Multichannel vs Omnichannel: Benefits and Differences

Digital transformation, technological progress, and its demands have been key elements for businesses to increasingly seek new sales solutions to offer the best. The Multichannel strategy and the Omnichannel strategy use the channels in distinct ways in order to improve the customer experience.

The use of channels online and offline channels is essential to make a brand known and increase visibility and growth. Increasingly, brands are looking for more and new channels as it is relevant to adapt to the emergence of others and incorporate them as part of your strategy.

Below, we will explain in detail what each strategy is based on, how they differ, and which strategies we recommend you according to your business model and size.

What is a Multichannel strategy?

It is based on reaching the consumers of a brand using more than one channel to maximize the performance of each channel.

To use this strategy, we must know very well our target audience and how it behaves and communicates within the different channels. It is also important to know perfectly the channels they use to get the most out of them and create an effective multichannel strategy.

Benefits

• Different personalization for each of the brand's channels.
• Segmenting customers according to different channels.
• Knowing which channels work best and are most used.
• Maximizes the performance of each channel separately.
• Increase number of sales and number of customers.

What is an Omnichannel strategy

It is a strategy based on using multiple communication channels to accompany the consumer throughout their journey to unify and create a better customer experience.

It is not enough to have different platforms since the channels must act through an integrated communication between them and with a coherent approach where the focus is on the customer. It is an opportunity to accompany the customer throughout the purchasing process to increase their satisfaction with the brand.

Benefits

• Bidirectional interaction that improves communication between customer and brand.
• Increased loyalty through an amazing shopping experience.
• Improved user experience.
• The purchase process is facilitated for all users.
• Increase in sales.

Differences between a Multichannel and an Omnichannel strategy

The main difference is that the Multichannel strategy focuses on the channel, and the Omnichannel strategy focuses on the customer.

Another difference is the management strategy they use. In the case of the Multichannel, the channels are not connected to each other, i.e., the consumer's shopping experience is focused on a single channel. The Omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, allows channels to integrate and establish a connection between them, so that a customer, for example, can receive an email about a promotion, through which he can access the brand's website, and from there he can download the application to finally make the purchase and pick it up at a physical store.

As we can see, the omnichannel strategy allows a customer to start the buying process in one channel and finish it in another. The goal is to be present in the different channels and for them to be integrated with each other to improve the customer experience with a more coherent and fluid strategy.

Which of the two strategies is better for my business?

It's a decision that will depend on the needs and the goals of each company, the budget it wishes to invest in the different communication channels, and the way a company communicates. An Omnichannel strategy requires more time since the brand's target audience must be well researched to create consistent strategies according to their interests. Although, it is necessary to point out that this strategy will surely give you more benefits.

We are in an era of digital transformation where new communication options and new channels are appearing, so we should adapt to them as they appear.

It is necessary to focus on the consumer and not on the product or service. Why? Because if we focus all our attention only on offering more and better-quality products and services, we are leaving aside the human factor, that is, the consumer, who is really the reason for the success of a business.

Focusing on the consumer and their shopping experience will allow us to build customer loyalty and acquire new ones thanks to a good reputation and good customer service. In the end, there are thousands of brands that compete with you and you must differentiate yourself from them by offering a better Customer Experience. What better way than to use the different platforms that consumers use day after day to reach them and offer them different ways to speed up the purchasing process and allow them to decide where, how, when, and from whom to buy.

In short, an Omnichannel approach still has a Multichannel approach, since it offers users more than one channel, but the difference is in the way the different channels are used. In the case of Omnichannel, the channels are not used completely independently of each other as in Multichannel but are unified and integrated to enhance the customer experience.

The key is to introduce new channels little by little, according to the interests and usefulness of users, in order to synchronize them with existing channels.