significations différentes.

 L’omnicanalité fait référence à une intégration cohérente des canaux de communication qui travaillent de concert pour le bénéfice à la fois des clients et des retailers. En revanche, le multicanal implique simplement une présence sur divers canaux sans nécessairement garantir leur collaboration harmonieuse.

 De nombreuses marques ont aujourd’hui une présence multicanale, interagissant avec les clients via les médias sociaux, les sites web et les plateformes mobiles. Cependant, si ces canaux fonctionnent de manière isolée, sans échange d’informations cohérent et synchronisé, on ne peut pas parler d’omnicanalité.

L’Ubiquité des Clients et l’Avènement de l’Omnicanalité

 Une étude réalisée par McKinsey en 2020 révélait que les consommateurs utilisaient entre 3 et 5 canaux différents au long de leur parcours d’achat. En 2021, l’étude réalisée par Upland BlueVenn, nous informait qu’ils interagissaient avec les marques à travers une combinaison pouvant aller jusqu’à 20 canaux différents, et s’attendaient à ce que leur expérience soit cohérente sur l’ensemble de ces canaux. 

Il est également important de noter que les clients omnicanaux ont tendance à dépenser davantage. Quant à elle, l’étude de Harvard Business Review révélait déjà en 2017 que les clients “dépensaient en moyenne 4% de plus en magasin et 10% de plus en ligne que les clients utilisant un seul canal”.

Ces résultats soulignent l’importance de satisfaire les clients omnicanaux.

 La croissance de l’importance des expériences omnicanales se reflète dans la trajectoire du marché.

La Puissance de l’Omnicanalité pour l’Expérience Client

Offrir une expérience client exceptionnelle est au cœur des stratégies omnicanales.

En effet, Shep Hyken  souligne que 70% des clients seraient prêts à payer davantage pour une expérience supérieure et plus spécifiquement 62% des Millennials et 60% des clients Gen-Z. En revanche, une seule rencontre négative peut inciter 32% des clients à se détourner d’une marque appréciée, selon PwC.

 En substance, l’omnicanalité est le moyen par lequel les retailers peuvent fournir l’expérience intégrée et fluide que les clients recherchent. En adoptant des stratégies omnicanales, les entreprises peuvent non seulement répondre aux attentes des clients, mais également favoriser la croissance et la fidélité dans un marché français du retail hautement concurrentiel.

Par conséquent, l’adoption d’une approche omnicanale robuste devient essentielle pour les retailers qui souhaitent prospérer dans le paysage français.

Combler le fossé entre le monde en ligne et hors ligne

Les consommateurs souhaitent interagir avec votre marque à la fois en ligne et hors ligne. Ils veulent savoir ce qui est en stock avant de se rendre en magasin. Ils veulent pouvoir ajouter un article à leur panier en se rendant en magasin et le retrouver à la caisse pour le retirer.

La création de flux de catalogues de produits qui fonctionnent avec des campagnes publicitaires peut être un problème complexe, chronophage et technique pour les retailers disposant d’un vaste inventaire.

Grâce à l’intégration transparente entre les canaux en ligne et hors ligne, notamment en utilisant un OMS, les retailers peuvent répondre aux attentes des clients et fournir une expérience fluide permettant de renforcer la fidélité à la marque et de créer des opportunités de vente supplémentaires.

Quand la Vente Omnicanale devient un must-have

Bien que le marché du retail ait connu une contraction d’environ 2% en 2022 après une augmentation de 10% en 2021, le marché du e-commerce en France connaît une croissance significative.

Afin de répondre à la demande croissante des clients, il est donc nécessaire pour les retailers d’adopter une approche omnicanale afin d’offrir une expérience d’achat fluide sur différents canaux, tels que sur un site web, sur mobile ou encore en magasin.

Cette nécessité d’une stratégie omnicanale devient encore plus flagrante quand l’on sait que le marché français de la mode devrait atteindre 28.26 milliards d’euros d’ici fin 2023.

Ces chiffres soulignent la nécessité pour les retailers souhaitant opérer sur le marché français de tirer parti d’un OMS performant afin de rationaliser leurs processus de commandes et offrir à leurs potentiels 38,72 millions de clients une expérience d’achat claire, centralisée et facilitée.

