78% say customers do not have a one brand experience across channels
New York – April 21, 2016 – Periscope™, a McKinsey Solution focusing on price, promotion, and assortment optimization, has today announced the findings of research conducted at World Retail Congress 2016, held in Dubai at the beginning of April. Only 21% say they are more confident than a year ago on delivering omnichannel experiences, and 45% say progress is not happening fast enough.
At a time when shoppers are demanding a seamless experience across all brand channels, both on- and offline, retailers are struggling to move at the speed their consumers want and need. Periscope’s survey found 78% admit there is no one brand experience across their channels, whilst also acknowledging that “a well defined cross or multi-channel strategy” was the top innovation that would drive digital growth (64%).
The reasons behind the omnichannel struggle
39% stated that their digital channel alone was suffering from “a lack of internal coordination”, but looking at the broader omnichannel strategy, when asked about their top three challenges the following responses were given:
- Lack of customer analytics across channels (67%)
- Silo’d organization (48%)
- Poor data quality (45%)
- Inability to identity customers across shopping trips (45%)
The enemy within
Only 6% of respondents described their omnichannel readiness as “Excellent – fully implemented”, and 36% described themselves as “Testing a proof of concept”.
Commenting on the findings Channie Mize, General Manager for Retail at Periscope said, “Consumers are desperate for omnichannel experiences, they work across channels, why can’t their favourite retailers? In their minds it is a simple as that, and it leads to frustration, and diminishes brand loyalty. What is clear from the survey and conversation we had at World Retail Congress is that whilst there are technical challenges to delivering omnichannel experiences, the biggest challenge for retailers is the organizational change that needs to take place: the removal of organizational siloes, creation of new processes, and the forming teams that work across, rather than within channels. These take careful planning and execution, but cannot be ignored, because without them any retailer is doomed to fail.”
About Periscope™
Founded in 2007, Periscope™, a McKinsey Solution, offers a suite of solutions that accelerate and sustain commercial transformation for businesses. The company leverages world-leading IP (especially from McKinsey but also other partners) and best-in-class technology to enable transparency into Big Data, actionable insights and new ways of working that drive lasting performance, improvement, and a sustainable 2-7% increase in return on sales (ROS). With a truly global reach, Periscope™ is a unique Solution as a Service provider. The total solution includes ongoing refreshed insights, data management, software solutions, and expert capability-building support.
The portfolio of solutions comprises price & margin optimization, category & merchandising optimization and the insights foundation needed to power insightful actions. These are complemented by custom capability building programs.
To learn more about how Periscope’s solutions and experts are helping businesses continually drive better performance, visit www.periscope-solutions.com
For details on the research, please contact:
For Periscope™: General information, Christian Koestler, christian.koestler@periscope-solutions.com, +43-1-5370 6342.
Media contact: Gillie Tennant, Ascendant Communications, periscope@ascendcomms.net, +44 (0) 20 8334 8041 / +1 508 498 9300.