Consumer behaviors these days have been changing a lot. In order to convince them to make a purchase decision, it is not only about triggering consumer feelings, but also fulfilling them with quality, convenience and satisfaction.

Now there are more sale channels than a retail store. Many brands started to launch alternative market approach called Omni Channel. It combines various online and offline channels; website, mobile, retails, payment service and customer relation management.

The simple meaning of Omni Channel is to fully collect and manage customer data from all channels, and to integrate whole business operation to fulfill customer behavior and good experience. There is no boundary between online and offline channel, it is only “Customer experience” that is expected to deliver seamless experience in each sales channel. Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group has given a speech in The World Economic Forum that “We have been stating that we shall not separate online and offline channels.” A customer may explore a product on E-commerce platform and research product quality at the same time. The customer may text Facebook page or LINE for product and promotion inquiry before visiting a retail store. This is an example of Omni Channel.

Brands should be able to access stock availability of each branch and invite customers to visit their nearest store. Retail staff should offer the right product to those customers based on their data, analyze buying behavior to provide additional offerings, enhance sales opportunity, fulfill customer satisfaction, encourage re-purchasing and manage product delivery upon request. Amazon Go is one interesting retail use case that offers different shopping experience via its application. Customers can visit Amazon Go stores, pick a product and walk out. Selected products will be recorded on a virtual cart and will be checked-out with “Just Walk Out Technology”, customers do not have to make a payment at a checkout counter. Tracking sensors were developed to detect goods in a virtual shopping basket, and to remove shopping item when you return the product back to a shelf. Once finished, customers can review shopping items on mobile application and can leave the store right away without queuing as payment will be charged to their Amazon account.

In order to have a successful Omni Channel in Thailand, it is necessary for businesses to understand customer behavior. Thai customers seem to prefer a variety of convenient and connected channels for their product consideration journey. Customers may change their buying decision when they receive negative experience from online through offline. A stage of information search is an essential issue for both customers and brands.

Google research revealed that 80% of consumers used online sources in their decision process in 2017.

Search engine was the most powerful channel for consumers, 8 out 10 or 85 percent of search engine is used for information search. Online video content influenced Thai consumers in selecting products for 95% as it created positive impact towards brands.

A popular example among Thai community is from priceza.com (Shopping Search Engine and Comparison Platform). It shows 2017 figure of searched products as follows:

The top 3 of searched products are clothes (14.77%), electronics (13.96%) and mobile devices (11.38%) respectively. Therefore, brands should realize how to approach their consumers at the early stage, also how to provide full information of product and how to proactively react to negative feedback. These would kick start and lead Omni Channel marketing to success.

Dr. Than Chirathivat, Senior Vice President – Online Business of COL Public Company Limited from Central Group disclosed in Digital in Your Hand Event that Omni Channel could provide great benefits to business success. Key factor is to provide customers with the same set of data in every channel. This will drive greater sales volume and stock management as good connectivity will support efficiency of product delivery. He expressed that google search marketing is a good strategy that provide worthy return of investment. Google platform also supports Marketing Automation that is convenient for marketers.

Although the modern trade is complicated, businesses could apply applicable technologies and become successful if they had good understanding of consumers behaviors and good marketing relationship.

Source: brandinside, www.stream.co.th, amazon, www.toprankblog.com, brandbuffet.in.th, positioningmag.com