How CRM Can Power Your Omnichannel Strategy: A Must-Read for D2C

Ask your sales team - How was life before CRM?

Ours said - 

“It gets tough as you scale.

Up to 50 customers, that is considered as the early inception days, you can handle things manually, but when the mark crosses 60-70, management gets tough.

You start drowning, wherein you lose a few customers because you didn’t address their queries for weeks.”

An omnichannel strategy is one such technique, combined with the power of CRM, that is important in addressing customers - at scale and at platforms they are present - social media, email marketing, paid ads, etc. This combination is essential for successful Omnichannel Marketing Campaigns and CRM integration.

Today, we’ll dive into how a CRM can help you understand How can CRM support an Omnichannel strategy?

Why are Businesses Adopting an Omnichannel Strategy?

Businesses today are increasingly adopting an omnichannel strategy due to the shift in consumer expectations and buying behaviours. Customers expect seamless and consistent experiences across all touchpoints—whether it's a physical store, an online website, or a social media platform.

This shift has become particularly evident in India, where digital consumption is rising at a rapid pace.

Recent statistics show that over 73% of consumers in India engage with brands through multiple channels before making a purchase decision. With the rise of e-commerce and UPI transactions surpassing 10 billion monthly transactions, convenience and accessibility are key factors driving this change.

An omnichannel strategy enables businesses to unify these various touchpoints and provide a connected experience to customers. Some of the main reasons why businesses are adopting this strategy include:

• Improved Customer Engagement: Engaging customers across multiple channels enhances their overall experience. Studies show that omnichannel consumers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who engage with a brand through a single channel.
• Data-Driven Personalisation: With an omnichannel approach, businesses can collect and leverage customer data to deliver more personalised experiences. This includes tailored product recommendations, targeted offers, and real-time communication.
• Higher Conversion Rates: An omnichannel approach can lead to higher conversion rates by ensuring that customers receive consistent information and experiences across all touchpoints. This makes it easier for them to make purchasing decisions.

Increased Customer Loyalty: Providing a seamless experience across channels helps build stronger relationships with customers, which can lead to better retention rates and increased loyalty. In fact, 90% of customers in a recent survey said they expect consistent interactions across all channels.

What is an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?

An omnichannel strategy is an approach used by D2C brands that aims to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across its various channels and touchpoints.

These channels can include:

1. Physical stores
2. e-Commerce websites
3. Mobile apps
4. Social media platforms - Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, etc.
5. Email
6. Phone, and more.

In a recent study by Forbes, the correlation between higher engagement and omnichannel campaigns showed that 90% of customers expect their interactions to be consistent across all channels attributed to “rising customer expectations.”

Hence, providing customers with a consistent and unified experience when interacting with a brand, regardless of the channel they choose becomes important.

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Omni-Channel vs. Multi-Channel: Key Differences

While both omnichannel and multi-channel strategies involve engaging customers across various platforms, there are some key differences between the two approaches:

• Omni-Channel: In an omnichannel strategy, all channels are connected and integrated, offering customers a seamless experience as they move between different touchpoints. Whether a customer interacts with your brand on social media, visits a physical store, or shops online, their experience is consistent and unified. This connected approach ensures that customer data is shared across platforms, allowing for more personalised and contextual interactions.
• Multi-Channel: A multi-channel strategy, on the other hand, involves using different platforms to engage with customers, but these channels operate independently. For example, a business may have a website, social media accounts, and a physical store, but the interactions and customer data across these channels are not integrated. This can lead to inconsistent messaging and a disjointed customer experience.

In summary, the omnichannel approach focuses on delivering a cohesive experience by linking all customer touchpoints, while the multi-channel approach may offer convenience but lacks the connected, seamless experience customers expect today.

Features of an omnichannel marketing strategy

The customer needs have always been evolving - from Gen-X, to Gen-y, to Gen-Z. And that won’t change.

Be it in the product they use, the mode they pay from, or the channel they use to buy—everything requires a huge revamp.

UPI transaction, which is considered to be one of the easiest ways to make payments, has crossed 10 Billion monthly transactions.

Proving to us that…convenience is above anything!

Similarly, when it comes to e-commerce brands, an omnichannel approach is more effective because it elevates customer experience and provides them with a seamless buying flow.

