The History of Omni-Channel Retail

Three steps in the evolution of retail: the single-channel era, the multi-channel era, and the omni-channel era

The single-channel era: 1990-1999, the era of the giant brick-and-mortar store chain, and the decline in the number of multi-branded brick-and-mortar stores. It was the brick-and-mortar physical store era. Single-channel mode of operation of the enterprise dilemma is a single channel, physical stores only cover the surrounding customers, and compared with 2003, store rent rose 6-10 times! Labor costs have risen by 50%! Revenue has not changed, costs have increased, profits are slim, survival is at stake!

Multi-Channel Era: 2000-2011, the era of online stores came and retailers adopted dual channels online and offline. It was the era of mouse-and-cement retailing. Multi-channel is a richer path compared to single channel, but also faces bottlenecks: decentralized channels, several sets of people, rising management costs! Internal vicious competition, grabbing resources, team internal conflict, waste of resources! External prices are different, promotions are different, services are different, customer experience is ice and fire! Left hand to beat the right hand, efficiency decline, return on investment decline, urgent need for change!

Omni-channel era: Starting in 2012, companies focus on the customer experience, the status of tangible stores weakened. It is the omni-channel retail era of mouse plus cement plus mobile network. Domestic well-known retail research institutions on its meaning, causes and countermeasures of the study, the conclusion is: (1) the meaning of omni-channel retailing, refers to the enterprise to take as many types of retail channels for the combination and integration of (cross-channel) sales behavior, in order to meet the needs of customers shopping, entertainment and social integrated experience, these channel types include tangible and intangible stores, as well as information media (website, call center, social media, Email, social media, social media, mobile network). centers, social media, Email, microblogging, WeChat) and so on. (2) The genesis of omni-channel retailing is due to the fact that information technology has entered the age of social networks and mobile networks, and the formation of groups parasitically working and living on omni-channels has led to the rise of omni-channel shoppers, and one path of information delivery has become a retail channel. (3) The response to omni-channel retailing requires consideration of the unchanging nature of retailing (selling, entertainment, and socializing) and the content changes that have occurred in the five streams of retailing (customer flow, store flow, information flow, capital flow, and logistics), followed by decision-making on multi-channel mix and integration strategies based on target shoppers and marketing positioning.