Whether you are a customer or you own a business, being tech-savvy and well advanced in the subject of technology is the need of the hour. When shopping online, people crave for connected systems that ease their journey irrespective of device or location. If you take a close look, you will find the world of contemporary digital commerce taking a brand new direction where omnichannel eCommerce becomes a cornerstone of the successful and competitive business.
What is a Magento Omnichannel Retail Management System?
Several years back, retailers faced a challenging situation where they were unable to use technology to manage the various operations more smoothly. With the increase in consumer’s demands for a seamless shopping experience gave rise to the term called Omnichannel Retail Management System. Technically speaking, it is an essential set of digital application that makes retail management process way easier and helps you run your business in a smoother manner.
Right from the point of Sale (POS) to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Order Management, Purchasing and Receiving, Inventory Management, Reporting, and Dashboard applications- this is what a typical retail management system would comprise of. Whereas on the other hand, Omnichannel is a retail model empowered by a centralized data management system in which you can integrate all the existing channels to offer a seamless shopping experience. This certainly means that the distinctions among channels, both physical and online ones, are blurred.
How Magento fits this agenda?
A lot many other technologies and platform were a part of the race that Magento keeps on winning as it covers all needs of their businesses such as promotions, shipping, merchandising and payments. Over these years, the platform has proven its worth again and again, and that’s the reason why businesses are looking for Magento based eCommerce operations.
Given the fact, it is an open source platform- Magento provides mesmerizing results when it comes to Custom development and maintenance, and its Community version is absolutely free to use.
Migrate from Multichannel to Omnichannel Retailing
Not so long ago, there was a time when shoppers used to feel satisfied only after visiting a reliable brick-and-mortar store to get something they needed. No matter how inconvenient things were in those days. For example, you need to travel to a store that is far away from their home, and things get even worse when you find if the items they were in need of, were out of stock.
And then comes our knight in shining armor- eCommerce! As a result, more and more retailers were seen jumping in the Magento Bandwagon to enhance their presence in the virtual world. Today, we can buy anything and everything we feel like sitting at home, via web stores.
There was a time when there was no close-knit relationship between the physical stores and online stores but not anymore! With the worldwide acceptance of technology, customers are seen using multiple channels as well as multiple devices on various platforms especially if they wish to find information about the products of interest.
In fact, they have changed their shopping behavior to a great extent. For example, more references are gathered from different sources and channels before purchasing anything. As a result, retailers’ business models transfer towards a multi-channel approach to satisfy customers wherever they are. However, the approach still faces some challenges due to which again the industry has shifted to a newer model called the Magento Omnichannel.
Why go for Magento Omnichannel Management System?
The alluring profit of Magento platform for Omnichannel can be divided into two sides; e-commerce and in-store experience. Integration, Appropriate marketplace, Search strategy, Social media, data management comes into e-commerce whereas unified experience, mobile-shopping app, order fulfillment, Cross-channel Inventory Visibility comes into in-store experience. Apart from this:
- Retailers Have Full Control of Their Business – One simple click can do wonders. Business owners can now look at the operation as a whole; all thanks to omnichannel. Just a few simple clicks can give them exactly what they need to find. Whether it’s about getting the stock info from a warehouse a country away or getting the performance overview of customer services or even discovering the best-selling items, stock predictions, and low-stock alerts, every task can be accomplished with ease.
- Personalized and Satisfying Customer Experience– Imagine a situation where your customer will be able to see exactly if the items they are looking for are available or not and in what color, size, and how many are left online in the local store in real time. He can also check the items in a store, try them on, judging the colors and designs, and have them shipped home directly. For a more seamless experience, they can simply start a conversation on Facebook and receive phone calls from customer services. Apart from this, they can follow up by emails or live chats, all without the conversation flow ever being interrupted.
Final Verdict
Using Magento Omnichannel, retailers will now have a much clearer picture of the experience craved by their current and potential consumers to keep them loyal and satisfied. In addition to this, giving transparency to your customers in one of the best ways to build their trust in your ecommerce store and promote loyalty which later translates into more conversions and a better brand image.