Hello! My name is Oscar Santoyo, an ordinary young man, perhaps more ordinary than ordinary, I am passionate about researching, understanding and trying to understand the behavior of people in the digital world, the one in which you and I have been immersed for a long time. couple of years, and to which we have been trying to adapt as quickly and as best as possible.

Just a few days ago, I was at a conference with Andrea Scarano, Country Manager Mexico, of Privalia, where he invited us to the shoe industry of Guanajuato and the country to think in Omnichannel, and the first thing that comes to mind when hearing this rare and very unknown word for companies, organizations and even people like you and me. But so that you don't have any doubts, today I will explain to you what the omnichannel experience means at the point of contact with the customer.

Let's think that we are owners of a footwear business where we ourselves are the manufacturers and also the sellers, we have 10 stores distributed throughout the country, in this sense we will find ourselves selling to a B2C (Business to consumer), thinking about the points of contact with the customer, for now we only have our retail mode, which would be our only sales channel.

Nowadays, audiences are very broad and their way of life changes and adapts to a global world, where the internet brings us closer and allows for greater connectivity and large-scale sales. The traditional marketing strategy is not in conflict with the digital marketing strategy, in fact both should be aligned (not be the same), but they should move forward with joint efforts.

Taking advantage of the fact that we have more contact channels with our users, the possibility of selling online with the famous e-commerce opens up, which must be designed to be adaptable to users' mobile phones with responsive designs that improve the user experience, mobile phone applications so attractive that they become part of the lifestyle of our audiences (from my point of view, only certain established brands can afford to have applications, since a certain level of engagement with the user is necessary for our app to survive on our audience's devices).

Returning to the topic of omnichannel, we then have users with interest in a brand with different points of contact: traditional (physical stores, radio, television, billboards), web and mobile, at the end of the day a multichannel user, and this strategy is about homogenizing those points of contact to leave certain communications and experiences with the user.

Understanding then the concept of the omnichannel theme, we can then think about strategies that can help us improve the user experience such as:

  1. Returns in store. Having the ability to buy online and exchange in physical stores is incredible for users, so what should be taken into account is to clarify very well all exchange and return policies.
  2. Pay and collect. Paying and picking up in store is a practice that more brands are currently joining, which gives the user confidence to know if what they are buying is really what they expect.
  3. Click and call. The immediacy of a click can connect you with your user in different ways, from calling to ask the location of your store, or the availability of a product, to being able to make reservations.
  4. Next day deliveries. This service is very exclusive to customers in a more premium category, where the user is willing to pay a little more for their product so as not to travel to buy it in a physical store and will also pay for an express shipping service.
  5. The use of Big data. Knowing consumer behaviors is a basic issue when crossing digital information, since it is a daily task to measure how much we are converting in order to then define our return on investment (ROI).

The key to success is being able to visualize the experience through the consumer's senses, being empathetic and not thinking about ourselves, but about the customer.

And from that perspective we can realize certain barriers that the consumer has when buying online, I will mention some:

  1. It doesn't give me confidence.
  2. I need the help of an expert.
  3. I prefer to browse stores to get inspiration.
  4. I do not have the payment method.
  5. I want it now.

For these topics, you don't need to discover the black thread about what to do, you just need to take a look at how brands like Walmart, Privalia, Amazon and Uber To mention a few, they have adapted to this new type of behavior.

Now I want to give you five recommendations on what to do to maximize the experience at your customer touchpoints:

  1. Design the experience in conjunction with technology, so don't be afraid to use the platforms that already exist for these topics.
  2. Align processes and technology with the experience and objectives of your brand, so that actions have a reason be.
  3. Review your brand and consumer touch points again and again.
  4. Make your communication RELEVANT.
  5. Maximize human connection, be personal.

To close the topic I want to invite you to watch the following Coca-Cola spot, who from my point of view, carried out an excellent campaign using traditional and digital media such as an omnichannel experience.

It will be a pleasure for me to greet you and for us to follow each other on social networks. For any questions or comments, we can be in contact at:

See you soon!