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How Businesses and Startups Can Integrate Offline and Online Retail Channels in Nigeria (Part 2)

Emmanuel Nnaemeka

Invoice NG

  Employing online and offline channels in your business is a crucial part of doing business in a post-pandemic world. In a previous post, I reported that in 2021, over 53% (over 300 million) Africans became active e-commerce purchasers. In 2025, the number will increase to 500 million, an over 20% growth.
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Therefore, businesses can no longer afford to sleep on designing their business around an omnichannel model. In this article, we shall continue our previous post as I discuss three ways business operators can integrate online and offline retail channels in Nigeria. In developing an omnichannel business, it is very important to review your pricing strategy otherwise, you will get messed up in the long run. It is enough to link price with the level of cost efficiency across distribution, but the willingness of your customers to pay is. For example, some Nigerians aren’t bothered about the charges for home deliveries, especially those in the middle and upper classes. However, some mid-income earners might not desire to bear an additional charge for buying online. Therefore, customers’ ability to pay should be at the centre of omnichannel integration and pricing strategy.  Also, business operators must note what products customers are more inclined to buy and accrue the attached charges in an omnichannel setting. For instance, the margins on computer accessories, fashion products, electronics and phones appear higher on e-commerce platforms than on food items sold in Nigeria.
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Uniform or erratic pricing may be a challenge for an omnichannel business. Before embracing an omnichannel technique, ensure that you perceive pricing dynamics across channels, including unit economics and profit margin. To ensure a successful omnichannel business, you need the right technology architecture that can deliver a streamlined and successful customer experience. The platform must have a personalized interface that guarantees seamless use from UX to UX. Aside from that, the omnichannel must have a 360-degree front end and a back end to handle customers’ requests. Hence, resources like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can help your business manage inventory, company financials, supply chain, operations, standardized reporting, and human resource activities across channels. Also, solution providers like Oracle retail omnichannel suite and Accenture can help integrate e-commerce, POS, customer relationships, order management, and loss prevention systems. Many business operators make the mistake of mixing up multichannel with omnichannel. You must identify the difference to successfully integrate omnichannel strategy into your business. The fundamental distinction between omnichannel and multichannel is the focal point of your marketing strategy. 
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Omnichannel employs all available media channels and is centred around the customer, while multichannel means using more than one channel around the product or service. Multi-channel strategies attract customers in the short term, but omnichannel strategies retain customers in the long run. Therefore, the omnichannel approach is all about blending both offline and online media and seamlessly linking them to deliver a superior shopping experience to the customer.

Concluding Remarks

Building an omnichannel business in Nigeria can longer be emphasized. Buyers are fast becoming sophisticated in purchasing culture. They easily abandon brands that don’t possess the correct omnichannel distribution pattern and drift to those that do. Hence, business owners must execute a customer-friendly and cost-effective omnichannel distribution strategy. This article pointed out three ways to seamlessly integrate online and offline retail channels. They include: implementing a reviewed pricing strategy that is customer-centric, deploying the right technology that leads to superior customer experience, and differentiating between multichannel and omnichannel to not complicate the process. Featured Image Source: Invoice NG
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