Surmonter les Défis de la Mise en Œuvre d’une Stratégie Omnicanale

Alors que le marché du retail en France, tous secteurs confondus, devrait atteindre, selon Mordor Intelligence, 187,98 milliards d’euros d’ici 2026, et enregistrer un TCAC de 10,04% sur la période de prévision de 2021 à 2026, les retailers français sont confrontés à des défis spécifiques lors de la mise en œuvre d’une stratégie omnicanale.

En effet, le secteur du retail fait aujourd’hui face à des mises en liquidation et fermetures qui nous montre les défis de captation de clients alors que les jeunes générations se tournent vers les ventes en ligne, en particulier sur des sites internationaux, ou optent pour des achats de seconde main.

Nous constatons aussi que les retailers sont souvent attirés par de nouvelles technologies qui semblent prometteuses, mais qui ne tiennent malheureusement pas toujours leurs promesses.

Beaucoup ont également une compréhension floue de la façon dont l’omnicanalité créée de la valeur.

Certaines marques de mode, par exemple, ont tardé à investir dans le e-commerce en raison des coûts élevés d’expédition et de gestion des retours, et de la crainte que les canaux en ligne cannibalisent les ventes en magasin. Tandis que d’autres financent des investissements ponctuels qui n’améliorent que marginalement l’expérience d’achat globale.

Pour réussir, les retailers doivent adopter une approche stratégique et cohérente. Voici trois problèmes courants auxquels ils sont confrontés :

• Une compréhension floue des parties de l’omnicanalité à privilégier : Trop peu de retailers ont établi un alignement au sein de leur organisation sur l’agenda omnicanal, y compris la vision à long terme et l’état actuel. Sans alignement stratégique, les entrepreises finissent souvent par investir de manière dispersée, finançant des priorités divergentes en matière de e-commerce, d’exploitation des magasins, de chaîne d’approvisionnement, de marketing et de technologie.

• Une focalisation sur la technologie plutôt que sur la valeur pour le client : De nombreux retailers se sont précipités pour adopter des innovations technologiques pour se différencier. Mais sans une bonne connaissance des besoins des clients ou sans déterminer comment ces investissements créeront et maintiendront de la valeur à grande échelle, les retailers se retrouvent parfois avec des outils digitaux rutilants qui n’apportent que peu de valeur en termes de croissance.

• Un échec à séquencer les investissements en fonction de la stratégie : De nombreux retailers se précipitent pour faire avancer leurs initiatives omnicanales sans réfléchir à l’identification du point de départ et des capacités spécifiques nécessaires pour réussir à chaque étape. Sans séquencer clairement leur approche et investir dans les fondamentaux appropriés, les retailers se retrouvent souvent avec des investissements fragmentés qui ne peuvent pas apporter de rentabilité.

 Les retailers peuvent choisir une stratégie, approfondir leur expertise, et exceller en tant que leader du commerce ou de la personnalisation. Ou, avec les bases adéquates en place, ils peuvent progresser le long du continuum vers un écosystème et se développer dans d’autres modèles commerciaux avec le temps.

Pour relever ce défi de croissance, les retailers doivent prendre en compte les facteurs suivants :

• Barrières Technologiques : Intégrer différents systèmes et technologies peut être complexe et coûteuse et nécessite une infrastructure robuste et une expertise.

• Synchronisation des Données : Garantir des données précises sur tous les canaux est essentiel pour éviter les erreurs d’inventaire et fournir des informations fiables aux clients.

• Expérience Client Cohérente : Offrir une expérience cohérente et personnalisée sur tous les canaux peut être un défi, en particulier lorsque les retailers utilisent des systèmes disparates pour chaque canal.

• Conflits de Canaux : Gérer les conflits entre les canaux, tels que la gestion des retours d’achats en ligne dans les magasins physiques, nécessite une coordination minutieuse et des processus efficaces.

• Coûts et Efforts : Mettre en place une stratégie omnicanale implique souvent un investissement financier et opérationnel significatif, notamment pour les petites entreprises.

