Omnichannel

What it means

Omnichannel is an approach in which a company connects all its sales and communication channels into one whole: physical shop, online shop, mobile app, marketplace, social media and customer support. A customer can start a purchase in one channel and finish it in another without starting over.

Typical examples are ordering online and collecting in store, returning goods bought online to a physical shop, the same prices and loyalty points everywhere, or support staff who see the customer’s whole history wherever they bought.

It differs from multichannel, where a company has several channels that work separately, precisely in the connection. It needs a single stock pool, one customer database in the CRM and prices and stock levels synchronised in real time.

How it works in practice

For the books, omnichannel makes matching demanding. Takings come through the e-kasa in the shop, the payment gateway online, marketplace payouts and cash-on-delivery from the carrier. Each channel must be distinguished correctly in the books and matched to orders.

A single stock record is key. If the website sells an item that has just been sold in the shop, the result is a cancelled order and an unhappy customer. At the stocktake, differences between warehouses and channels are then hard to track down.

When goods bought online are returned in store, the corrective document must be issued properly and the money refunded in a way that matches the original payment. For VAT and sales records these situations need clear set-up.

What to watch out for

The most common mistake is launching another channel without connecting the systems. The company then has three sources of figures that do not agree and cannot say at month end how much it really sold and at what margin.

The second risk is different prices and terms across channels, which customers quickly spot. A difference between the online and in-store price may be legitimate, but it must be clearly communicated or it will damage trust.