March 2010 – Online Insights: Strategy

What Does Cross-Channel Really Mean for Retailers?
According to a paper from Harvard Business School titled “Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies,” more than 80 percent of retailers are now selling across multiple channels, including physical stores, websites and call centers. However, according to Forrester Research, less than a third of retail executives say their companies can provide a consistent customer experience across those channels.
While some retailers have implemented specific cross-channel initiatives such as the ability to purchase online and pick up the order in-store, very few are able to go beyond these basic transactional capabilities. As retailers develop their cross-channel strategies, it’s important they understand the three core principles of a true cross-channel experience.
A Single View of the Customer
In a recent CrossView study, we evaluated 26 leading multichannel retailers and assessed their cross-channel capabilities. We researched products, completed orders and tracked customer information across the online, call center and in-store channels. Of the 26 retailers we examined, only one–cross-channel trailblazer Best Buy–could access a customer’s online profile in-store. For the vast majority of retailers, this relatively straightforward–and potentially valuable–request proves to be a challenge.
Access to cross-channel information isn’t just an in-store problem. We found that in 62 percent of call center interactions, the customer service representative couldn’t access online customer profiles, either.
It’s fair to say, then, that although modern retail systems do a good job of capturing a tremendous amount of customer data, very few retailers can leverage that information to provide a single view of the customer across their sales channels. Having equal and consistent access to customer information–including customer preferences, order history and recent behaviors–is the key to creating a focus on the customer, no matter where they are.
An Endless Aisle of Inventory
Every day, countless orders are lost because products aren’t available when and where they’re demanded. Consider the simple example of a customer asking for a shirt in a specific style and size that isn’t on the rack. The product they’re looking for could be available in another store just a few miles away, or at a centralized distribution center waiting to be shipped to the customer’s home. Having visibility into available inventory regardless of location, coupled with the ability to then fulfill to any location, allows a retailer to save the sale and increase customer satisfaction.
Although this concept of the “endless aisle” has received a growing amount of industry attention, many retailers are challenged to make it a reality within their organizations. For example, according to Janet Sherlock at AMR Research, just over half of retailers are able to fulfill orders in one channel with inventory from another. We consider this capability critical for any retailer looking to derive maximum business value from their cross-channel platform.
A Consistent Customer Experience
Inconsistencies are a flashpoint for customer defection and lost sales, so retailers know that their brand experience should be consistent across channels. The same look and feel, the same tone, the same level of service–whether in a catalog, online or in-store–are all critical to maintaining a consistent experience with the brand.
Equally important is the need to maintain consistent pricing and promotions. In the CrossView cross-channel study, 58 percent of retailers offered different promotions across channels. When a customer is presented with an inconsistent experience, it can breed several levels of discontent. First of all, there is the immediate frustration that they aren’t getting the best deal. Second, and perhaps more important, the customer may feel they are being treated unfairly, creating feelings of mistrust and damaging brand loyalty.
In a true cross-channel environment, promotions and pricing are addressed once by the merchant and then leveraged across all channels. The retailer has the ability to initiate a promotion across the board, so the shopper who browses the catalog at home finds the same deals when they log in online or stroll through the store.
The Implications of Wider Cross-Channel Adoption
In spite of the clearly identified customer value of a cross-channel experience, the reality is that many retailers are bumping into the same barriers again and again. Just as we’ve defined some of the most important cross-channel principles above, it’s also critical that we address in clear terms what implementing a cross-channel solution will mean for retailers going forward.
A brief look at the evolution of online retailing provides a better understanding of the current divide in the retail business environment. The web started as a small offshoot of traditional retailing. When it entered a period of unprecedented growth, it became apparent that the web presented a formidable revenue opportunity and significant brand experience. Suddenly, the online channel had a seat at the table, so to speak. Unfortunately, that growth as an almost separate entity created side effects that are now obstacles to multichannel adoption.
The ramifications are clear. Different channel leaders are competing with one another–rather than working in tandem–for both customers and sales. For example, if the manager of a retailer’s physical store is incentivized based on in-store sales only, it’s understandable that he or she would be focused on converting and selling to the customers they have within their four walls. But this leads to lost sales and a bad customer experience.
The time has come for retailers to reinvent themselves and reconsider the traditional way of thinking. Consumers are becoming savvier by the minute. Those out shopping today already expect retailers to have these core cross-channel values in place. They become frustrated when they can’t move seamlessly between the web, the store and the call center. They become especially frustrated when they uncover inconsistencies in the overall experience, feeling that retailers are imposing their internal challenges on them, making it the customer’s problem.
A retailer risks higher customer defection and a loss of brand loyalty, which all translates into a loss of revenue. This is exacerbated by the rise of social media, which allows word of one bad experience to spread like a virus, impacting a retailer’s bottom line in near real-time.
What does this mean? The technology exists today to support full cross-channel adoption. The most significant obstacles remaining are the internal silos and the lack of alignment within the merchant organization. As a result, retail managers must lead from the top down to break apart existing barriers and advocate for improved processes for a new business environment. A retailer will need to examine all aspects of their operations–from bonus structures to organizational structures–to determine how each piece fits into a more integrated approach. Most important, retailers must establish clear cross-channel goals and metrics, and commit to ongoing testing and measuring against those goals to achieve maximum ROI.
Mark Fodor is CEO of CrossView, providers of multichannel commerce solutions for both B2B and B2C organizations. He can be reached at mfodor@crossview.com.