Exploiter le Système de Gestion des Commandes (OMS) pour mieux comprendre le Retail Omnicanal

Pour surmonter ces défis et libérer tout le potentiel du commerce omnicanal, les retailers français peuvent se tourner vers les systèmes de gestion de commandes (OMS). Un OMS performant, tel que celui proposé par Teamwork Commerce, offre une gamme d’avantages sur mesure, notamment :

• Intégration Transparente : L’OMS intègre de manière transparente les canaux en ligne et hors ligne, optimisant la gestion des stocks pour une visibilité en temps réel et évitant les ruptures de stock.

• Traitement Efficace des Commandes : Les retailers bénéficient d’une vue d’ensemble complète des stocks sur tous les canaux, ce qui permet une gestion simplifiée des commandes, des délais de livraison réduits et une satisfaction client accrue.

• Capacités de Clic et Collecte : L’OMS facilite les retraits en magasin après un achat en ligne, permettant aux clients de commander en ligne et de récupérer leurs achats en magasin physique, favorisant ainsi l’affluence en magasin et créant des opportunités de vente supplémentaires.

• Gestion Simplifiée des Retours : Le système simplifie les processus de retour entre les canaux, offrant aux clients une expérience fluide, renforçant la fidélité à la marque et réduisant la complexité opérationnelle.

• Analyses et Insights Avancés : L’OMS de Teamwork Commerce offre aux retailers des capacités d’analyse puissantes, fournissant des informations précieuses sur le comportement des clients. Ces données permettent des campagnes marketing personnalisées, des stratégies de vente ciblées et la fourniture d’expériences client exceptionnelles.

En adoptant une approche omnicanale basée sur un OMS performant, les retailers français peuvent se positionner de manière compétitive sur un marché en croissance constante. En offrant une expérience client fluide et cohérente sur tous les canaux, les retailers peuvent répondre aux attentes des clients, renforcer leur fidélité et stimuler leur croissance. Malgré les défis liés à la mise en œuvre d’une stratégie omnicanale, les retailers peuvent surmonter ces obstacles en adoptant des systèmes de gestion des commandes performants. En exploitant les avantages de ces solutions, les retailers français peuvent capitaliser sur les opportunités offertes par le commerce omnicanal et se positionner avec succès sur le marché du retail en France.

We’ve all heard that online is here to stay. The pandemic has indeed accelerated ecommerce growth and established new buying habits. But according to a 2021 study by Raydiant, approximately half of consumers have enjoyed going back to brick and mortar stores. They “spent more than 51% of their shopping budget in physical locations,” and prefer to buy in-person when they can.

It looks like in-store shopping is here to stay, too. But with changing habits and expectations, retailers need to think outside the box and create a more interactive, immersive store experience. Here are examples of five retailers with impressive customer experiences.

Source: Raydiant

Chanel Blends Two Worlds

Too often, consumers feel like they’ve seen it all, as brand after brand repeats the same marketing strategy. Sometimes these repetitive experiences are enjoyable, other times they grow tired with time… until someone comes up with a new trend, which, once again, everyone follows.

To navigate the challenge of coming up with new ideas for experiences that truly surprise and immerse customers in interactive retail experiences, Chanel decided to borrow from a very, very different world.

So what happens when a luxury fashion retailer and makeup brand mixes up some arcade elements?

A pink pop-up shop with “game stations named after popular products from Chanel, such as Rogue Coco, Chance and Hydra Beauty,” where visitors could win free products and participate in pre-launches of new products, reports Female Magazine.

In addition, the pop up shop presented retail displays with an Instagrammable background, which likely encouraged shoppers to create their own content around the shop, and thus connect further with the brand and help spread the word.

Farfetch Provides Technology-Empowered Human to Human Interactions

When Farfetch decided to take its ecommerce platform, which curates luxury brands, to the brick and mortar world, it decided to go big, calling it the Store of the Future.

In an interview with Business of Fashion, Farfetch founder and CEO Jose Neves said that the Store of the Future will revolve around humanizing and personalizing the shopping experience, as well as connecting it with online channels.

Machines will replace the store staff’s focus on supply chain logistics, like looking up an item in the database, so that the staff can “focus on the human side of the interaction” and become “in-store influencers,” Neves said in the interview.

