This retail vertical leads in omnichannel best practices

A new study reveals which vertical has the highest adoption rate for solutions such as optimized content, frictionless checkout, and cross-channel capabilities.

According to the seventh annual 2022 Omnichannel Retail Index from OSF Digital, most of the 115 retail companies in the Index have implemented less than 61% of best practice capabilities, sometimes struggling to deliver seamless shopping experiences. However, the office/electronics vertical led the Index overall, with members averaging 70% adoption of omnichannel best practices.

Following office/electronics retailers were department store retailers (66%) and home/houseware retailers (65.9%). However, the unidentified highest-ranking company in the Index has implemented 85% of the Index’s designated best practices. This marks a significant jump from 2021, when the highest score was 72%.

In total, 12 companies have outperformed the 2021 Index leader with scores ranging from 73% to 85%. Meanwhile, the lowest-ranking retailer in the current Index has implemented 44% of the designated best practices.

Some other key Index findings include:

• The implementation of buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS)/curbside pickup has increased significantly, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighty-four percent of retailers in the Index offer BOPIS, while 62% offer curbside pickup service. However, the Index finds that adoption of supporting functionalities that enable frictionless experiences has mainly remained flat in the past years, including the abilities to schedule pickup times and filter by store availability.

• Only 49% of loyalty programs offered by retailers in the Index allow shoppers to redeem points for product discounts, and even fewer allow shoppers to redeem points for "experiences.” 

• Two-thirds (67%) of retailers in the Index promote sustainable products or sustainability programs. 
• Eight in 10 (81%) of retailers in the Index offer some type of mobile payment option.
• More than half (56%) of retailers in the Index offer some type of customer service option at online checkout.

Precisely survey reveals top customer service investments
According to “How Data is Driving Next-Generation Customer Experiences,” a recent survey of 100 global customer experience executives from data governance technology provider Precisely, 96% of respondents have invested or plan to invest in data integration, data integrity, or data enrichment technologies.

Over half (51%) of respondents to the Precisely survey are partnering with hosted managed services (HMS) providers to achieve goals including reducing costs (63%); providing better customer communications (55%); and improving operational efficiency (33%).

“Retailers and brands have quickly adopted new capabilities driven by the pandemic, but the necessary customer experience continues to evolve,” said Bernardine Wu, executive managing director of digital strategy at OSF Digital.

“This year’s report shows an enormous opportunity for the industry to meet customer demands and provide a seamless and memorable customer experience,” said Gerard (Gerry) Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital.

To view the full findings, visit: https://omnichannelretailindex.com/

Based on mystery-shopping by OSF Digital´s strategy consultants, the 2022 Omnichannel Retail Index examines how 115 leading U.S. and global retailers (22 of which are online-only) perform against more than 250 criteria across web, mobile, and in-store. For the first time, this year’s report also shares consumer research and data by GfK to understand where retailers and brands are delivering or falling short of consumer expectations.