Omnichannel Retail Media: How to Implement Your Advertising Strategy Across Platforms

With the digitalization going on, we can observe that сlear boundaries between the online and offline worlds are gradually fading in many areas, including retail. Digital solutions are becoming integral to how retail chains interact with consumers. However, the importance of offline shopping should not be underestimated even among Gen Z. More than 60% of Gen Z respondents admitted in a 2024 survey that they prefer physical stores for holiday shopping. At the same time, at the beginning of 2024, it was revealed that 75% of shoppers use the app or website while making purchases at Target shops. Among Gen Z visitors, this figure rises to over 90%.

Such data demonstrate the interconnection of all communication channels and platforms in consumer interactions within the retail segment. This, in turn, serves as strong evidence of the importance of a comprehensive omnichannel retail media strategy for ensuring the efficiency of your marketing and advertising efforts.

Omnichannel Engagement and Why Is It Important?

With this approach, retailers can avoid siloed marketing efforts that often lead to fragmented customer interactions. 

The shift from traditional marketing, which focuses on one primary channel, requires businesses to adopt advanced tools and technologies, including customer data platforms (CDPs) and integrated marketing software. Such tools gather, analyze, and work with data across all touchpoints.

Examples of omnichannel experiences:

• Digital ads on the retailer’s website that complement in-store promotions;
• Personalized emails and mobile notifications that reflect a user’s browsing history;
• Social media campaigns that drive traffic to online stores and physical locations;
• Mobile apps that integrate with in-store experiences (for example, offer digital payment options or loyalty programs).

Multichannel and Omnichannel: Isn’t It Just the Same?

Both approaches involve using multiple platforms. However, their focus and strategy execution differ significantly.

• The multichannel approach uses various platforms, including online stores, physical locations, and social media, but it often treats them as separate entities. The focus is on maximizing the presence of the brand across different channels. But there isn’t a task to provide a unified experience. As a result, customers may face inconsistent and confusing messaging and disjointed interactions.
• Unlike this approach, the omnichannel strategy should align all platforms to ensure a cohesive customer journey, whether people interact with your business online, in-store, or through other touchpoints. Omnichannel engagement ensures a smooth transition between platforms and offers personalized interactions based on customer behavior and preferences.

The implementation of omnichannel in retail requires specific efforts. However, all of them will pay off, given a wide range of new opportunities and benefits that retailers can leverage with this approach.

Perks of the Omnichannel Approach

• Smooth and comprehensive customer experience. A well-thought-out omnichannel strategy ensures higher customer satisfaction. People can start their journey on one platform and seamlessly move to another without losing continuity.
• Data-driven personalization. Today, there is a growing trend for hyperpersonalization. Omni-channel retail media strategies should rely on data from various touchpoints to provide tailored recommendations and personalized content.
• Enhanced targeting. When retailers understand customer behavior across channels, they can craft more effective campaigns that resonate with their audience.
• Higher ROI on ad spend. Omnichannel strategies help to maximize the efficiency of advertising. It is possible thanks to targeting the right customers on the right platforms, which reduces wasted spend and boosts conversion rates.
• Better customer retention. A consistent customer experience fosters trust and loyalty. This approach leads to increased repeat purchases and longer-lasting customer relationships.
• Cross-channel attribution. Omnichannel engagement allows retailers to track and measure the effectiveness of campaigns across all channels. The collected insights help to get a complete picture of what works and optimize future efforts.

Key Challenges of Implementing Omnichannel Strategies

You may encounter the following pitfalls when implementing an omnichannel approach. However, the more you know about them in advance, the more prepared to address them you will be.

Challenge 1. Fragmented data sources

The omnichannel strategy presupposes you will work with data from diverse channels, including in-store transactions, online browsing behavior, social media engagement, mobile app interactions, etc. Nevertheless, consolidating all this data in different formats and volumes can become a significant challenge. Fragmented data may lead to an incomplete picture of customers’ preferences. This will make it difficult to deliver precise targeting and personalization.

Challenge 2. Integration of unifying technologies

Retail media activities are typically supported by different tech solutions: customer relationship management (CRM) systems, data management platforms (DMP), and customer data platforms (CDP). However, for a business, it may not be the most straightforward task to integrate all these systems and ensure smooth data exchange between them. Disjointed systems can result in inefficiencies of processes and overreliance on manual work.

Challenge 3. Complex attribution models

Mapping customer journeys on one platform sometimes becomes a challenging task. But when you need to deal with multiple platforms simultaneously, the task is even more complicated. Attribution models often fail to account for cross-channel interactions. In such a situation, it is difficult to measure campaign effectiveness and optimize marketing spend accurately.

How to Address these Challenges

The pitfalls mentioned above can significantly complicate the process of the omnichannel introduction. Nevertheless, there are efficient ways to overcome these difficulties.

• Software platforms for data consolation. Such solutions can centralize data from multiple sources into a single view of the customer. As a rule, these platforms are powered by machine learning tools that break down silos and ensure consistency across channels.
• Professional approach to software integration. Today, most off-the-shelf and custom retail media platforms are equipped with APIs and integrations that bridge gaps between CRM, DMP, and CDP systems. If you do not have in-house specialists to help you with this seamless software integration, you can turn to external professionals. At Geomotiv, we have rich expertise in working with AdTech solutions and will always be ready to help you with any of the related tasks.
• Enhanced attribution models. Modern retail media solutions often utilize sophisticated algorithms to track customer interactions across channels. These tools enable businesses to adopt multi-touch attribution models and accurately measure the effectiveness of all their campaigns.

How to Build Omnichannel Engagement: Your Go-To Strategy

When you are planning to introduce an omnichannel approach, you should clearly understand the main tasks and goals of your efforts. Based on our practical experience working with retailers, we have formulated some core elements of the omnichannel strategy implementation.