However, there will be no one size fits all, or one experience fits all. Farfetch developed the initial apps for the brick and mortar platform, including customer recognition at store entrance, RFID-enabled and automatic population of wishlists based on products the customer browses through in retail store, yet is opening the platform for additional companies to develop complementary apps. It’s also letting each partner brand customize the features and experiences it wants to provide customers, Business of Fashion reported.

Audi Lets You Try Equipment Virtually Before it Customizes Your Car

While some products are easy to buy without extensively trying them out first, some are big purchases, that include many aspects of decision making, like a car.

Therefore, when Audi customers want to buy a car, they go to a private customer lounge at an audi dealership, put on a VR headset, and take a deeper look at all the equipment options, including “the smallest details,” with “an extremely realistic perspective,” Audi explained when it launched this experience. Customers can choose their favorite options “from several hundred million possible models and equipment variants,” Audi announced.

But that’s not all. Customers can fully immerse themselves in the interactive retail experience before they make a purchase decision, “in three dimensions and 360 degrees, with all light and sound effects. Various environments, times of day, and light conditions,” it added.

Check it out in this one minute video:

Rebecca Minkoff Makes Shopping Seamless and Smart

Today’s consumer, especially the millennial one, is looking for greater control over her shopping experience, and less dependency on sales assistants, Rebecca Minkoff CEO Uri Minkoff explained to Footwear News. Therefore, the fashion retailer decided to find “ways to make her feel like she can have multiple experiences,” he said.

In an interview with Fast Company (see video below), Minkoff said the store welcomes you with a smart screen, where you can choose a beverage – including water, coffee, green tea or champagne – and some favorite looks. You can choose items to try on, and get a text when the items arrive at your dressing room.

When you reach the dressing room yourself, you’re welcomed by a smart interactive mirror that already knows all the items you chose to try on. If an item doesn’t fit, you can use the mirror to send a notification to a salesperson, and the sales associate will deliver the item to your dressing room.

Meanwhile, the interactive displays allow you to adjust your dressing room’s lighting – from sunny to sunset – so “you can get some confidence around what it might look like in your end use case,” Minkoff told Fast Company.

Then, customers can use self checkout and the retailer gains valuable data about its customers’ preferences.

Nike Simultaneously Offers Connected Experiences and Shopping Independence

With more Nike shoes than anywhere and an emphasis on immersive experiences, Nike’s flagship New York City store is designed to make you feel like you’ve entered a high-tech museum, not just another shop. According to Nike’s website, the store layout can be easily reconfigured, so the brand can customize and reshape experiences at all times.

The store lets you scan codes that have been placed on mannequins and request a store athlete to deliver its outfit in your size to your dressing room, adds Nike.

That’s right – a store athlete, not a sales associate.

You can also talk to an expert and get advice on styling your look or choosing the best “laces, fabrics [and] decals to customize your products.

If you prefer to do your shopping on your own, no worries. Scan your purchases using the Nike app and check out without waiting in line.

That said, Nike’s in-store experience is vastly about connection – connection to the brand, connection to the community, connection to the world. In its Seoul, South Korea, location, for example, it helps in-store shoppers find sporting events designated for the Nike community. It also accepts gently worn sneakers and apparel from customers, which it either recycles or donates, in an effort to become more and more eco-friendly, reports Input.

Mostly, though, Nike is all about unique experiences that keep customers coming back. As Nike Direct VP Daniel Heaf told Input, the intention “is to never have the shopping experience be the same if people come in on separate days.”

Create Interactive In-Store Experiences to Thrive Long Term

Even though eCommerce might be getting most of the headlines right now, customers don’t want to stop shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. They want the human connection, the ability to touch products before they buy them, and the fun of having the product with them as soon as they buy it.

But as online channels offer more and more personalization and convenience, including faster shipping, in-person stores that want to thrive long-term must provide immersive, interactive experiences that make the visit especially worthwhile.

It’s been two years since the pandemic transformed the retail market, and it feels like we’re still adjusting, as nothing remains certain. But the retail industry isn’t letting it stop its efforts to create the best shopping experiences or tap into the most innovative technologies.