As per a study by Aberdeen Group, companies with powerful omnichannel customer engagement see a 9.5% year-over-year increase in annual revenue, compared to 3.4% for weak omnichannel companies. 

That means, a business will need to make distinctions between specific channels for its analysis of what works best for them, but for customers; it doesn’t matter - especially younger ones. 

When customers don’t find similar products across all your channels, different coupons elsewhere, and can’t find what they're looking for, they may consider switching to a competitor.

Simple reason: They want and expect to receive consistently great interactions across all touchpoints. 

With Pragma’s products being used by 450+ D2C brands, we know exactly why businesses want to opt for an Omnichannel strategy.

Let us state the most important points below:

1. Provides a Better Customer Experience

• An omnichannel approach prioritises customer satisfaction by making it easier for them to engage with the brand through their preferred channels. 
• It allows customers to switch between channels without losing the context of their interactions, leading to a much more satisfying and efficient experience.

2. Improved Customer Loyalty

• By providing a seamless and consistent experience, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers. 
• This can result in increased orders from old customers, higher Customer Retention Rates, and better word-of-mouth.

3. Competitive Advantage

• As per the study by Aberdeen Group, businesses that provide a superior omnichannel experience can stand out from their competitors.
• Customers are more likely to choose brands that offer a quick and convenient shopping experience.

4. Brand Consistency

• Maintaining a consistent brand image and messaging across all channels helps in building a strong brand identity.
• This is complemented by Omnichannel strategies that help ensure that a brand's values and messaging remain consistent across all customer touchpoints and accessible via a simple dashboard.
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Benefits of Omni-Channel Help Desk and Customer Support 

Implementing an Omnichannel help desk and customer support system can really be the next best thing for your teams’ productivity. 

They offer a wide range of benefits for businesses aiming to provide excellent customer service.

Let us list down some of these advantages below:

1. Efficient Issue Resolution
2. Enhanced Agent Productivity
3. Reduced Response Times
4. Consistent Messaging
5. Data Collection and Analysis
6. Cost Savings
7. Customer Retention
8. Personalisation
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Best practices for creating an omnichannel marketing strategy

One strategy doesn’t fit all!

But, it can give you an idea of how to build your base.

This means that what worked for Amazon might not work for you but for some of your competitors. Hence, for you to succeed in this market full of competition, it’s important that you build your own strategy.

To help you build this strategy, let us help you with the building block which if incorporated can help you build a long-lasting strategy.
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Let’s learn them below:

Build on Customer Data

Centralising customer data is essential. It allows you to provide a personalised experience across all channels by having a 360-degree view of customer interactions, previous buying history, preferences, and others. Effective Data Analytics and Omnichannel CRM can significantly enhance this process:

• Customer interactions
• Previous buying history
• Preferences, and others

Integration of Various Channels

How about ensuring that customers can move between channels without disruptions? 

Such a value-added benefit enables brands to firstly showcase similar offerings across channels and secondly, it helps brands with a consistent flow of user information, helping in improving the customer experience.

Maintaining Consistent Branding

A consistent brand image, messaging, and customer service standards across all channels reinforce your brand identity and build customer trust and recognition. 

This in turn lets your users identify you easily when they search for a product you sell - Brand Recall.

Targets Users via Customer Segmentation

Segmenting your customer base based on behaviour, preferences, and demographics such as age, gender, city/region, etc. allows for more personalised interactions.

Generally, with such tailored marketing efforts, significant improvement in customer satisfaction is seen and also helps build trust in customers’ minds for your brand.

Real-Time Communication

Implementing real-time communication and collaboration tools for your support teams ensures they have access to customer data and can provide immediate assistance, enhancing the overall customer experience.
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Other important factors include:

1. Feedback Loops
2. Security and Compliance
3. Mobile Optimisation
4. Measurable Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
5. Marketing and Content Strategy
6. Social Media and Community Engagement
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These are fundamental yet crucial elements for delivering a successful omnichannel strategy.

But remember, based on the products you provide, average order size, and the area you operate in; all contribute towards a perfectly curated Omnichannel Strategy.
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The Role of CRM in Omnichannel Strategy

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is crucial in supporting and enhancing an omnichannel strategy.