Still, many companies choose this boring route when developing their online video strategies, opting out of creating exciting, engaging clips and instead wasting time focusing on shows that only serve to drive viewers to tune out milliseconds after clicking “play.”
Those retailers are using video to guide consumers through the different buying cycles, create awareness of products and services, and to even do some hand-holding to help customers research their options and make the best purchase decisions. All of this goes a long way toward creating consumer loyalty, says Spio.
“If you give people the tools necessary to share new videos across sites like Facebook and Twitter, you’ll transform your customers into ambassadors for your products and services,” says Spio, who points to troubled
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Nesamoney adds. “To get online video right, you have to consider all of the different consumers who are scouring the web for information.” Spio concurs, and says the “short-attention-span consumer” will be most prevalent online. “Keep your videos simple, short and entertaining,” Spio says. “Ignore this rule, and you’ll see dismal results from your efforts.”

Say you’re running a paid search campaign for a computer supply store, and you have an ad set to trigger on “monitor”-related search queries. Using the broad match option is a great way to capture traffic from long-tail keywords you might not think of on your own, like “best price on flat-screen monitors.” But you definitely don’t want your ad to match for irrelevant phrases like “baby monitors” and “hall monitor”–those useless impressions will quickly drag down your click-through rate and Quality Score, driving PPC costs up.
In a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by
Let’s use the example of
Analysts and researchers alike are in agreement that more business is being conducted via the online channel than ever before. Companies embracing this new level of visibility are able to radically improve customer experience, brand affinity and agent productivity. It is also a great way to ensure that website errors or issues are rectified as quickly as possible, and customer sessions can be quickly packaged up so that underlying website issues can be corrected. With these changes on the horizon, the online customer experience, as a whole, certainly has a bright future “in store.”


Integration is definitely a hot topic. According to a recent 
Baiting viewers and leaving them wanting more also works well when creating persuasive clips, says Martin. “Show the viewer what you do and/or what you’re offering, but do it in a way that only provides a few key points,” he explains, “so that the viewer will want to learn more.” And don’t forget to tap into the persuasive nature of the video genre itself, the simple fact that moving pictures in and of themselves allow you to create very relevant content for a targeted audience.
Martin says the company that comes up with an integrated plan (which includes traditional advertising, a website, online video and other elements) that keeps viewers engaged stands the best chance of succeeding in the online video space.
The fact is, both sides have a lot of convincing arguments for their cases. Pre-roll’s detractors point out that the format annoys users, it isn’t scalable, it doesn’t exploit the promise of interactive and that new trends merit more funding (like last year’s “next big thing”–widgets). The format’s evangelists point to data showing that pre-roll improves purchase intent and brand recall, that it can have interactive companion banners (that can even expand) and that it’s better to invest in proven, if vexing, video ad solutions than, say, widgets.



Other advertisers are moving to the PPC content networks, directing their ads to appear on sites whose visitors comprise their target markets. As described in my book Customers Now, these networks are available to all advertisers currently using Google, Yahoo and Microsoft PPC platforms. The available number of impressions and clicks is growing faster on the engines’ content networks than on their search networks.
The agency-client relationship is quite different under the PPP model. There is much closer and frequent interaction during the planning and execution of well-managed PPC campaigns, e.g., in the designing process and the testing of PPC landing pages. Both parties need to feel assured that site analytics are accurately reporting visitor and sales data.
Forums – Building links through forums can be very tricky because they are typically monitored by a live person who is watching for advertising misuse. However, it can also be one of the most valuable tactics in terms of branding and the amount of targeted visitors. A popular strategy used is signature-based link building. This is good way to build brand credibility on the forum you’re participating in, as long as you contribute regularly and provide unbiased commentary to earn the trust of the forum participants. Sponsoring a contest is another way in which you can use forums to attract extra links. Lots of forums hold contests (photo contests, essay contests, etc.) regularly. Donate a prize to the winner of one of these contests, and you might receive a link in return.
Pages that would like to place your link using a meta tag that instructs “NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW” or is referenced in the robots.txt* to be disallowed by search-engine robots – Basically, this instructs search engines not to follow any links on that page–and thus, there will be no page rank for your site.
Reputation assaults by trolls represent a menacing and growing problem. Their actions encroach on direct-to-consumer commerce and our entire society’s free speech rights. Slanderous and false online postings are being enabled and protected from traditional slander and libel laws because of what amounts to a legal loophole known as the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Reportedly, the CDA was made into law so our legislators could avoid ruling on the political hot potato of community standards regarding pornography. To date, lawmakers have not been motivated to adjust the CDA to also protect and sustain our expectations of truth within free speech and to keep our rights from being trampled on by free-wheeling, online trolls acting with impunity.
The trolls are winning. Every day they become more emboldened and empowered by the growing number of questionable sites which are posing as consumer advocacy sites. They justify reprehensible activities by posing as “the good guys” as they conduct their businesses as wolves in sheep’s clothing. They need to be outed for who they are–the trolls leading the trolls–and they need to be regulated or neutralized in some way.