 Today, we bring you six exciting retail trends to watch, and include some practical advice to help you turn these trends into competitive advantages for your company.

Expand into China as its Youngest Generation Devours the Luxury Retail Market

We’re seeing a large number of companies heading for Chinese expansion, and with good reason. “China was the only country with positive luxury growth in 2020,” reports Fashion Discounts. “By 2025, China will be the world’s largest luxury market,” predicts The Luxury Conversation.

The time to expand is now, as its youngest generation – born in 1990-2000 – is “now 50% of the luxury market,” according to Jing Daily.

The timing is especially critical, as Chinese consumers tend to celebrate national pride and buy from local brands, especially following the pandemic, explains The Luxury Conversation. To engage them, we recommend localizing at a deep level – from the software you use to the influencers you partner with – to create a shopping experience that feels immersed in the local culture.

Prioritize Gen Z

One of the biggest retail trends to watch is the growing emphasis retailers put on Gen Z – rightfully so, since “70% of luxury sales will be made by Gen Z and millennials by 2025,” reports Luxe Digital. And their shopping preferences are different from what we’ve known so far.

Source: Luxe Digital

According to eMarketer, Gen Z consumers educate themselves on social media, which is the best place to target them, whether organically, via advertising or with the help of influencers. According to the Instagram 2022 Trend Report, over 1 in 4 intends to shop directly through their social media feeds.

When you do target them, eMarketer points out they care a lot more about a brand’s proactive action toward social justice than they do about product prices, even though they don’t make as much money as older generations. Instagram emphasizes that Gen Zers cares about sustainability, including reusing, repurposing and reselling their clothes.

Leverage Influencers in a Way that Actually Matters to Your Audience

Using influencers to engage with consumers has been one of the retail trends to watch for a while, but it’s growing in significance, especially as Gen Z gets prioritized. According to Ogilvy’s 2022 report, “influencer marketing is 277% more emotionally intense and 87% more memorable” than TV ads, as it gets integrated into content consumers already enjoy.

In addition, influencer marketing is a great opportunity for the retail markets to put their money where their brand promises to this generation are.

The report indicates that “38% of consumers are more likely to trust brands that cast diverse people in their ads,” but points out that this alone won’t solve the inequality found in the industry. It explains that “black female influencers are paid up to 10 times less for the same work as their white counterparts. In addition to the steep racial pay gap, female influencers are paid 33% less than male influencers – even though female influencers make up 84% of the entire industry. On top of that, LGBTQ+ influencers, as well as influencers with disabilities, are more often compensated with ‘exposure’ in lieu of the standard rates brands usually pay.”

Design Omnichannel Clienteling

After getting hit during the first COVID year, “the personal luxury goods market grew by 29%” in 2021, reaching 283 billion Euros, reports Bain & Company, which expects this retail market to keep experiencing a 6-8% annual growth by 2025.

Source: Luxe Digital

However, the pandemic managed to change this market nonetheless. Alongside other sectors, clienteling turned to virtual platforms to keep operating, and it is expected to keep combining in-store and virtual channels as we head into 2022.

Sales associates will need to be empowered by omnichannel data, so they can predict customers’ needs based on their history with the company, make personalized recommendations, and keep track of customers’ desired products when they get back to stock, no matter how they interact with customers.

Provide Same Day Delivery (Although Most Consumers Still Accept a Slightly Larger Delivery Window)

The last mile continues to be a critical aspect of the shopping experience. Expect an increase in the amount of retailers offering same day delivery, some as fast as two hours, predicts Forbes. One of the ways they’ll make it happen is by establishing micro fulfillment and distribution centers across the country, it explains. Another way is by partnering with third party delivery services, such as DoorDash.

But in case offering same day delivery feels like too big of a leap from where your company is right now, McKinsey research found that “more than 90% of US online shoppers expect free two to three day shipping.” Longer than that, half of them will shop elsewhere.

Bring RFID to Your Stores

According to the Global RFID Market Research 2021-2026, Logistik Unicorp was able to reduce shipping time by 35% using RFID technology, while ensuring “strict quality requirements.”

