Trends in Omnichannel Marketing

Trends in Omnichannel Marketing

🔥NEW Omnichannel Marketing is slowly converting into a mainstream practice. Kotler et al, in Marketing 4.0 suggest following trends:

• FOCUSING ON MOBILE COMMERCE: Smartphones are game-changers that provide customers to access, choose and transact with brands from anywhere in the world. No other channel is as convenient and personal as mobile phones. Mobile commerce was already 30% of the total US e-commerce in 2015. Like mobiles, wearables can also help marketers collect data on customer path patterns.
• BRINGING "WEBROOMING" INTO OFFLINE CHANNELS: Marketers can assist potential customers to make a choice for their brand in a physical store amidst many other brands available. Thanks to technology, it is possible today. Sensor technologies like beacons and RFID provide this solution. The beacons can communicate with customers smartphones using Bluetooth technology when a customer's smart-phone is in close proximity to the beacon devices. The marketers can send customized offers to the customers based on the department he is visiting and the kind of product he is trying to purchase. Burberry, for example, uses sensor technologies in its stores. Clothing items in its stores are equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which activate changing room mirrors when customers try them on. In the mirror, customers can watch a video describing the product.
• BRINGING “SHOWROOMING” INTO ONLINE CHANNELS: To bring the compelling benefits of offline shopping to online channels, marketers can adapt “showrooming” techniques. People want to do shopping offline as it is about social lifestyle, status, and human-human connections. But if these attributes are fulfilled by an online shopping experience, it's showrooming into online channels. Tesco in South Korea is a prime example. South Koreans find grocery shopping a major hassle due to their busy schedules. In response to this, Tesco creates virtual stores— essentially wallpapers resembling grocery store shelves—in public places such as subway stations. Busy customers can shop with their smartphones while waiting for their trains by simply scanning the products they want to buy with the Homeplus app. The products are then shipped by Tesco and arrive moments after the customers reach home.

⇒ What are your ideas about these trends like webrooming, showrooming, and mobile commerce for brand and product promotion?
Sources:
Philip Kotler, Hermavan Kartajaya, Iwan Setiawan, (2017). "Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital", pp. 140-144