Data-Driven Personalization

Personalization has become a standard across many industries, including retail. People want recommendations and ads that align with their needs and preferences. If they don’t see any relation between the provided content and their pain points or interests, they will never be attracted by such an offer.

By tailoring experiences and communication with people based on customer data, you will make interaction with your brand and platforms much more valuable for users. Here are a couple of ideas on how this can be achieved:

• Dynamic recommendations. AI algorithms can suggest products or services based on past purchases, search history, or similar customer profiles. For example, your platform can show complementary items, like a phone case with a smartphone purchase or products frequently bought together.
• Interactive online ads. You can introduce interactive elements in ads. They will let users select preferences and demonstrate their interests. This will give people a sense of control while helping you collect valuable data for future personalization.
• Segmentation and targeting. It will be helpful to divide your audience into micro-segments based on data like age, location, or interests. You can create personalized messages or offers for each segment when you already have these groups. For instance, there can be discounts for frequent buyers or special deals for new customers.

This will significantly improve engagement rates and increase sales.

Seamless Customer Experience

The main idea of the omnichannel for retail concept is to seamlessly integrate all your online and offline channels to make customer interaction with them as convenient as possible.

One of the examples of such integration is the click-and-collect option. It is also known as "buy online, pick up in-store”. It means that customers can shop online but collect their purchases in-store at their convenience. As a result, they won’t need to pay for delivery or wait for a courier to arrive at home. Such initiatives help to ensure both speed and flexibility in the shopping process.

Interactive In-Store Experiences

Interactive in-store experiences are powerful tools for engaging customers. For instance, in-store demonstrations allow customers to see products in action and make purchasing decisions more quickly.

Today, it is possible to use emerging technologies like VR and AR to make such experiences even more engaging. In a furniture store, customers can use an AR app to visualize how a piece of furniture would look in their home. At the same time, VR mirrors can be used by those who want to see how clothes would look without physically trying them on.

Also, do not forget that gamification elements can be added not only to online experiences but also in-store. For example, a sportswear store can set up a fitness challenge. People will take part in various activities to win product prizes. Such initiatives can boost your clients' loyalty and attract new customers who have never heard about your brand.

Customer Loyalty

More than 70% of US consumers believe loyalty programs are a brand loyalty driver. At the same time, 73% of respondents admitted changing the amount they spend to get higher loyalty program benefits. Aren’t these figures impressive enough to think about launching such a program to boost customer loyalty?

Thanks to the digital tools available today, businesses and consumers can enjoy the benefits of personalized loyalty programs. By relying on customer data collected from various channels, brands can create relevant offers and provide exclusive perks to clients.

This can significantly drive repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth, which are vital in the long term.

The Role of Retail Media Networks in Omnichannel Strategy Implementation

The advertising messages can be published in different formats:

• display ads;
• sponsored product placement;
• in-store promotions;
• email campaigns.

What makes retail media so valuable for brands is that such tools rely on first-party data collected by retailers directly from customers. This data provides an accurate understanding of customer preferences and purchasing patterns. 

Thanks to such platforms, retailers can execute complete control over all ads demonstrated to customers. As a result, they can protect their brand identity and build consistent omnichannel engagement.

Apart from the assistance in the realization of the omnichannel strategy, RMNs can also ensure extra income flows for retailers.

How can you monetize a retail media network? The main monetization option is ad placement across all available online and offline channels. There can be different approaches like cost-per-click, cost-per-action, or revenue share on sales.

But the main idea is that the more precise targeting retailers can ensure, the more efficient the ad placement on their platforms will be. Consequently, higher satisfaction will be achieved by advertisers.

Best Practices for Introducing Omni Channel Retail Media

The following tips will help you maximize the benefits of your omnichannel approach in retail media activities.

1. Efficient data collection.  It is recommended that data collection is not limited to a single channel but gathered across all available touchpoints. It could be in-store purchases, online browsing activity, mobile app interactions, loyalty programs, and email engagements. Thanks to this, you will be able to deliver impactful customer-centric strategies.
2. AI and ML integration. AI and ML can process vast volumes of data quickly and efficiently to deliver customer-centric experiences. Personalized recommendations, real-time adaptation across channels, and context-aware content delivery are the most common examples.
3. Consistent messaging. Ensure that everything you tell your customers is in line with what you show them. Any conflicting, inconsistent, or misleading information on even a single channel jeopardizes customer trust and may hurt your brand identity.
4. Customer feedback loops. It’s vital to hear what your customers think about your business and products. That’s why we recommend you not miss the possibility of collecting feedback through various channels. You can organize surveys on your website and app, attentively study comments and mentions on social media, accumulate and analyze feedback, and implement relevant changes based on consumer insights.
5. Community building. One of the most efficient ways to increase customer loyalty is to foster a sense of community. To do it, you need to create an environment where customers feel connected to your brand and other people with similar thoughts and values. How to achieve this? You can create interactive spaces like social media groups where people can connect and engage, host events, encourage user-generated content, introduce loyalty programs, etc.
6. Strategic partnerships. Collaborations with other retailers, data providers, and analytics firms will allow you to leverage additional resources to create more efficient, data-driven campaigns. For example, by joining forces with an e-commerce platform or a logistics company, you can access valuable data across multiple touchpoints that were not available to you before.

Conclusion

The omnichannel retail approach fosters deeper customer engagement and enhances overall retail media effectiveness. 

Adopting such an approach improves customer retention and drives more significant ROI for ad spend. The demand for more personalized and data-driven experiences is continuously growing. Those retailers who leverage integrated AdTech solutions and retail media platforms will have a high chance of staying ahead of the competition.