As per Forbes, customer-centric brands garner six times more revenue than those who fail to improve customer experience. That explains, why most businesses are opting to go for an omnichannel approach in their E-commerce web design.

Many feel that omnichannel and multichannel presence are the same. Though they both sound similar, they aren’t the same. Cube InfoTech, an ecommerce website design company explains the difference between an omnichannel and multichannel online store.

What is an Omnichannel E-commerce platform

The term “omnichannel” describes a business that sells products across multiple channels. For instance, when a developer of a web design company in Toronto suggests going for an omnichannel approach, it means making the brand omnipresent across all network channels where its target audience interacts. An omnichannel store operates on an integrated multichannel approach by synchronizing customer and product data across all channels.

To put it differently, the store syncs data across multiple channels like its brick-and-mortar retail store, social media, marketplace, etc. in real-time. This way, whenever a customer approaches the store whether physically or online like through social networking or website, they don’t have to make a fresh start every time. Rather, all of it forms part of a seamless experience. Thereby, it allows the brand to connect numerous touchpoints wherever and whenever customer interacts with the brand.

Difference between Omnichannel & Multichannel E-commerce

Omnichannel and multichannel both, are forms of marketing that an E-commerce chooses to use for reaching its customers. Simultaneously, both provide complete and consistent product content across all channels. That being said, there is still a hairline difference between both of these approaches that makes both the methods vastly different.

In case an E-commerce web design has a multichannel approach, then it gives a complete experience, but only over each of its particular channels. That’s why a customer’s or any marketing actions on one channel are not shared with any other of its channel. In other words, a customer can shop on social media, a brand’s website, on a marketplace, or at its physical store, but they can’t move seamlessly between them. On the contrary, an E-commerce web design and development approach with omnichannel, takes care of this very hindrance. Thereby it provides a consistent and seamless customer experience every time across all its channels.

Which approach is best for your E-commerce website design and development?

Research suggests that brands with omnichannel presence have 89% of customer retention. This is because the omnichannel marketing approach favors customer experience over a company’s requirements. That is to say, it focuses on letting customers purchase from your brand through any of their preferred channels.

So, rather than treating each channel separately, omnichannel retailing takes into account the fact that many consumers crossover various channels during their buyers’ journey before making the final purchase. As a matter of fact, every customer does a series of online research before taking a call.

As per Cube InfoTech, an E-commerce web design company, initially brands can begin with multichannel marketing, and work on optimizing the performance of individual channels. Thereafter, in due time integrate all of the channels to create an omnichannel experience.