RFID stands for radio-frequency identification. When you have an RFID reader, it can read tags or smart labels, then capture the data on your system. This technology is growing in popularity in retail markets, because it automates and simplifies transaction and inventory management.

For example, one of the trends we’re seeing is letting RFID automatically scan items in shopping baskets and populate customers’ carts, so they and your cashiers won’t need to do it automatically. That’s a much better shopping experience, as it removes the need for tedious tasks, and keeps the focus on the fun. Then, when customers walk out of the store, it scans the items again, to verify they actually paid for them. If they didn’t, an alarm is set off.

Back in their warehouses, a key trend that came up in the report is that retailers use RFID technology to track and manage inventory more accurately, plus make smarter purchase decisions, which lead to higher profit margins.

In addition, we’ve seen retailers use a wand to scan boxes. It records which orders have been processed and which items are leaving the warehouse. After all, if you’re looking for retail trends to watch, you might as well explore trends that make your team’s life easier while giving customers a better experience. It’s kinda like having your own magic wand.

2022 Retail Trends to Watch… and Implement

Now that you’ve got a list of the most exciting retail trends to watch, it’s time to start implementing them and lead your retail markets. But the good news is you don’t have to implement all of them, certainly not right away.

It’s much better to choose one or two that holistically align with your goals for 2022, and master them before expanding further. It will help you focus on creating the kind of shopping experiences that drive customer joy. Test these trends out, get feedback from your customers, check your profit margins, then adjust as you go. Over time, you’ll drive loyalty and advocacy, too, leading to a compound interest in your bottom line.

Ai-based video analytics are opening the door to exciting advancements in business intelligence…and they can now integrate into almost any location.

As retail continues to adapt to the new normal of life with COVID, there is still much consideration regarding how to better manage both retail operations and customer expectations. Retailers need to be agile, adaptive, and dynamic, both now and in the future. This is particularly true regarding the store, as labor shortages, distribution challenges, changing customer expectations and frenetic pricing continue to impact the bottom line. Thankfully, there are new technology developments that can help.

Insite is a new, turnkey, Ai-enabled “smart” video solution that delivers real-time insights to retail store operators, marketing, merchandising and design teams. With it, they are able to understand and manage what’s happening (and, in some cases, not happening) on the store floor to ensure bettercustomer experiences and more revenue­–without requiring additional headcount. It works by integrating video surveillance, data analytics, POS and artificial intelligence (Ai) together with both new and traditional CCTV systems. This allows teams to dramatically improve service times and gain insight into their unique business and customer challenges so that they can do something about it.

Here are some real-world, applied examples.

• Better understand wait times and throughput to design a plan that schedules the perfect number of employees based on customer counts and traffic patterns
• Take advantage of peak hours by understanding how customers shop the store
• Turn shopper behavior into “KPI dashboards” that report on traffic, dwell, engagement and, if using Insite’s POS API, conversion, for either the entire store or zones of interest
• View the daily or weekly trends and traffic patterns of each store zone, display or service point
• Enhance the effectiveness of displays and increase impulse purchases by knowing stock levels, what customers are engaging with and when they appear to be waiting for help
• Using Ai in conjunction with POS data, manage shrink or theft based on exception-based reporting, such as a “refund to cash with no customer standing in front of POS”
• Tags suspect transactions and presents them every morning with video, receipt, and risk types for management’s quick, proactive review–which can be done by region, store, and specific associate to quickly identify potential personnel or location risks
• Maximize the use of high-traffic areas to test new merchandise, move products quickly or drive more high-margin impulse buys
• Detect repeat customers to so that staff or apps can better interact with them
• Detect potential security threats before they happen
• Increase profitability and revenue by generating real-time reports and alerts that for any of these features

When it comes down to it, what Insite and its smart video capabilities does is enable managers and staff to know what’s happening and take action with the information it makes available. Because it does it with technology, stores save time and money and can protect the business and bottom line. Working in sync with a secure cloud, operators and businesses keep their environment safe, operationally streamlined and optimized for customer experience with real-time actionable data. This capability has historically only been available at a premium per-location cost. The Insite platform offers the same capabilities and data options at a price point all retailers–both large and small–can afford.

If you’d like more information, please contact our partner All Point Retail at sales@allpointretail.com.