Omnichannel Strategy
In today’s marketplace, consumers are increasingly demanding a retail experience that seamlessly integrates brick-and-mortar and digital channels. While most businesses have invested in digital capabilities, many do not have a cohesive strategy that prioritizes and optimizes key intersections across channels. When this occurs, companies risk quickly falling short on meeting consumer needs and expectations.
L.E.K. Consulting leverages its deep digital expertise to build holistic omnichannel strategies for our clients. We help you drive growth in your organization by evaluating your consumer purchasing behaviors and realigning your channel strategies using world-class analytics. We provide our clients with actionable recommendations grounded in close collaboration.
Our approach
To aid in building an omnichannel strategy that aligns with consumer expectations and leverages today’s technological possibilities, we believe that retailers should consider the following questions:
- How do our customers shop and interact between channels? How does this compare to how they shop competitors or analog companies?
- What channels are driving the most value for us today? How will this change tomorrow?
- Do we have clearly defined roles for each channel on its own, and relative to the other channels? Are these roles being effectively played? What is required to minimize channel conflict?
- How can these channel roles better align to our customers’ life cycles? How should channels be integrated across the life cycle?
- What is the role of channels in fulfillment? How can a multichannel approach be utilized as a strategic advantage when competing with digital pure plays?
- What strategic steps must be taken to drive growth through each channel given its role within the organization and with the customer?
Our Successes
We have helped many retailers evaluate and recalibrate their channel approach to drive impactful omnichannel strategies.
National specialty goods retailer: For a big-box retailer whose ecommerce performance was lagging, L.E.K. performed a complete strategic review of its front-end platform, content management system, order management and fulfillment services, logistics, and customer service. L.E.K. developed business cases for managing each activity in-house, via a third party or in a hybrid model. By optimizing across the value chain, the retailer was able to significantly improve inventory management, drive new capabilities such as pickup in store and ship from store, and grow ecommerce sales 100% year over year despite a flat history.
Global footwear brand and retailer: We conducted a deep assessment of the company’s overarching channel strategies, including owned retail, owned ecommerce, wholesale, distributor partners and Amazon, and determined that a lack of cohesion and integration was negatively impacting sales performance. Using a combination of analytical techniques and collaboration with internal stakeholders, we built a holistic channel strategy tied to clear merchandising and marketing plans to promote omnichannel optimization and minimize cannibalization. The comprehensive project resulted in a 30% increase in the global ecommerce business.
Leading specialty apparel retailer: We supported the chain in driving a radical shift from its legacy retail approach to better align with current customer needs. The strategy began with retail stores as we diagnosed existing issues and developed and tested a new retail concept. To ensure the plan was comprehensive, the concept was integrated with the online experience and further launched in department store shop-in-shops. The overall strategy resulted in an enhanced multichannel experience for the customer, and for the client, eight-plus quarters of positive comps and market cap appreciation of more than 700%.