omnichannel: the new must have?
The New Black of PaymentsEven though the
name may make it sound complex, omnichannel payments simply means an ability to
take payments in a wide variety of ways, providing customers with the same
level of convenience and service for each one. Omnichannel is therefore an
umbrella term covering payments, from online and in-person to recurring
billing, invoicing and mobile; from cash and credit and debit cards to checks
and contactless payment.
What Does it Mean in Practice?
This, of course, means retaining the services of one or several processors who will then expand your payment options. Some processors only deal in one payment method while some are an all-in-one solution.
Using an all-in-one processor is recommended,
since having a secondary processor may sound like a good 'backup' policy, but
in reality means paying fees for services that are not used regularly. However,
you would be wise to have multiple merchant accounts with your processor, since
this is likely to positively affect your pricing, if the types of payment you
use include both card-present and card-not-present.
Omnichannel
allows customers to receive real-time assistance from the same customer
service, regardless of which channel they use, which greatly reduces customer
frustration. 9 out of 10 customers expect consistent interaction across all
channels and over two thirds research information on their items while in-store
before purchasing them as well as expecting staff to be knowledgeable about
online-only products. Over half of shoppers using omnichannel expect to be able
to purchase an item online and pick it up in-store. Likewise, the number of
touch points an average consumer uses while buying an item has increased from 2
to 6 over the last 15 years, with almost 50% of consumers regularly using more
than 4.
Toward Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction can significantly increase with omnichannel, since it streamlines the payments and service providing ('click and collect'), allows for impulsive purchases of even temporarily out-of-stock items, and thus increasing flexibility.
Purchases can be split, such as in the case of items available
in-store being charged for immediately and others upon restock. With
omnichannel payment, cards can serve as identification upon package delivery
if, of course, they were used to pay for said package.
Omnichannel Tokens Tell All
With omnichannel it is easy to spot consumer behavior across channels by using an omnichannel token in the form of a payment card. This will improve your customer knowledge.
Once you apply this information to your business practices, for example when creating loyalty programs, you will improve customer satisfaction. And since using tokens means you will no longer store card data on your servers, the risks to e-payment will be reduced and overall security improved.