It acts as the backbone of the strategy, helping businesses manage and optimise customer interactions across multiple channels. Here's the role of CRM in an omnichannel strategy:

Quick Ticket and Query Resolution

• CRM systems can manage real-time and quick customer support requests. This ensures that inquiries are routed to the right agents, prioritised, tracked, and resolved across channels in the fastest manner possible.
• Such an automated strategy of assigning customer queries helps in building trust more efficiently and effectively towards your customer support and the brand overall.

Helps in Setting Up Automated Workflows

• Looking to automate processes such as lead nurturing, sales follow-ups, customer support queries, etc? A CRM can help you do that.
• This automation ensures that customers receive timely and relevant communication, increasing efficiency and reducing manual effort.

Provides a 360-degree Customer View

• CRM systems provide a 360-degree view of each customer. This includes contact information, purchase history, past interactions, preferences, and other relevant data. 
• With this comprehensive understanding, businesses can deliver highly personalised experiences to customers, build opportunities for up-sell and cross-sell

Let’s Your Team Interact Cross-Channel

• With a CRM platform in place, interaction with customers can now happen across various channels, and with the Omnichannel approach, each conversation can be built on top of the previous - enabling a seamless flow of information between channels. 
• When customers switch channels, whether from online to a physical store or from a chatbot to a call centre, agents can access the customer's history and provide consistent support, ensuring a smooth and efficient customer journey.
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How a CRM Can Boost Your Omnichannel Marketing and Sales Efforts?

With the fundamentals of an Omnichannel CRM covered, let's now delve into the key features it can bring to a D2C brand. D2C CRM and Omnichannel Marketing strategies can effectively leverage these features to drive customer engagement and sales

Method 1: Facilitates The Deployment of Drip Campaigns to Engage Customers

• Drip campaigns serve as a communication strategy utilised by Sales and Marketing teams to send out personalised messages, emails, or materials to prospective clients or current customers over a specified period.
• The primary aim of a drip campaign is to nurture leads, promote upselling to existing customers, or gently guide recipients with time-sensitive offers such as holiday sales, clearance sales, etc., based on their past interactions.
• This method empowers businesses to send promotions, encourage prompt responses, and provide real-time assistance through automated drip campaigns. With the ability to automate these drips, no potential customer goes unattended.

Method 2: Attract More Promising Prospects Through Mass Messaging

• Mass messaging entails the practice of sending a large volume of messages simultaneously to a designated group of recipients.
• This approach facilitates engaging your desired audience, boasting an impressive 99% open rate, and enabling you to segment users by crafting campaigns centred on fundamental demographic factors, such as location, buying habits, age group, gender, average order value, etc.

Method 3: Ensures a Smooth Checkout Process

• Guiding the user to the checkout page is tough. A greater challenge arises when users face obstacles during the payment phase.
• This essentially implies that users may abandon their purchase if their preferred payment methods, such as UPI or Net Banking, are not offered. But with a CRM, you can integrate various payment methods as well.

Yet, with a solution like Pragma, there's no necessity to redirect users or subject them to a cumbersome checkout process when making payments. Pragma seamlessly manages the entire purchasing journey, including payments, all within a single screen.

Method 4: Access to Product Catalogues and Collections for Users

• Imagine the ability to present all your products directly to users without requiring them to navigate elsewhere.
• This approach allows you to utilise a conversational platform, like WhatsApp's interface, to showcase all your product offerings in a convenient catalogue format, reducing the checkout time and eliminating the need for users to switch between apps or download new ones.
• Moreover, the key advantage is that it supports multi-channel communication, granting businesses the flexibility to interact with customers through their preferred communication channels.

Method 5: Offers a Framework for Cross-Selling and Upselling Services

• By having access to a comprehensive customer history, prior interactions, preferences, and more, your sales team can pinpoint cross-selling and upselling prospects with greater precision.
• This approach can result in higher revenue per customer and a more customised strategy for proposing supplementary products or services to existing customers.
• Cross-selling and upselling are recognised as some of the most effective strategies for boosting revenue from a particular customer, as these customers already have trust in your brand. 
• By transparently highlighting the challenges and advantages of your products, you can successfully seal another deal.

Method 6: Build collaboration across teams in your brand

• Finally, an omnichannel CRM helps in collaboration among various departments, such as sales, marketing, and customer support. 
• This collaboration streamlines the sharing of customer information and insights, ensuring that everyone is on the same page, which can lead to more cohesive and effective sales efforts.

