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Why Consolidating Traditional & Digital Commerce is Crucial to Omnichannel Agility and Viability for Marketers?

By February 27, 2023August 11th, 2023No Comments

Have you noticed how the business world is constantly changing? Sports companies and organizations need to be able to keep up if they want to stay competitive. One way to do this is by combining traditional and digital commerce. It makes for a smoother customer experience across all channels. In this blog post, we’ll talk about why it’s important to have both and give you some tips and best practices for making it happen.

Just so we’re on the same page, let’s make sure we understand what’s meant by “traditional” and “digital” commerce. “Traditional” commerce means selling in physical stores, while “digital” commerce implies selling goods and services through online channels like websites and apps. Bringing these two together creates a consistent customer experience, regardless of where they connect with a sports company.

Here’s what consolidating traditional and digital commerce can do for you:

It can help create a smoother customer experience. This is called an “omnichannel” approach, where you connect with customers across different channels, like in-store, online, and mobile. By bringing these two forms of commerce together, you can offer a more consistent and unified experience, no matter how the customer chooses to interact with your company.

For example, a sports company or organization can use digital channels to provide customers with personalized recommendations, offers, and promotions, allowing customers to purchase those items in-store or online easily. This creates a seamless and convenient experience for customers, as they can engage with the brand in multiple ways and receive consistent service and engagement.

Another advantage of combining traditional and digital commerce is the chance to gather and study customer behavior and preferences data. When you have data from all channels, you get a better understanding of what your customers like and how they behave. This information can then be used to create marketing campaigns that truly resonate with them. And, since you have a complete view of customer data, it’s easier to spot patterns and trends that can help you make smart business choices and enhance the customer experience.

Here are some steps you can take to bring traditional and digital commerce together.

investing in a robust ERP system can help you manage and combine data across all channels. Having a good CRM system is also crucial, as it helps you keep track of customer data and interactions across all channels.

Another critical step is making sure all channels can talk to each other. This means linking up digital channels like websites and apps with in-store systems like point of sales and inventory management. This way, you can keep data and inventory updates in real time, leading to a better customer experience and helping you avoid running out of stock.

Here are a few examples of how sports merchandisers are consolidating traditional and digital commerce to achieve omnichannel agility.

  1. Nike – Nike has consolidated its traditional retail stores and digital commerce through its mobile app and website. Customers can browse and purchase in-store and online products, and their purchases and preferences are tracked through a unified system.
  2. Adidas – Adidas has consolidated its traditional retail stores and digital commerce by integrating its in-store point-of-sale system with its online store. This allows for real-time inventory updates and a seamless shopping experience, regardless of whether customers are shopping in-store or online.
  3. Under Armour – Under Armour has consolidated its traditional retail stores and digital commerce through its Connected Fitness platform, allowing customers to track their fitness progress and purchase products through a unified system.

It’s important to ensure all channels offer the same service and interaction to customers. This includes offering the same quality of customer support across all channels and ensuring that all channels are equally user-friendly and convenient.

And last but not least,
it’s important to regularly evaluate and refine the combined traditional and digital commerce system. One way to do this is through A/B testing various parts of the system, like checkout procedures and custom recommendations. By testing and making improvements, you can see what’s effective and what needs improvement.

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