Customer experience (CX) is the key to success in today’s retail world. Whether online or in-store, shoppers are looking for efficiency, engagement and personalisation. An omnichannel retail management system underpins a retailer’s ability to deliver a seamless and positive customer experience across all shopping channels. In this article, we’ll take a look at what an omnichannel retail management system is, why it’s so important, and the five ways it will help you deliver a shopping experience to delight your customers.

iVend’s omnichannel retail management system delivers a seamless CX. Learn how we’re helping retailers to succeed with omnichannel.

An omnichannel retail management system is a single, unified technology platform that brings together all the ways that customers want to engage with you – such as in-store, online, mobile, and social. It enables you to manage customer information, inventory, sales, and operations across channels in real time. The result is a consistent and seamless shopping experience for customers no matter where or how they choose to shop.

The simple answer is because customers demand it. Shoppers no longer distinguish between engaging with a retailer online or in-store, as witnessed by the massive growth of ‘hybrid’ transactions such as buy online pickup in store (BOPIS, also called click and collect), buy online return in store (BORIS), ship from store, showrooming and webrooming.

A 2024 survey showed that a massive 88% of shoppers expect a consistent omnichannel shopping experience.1 Another found that in the US, 73% of consumers already engage in hybrid shopping behaviors, blending online research, physical store visits and BOPIS transactions.

Not only are retailers meeting customer demands when they implement omnichannel, but they’re attracting exactly the kind of shoppers that help to grow their business: Omnichannel shoppers are 1.7x more likely to make repeat purchases3, and 46% of them are ‘advocate’ shoppers, who recommend their favourite brands to others.

So, you know you need to have a strong omnichannel offering, and maybe you’re already trying to deliver one. But just how would an omnichannel retail management system, like iVend, help? There are five important benefits that an omnichannel retail management system offers when it comes to delivering a positive customer experience:

An omnichannel retail management system like iVend pulls together customer data from a range of sources, to give a single, 360 degree view of the customer. Data from in-store, online, and mobile channels is all valuable and all contributes to building a complete picture, which enables you to offer personalised offers, loyalty integration, and consistent service whether a customer shops online or walks into a store.

Omnichannel success depends on accurate, real-time inventory management. Omnichannel transactions such as BOPIS and ship from store can only work if you have a single view of inventory, wherever it is located – in a warehouse, distribution centre or store – and if that inventory view is 100% accurate in real time.

When you have hybrid transactions, which may be started, paused and completed through any channel, it’s essential that those sales are instantly reflected throughout the system. iVend’s omnichannel retail management system enables this by integrating POS, eCommerce, mobile payments, and backend systems like ERP. This eliminates manual reconciliation for the retailer, and most importantly, makes for a smooth and seamless customer experience.

Shoppers get frustrated (often to the point of switching to another retailer) if the price they see online and in the store is different. Similarly if they receive an offer online that does not apply in store, or vice versa. Consistency of pricing and promotions is a particularly important element of a great omnichannel customer experience. With iVend retail software, you can centrally manage pricing rules and promotional campaigns, ensuring customers get the same experience everywhere, and reducing the headaches caused by disjointed pricing and offers.

Engagement with knowledgeable staff promotes a positive customer experience. If the customer has researched an item online and then comes into the store, the chance of closing the sale is greater if an associate can engage with that customer in the aisle, see what they have been browsing and encourage the purchase, potentially with a cross-sell or upsell. Similarly if the customer has come into the store to browse, an associate can help convert browsing to a sale. Mobile POS is the tool that enables this level of engagement, and iVend retail software enables store associates to access inventory management information, customer data, and checkout functionality – turning every staff member into a connected sales assistant.

Shoppers have clearly shown that they want omnichannel, and delivering it seamlessly is a winning strategy for retailers. An omnichannel retail management system helps them to deliver this customer experience, with unified data, inventory management visibility, transaction synchronization, consistent pricing and promotions, and greater associate engagement.