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Which Omnichannel CRM can work best for you?

Did you realise how important it is for your e-commerce brand to adapt to an Omnichannel approach?

With an Omnichannel approach in place, the next thing you’ll need is CRM software that can help you perform all your customer interactions seamlessly.

Hence, a platform that is a perfect mix of helping you automate the majority of the stuff; while providing a seamless customer experience.

With Pragma’s Omnichannel CRM, your team can automate sales, marketing, and customer support teams - helping you increase marketing and sales-qualified leads, and at the same time freeing up your team's time for more critical tasks.

Not only this, but with Pragma, you can configure Quick Replies and keyboard shortcuts to save valuable time and manual effort and even offer multi-lingual support in 16+ languages while following up smartly with our powerful NLP.

Interesting?

Allow the experts at Pragma to understand your use case and how you can leverage our Omnichannel CRM to fuel up your sales funnel.

Examples of Omnichannel CRM Strategy

To better understand how omnichannel CRM strategies are applied, here are a few examples from real-world brands that have successfully integrated these strategies:

Nykaa: One of India’s largest beauty and wellness retailers, Nykaa uses an omnichannel approach by offering both online shopping and physical stores. With the help of a CRM system, Nykaa ensures that customer data is seamlessly integrated across platforms, allowing them to offer personalised recommendations, loyalty programs, and targeted marketing campaigns. This helps customers experience consistent service whether they shop online or in-store.

Reliance Retail: Reliance Retail has adopted an omnichannel strategy to connect its physical stores with its e-commerce platform JioMart. Customers can browse and purchase products online and pick them up in-store, or choose home delivery. Their CRM system allows for seamless data exchange across platforms, ensuring that customer preferences and purchase history are used to provide personalised offers and services.

Tata CLiQ: Tata CLiQ, a prominent e-commerce platform in India, uses an omnichannel CRM strategy to create a unified shopping experience for its customers. By integrating its online store with brick-and-mortar locations, Tata CLiQ offers services like click-and-collect, real-time stock availability, and personalised product suggestions. Their CRM system helps track customer interactions across all channels, ensuring a seamless and customised experience.

Domino’s Pizza: Domino’s India has also embraced an omnichannel strategy by allowing customers to order through multiple platforms—website, app, phone, or physical stores. Their CRM system integrates customer data from all channels, enabling Domino’s to provide personalised offers, real-time order tracking, and a consistent experience regardless of how the customer places their order.

These examples demonstrate the value of an omnichannel CRM strategy in improving customer engagement, loyalty, and sales. By leveraging data and connecting all touchpoints, businesses can provide a seamless experience that meets the modern consumer's expectations.

FAQs

What is omnichannel strategy, and how does it differ from a multichannel approach?

An omnichannel strategy integrates various channels seamlessly to provide a unified shopping experience for customers, whereas a multichannel approach operates channels independently. In omnichannel strategy, customers can transition between channels effortlessly, maintaining continuity in their interactions with the brand.

How can a CRM system support an omnichannel strategy?

An omnichannel CRM strategy enables businesses to gather and consolidate customer data from multiple touchpoints, including online and offline channels. This comprehensive view of customer interactions allows for personalized communication and targeted marketing efforts across all channels, enhancing the overall customer experience.

What role does data integration play in implementing an omni channel CRM strategy?

Data integration is crucial for an omnichannel CRM strategy as it enables businesses to synchronize customer data from various sources, such as online stores, social media platforms, and brick-and-mortar stores. This unified view of customer information allows for consistent messaging and personalized interactions across all channels.

How does an omnichannel CRM strategy improve customer engagement and satisfaction?

By leveraging customer data collected through various channels, an omnichannel CRM strategy enables businesses to deliver targeted and relevant communication to customers. This personalized approach fosters deeper engagement, increases customer satisfaction, and strengthens brand loyalty over time.

What are some key benefits of implementing an omni-channel CRM strategy?

Implementing an omnichannel CRM strategy enables businesses to deliver a seamless shopping experience across all channels, improve customer retention and loyalty, increase sales and revenue, gain valuable insights into customer behavior, and maintain a competitive edge in the market.