Omnichannel Demand Increases
Today’s customers expect one simple, holistic shopping experience whether they are shopping online or in-store. Over the past year, surging numbers of consumers embraced the conveniences of placing orders online to either pick up in-store or have delivered straight to their doorstep. With almost no warning, increased demands for omnichannel shopping forced retailers to come to grips with a reality they once thought was years away. The glaring chasm between in-store and digital shopping was no longer something that could be ignored.
Brick & Mortar Omnichannel Hubs
There’s no use in arguing that conveniences of online shopping are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean the practicality of a brick-and-mortar store has lost its value. In fact, even though customers could ship orders directly to their doorstep from an online store, demand for direct-from-store fulfillment saw huge increases last year. According to one report, in 2020, requests to pick-up orders grew by 103%, and demand for shipping orders directly from a store also grew by 80%.
Since consumers expect stores to also serve as fulfillment centers, what does this mean for your in-store operations? How does this impact the day-to-day responsibilities of your associates? With shifts in shopping preferences like these, retailers typically must choose between two lackluster options to keep pace:
- One pricy option is to maintain increased team member counts to ensure enough bodies are available to fulfill orders regardless of the fulfillment method. However, simply increasing staffing typically does little to solve difficulties retailers face when dealing with disconnected systems and teams.
- Retailers can also spend countless labor hours upfront to train existing team members on new fulfillment processes. However, as many know, this option is not a one-time expense as retailers consistently face the problem of employee turnover or the need to scale up and down around peak seasons.
…there has to be a better way!
Omni-Capable Team Members
Exhaustively training every team member about all aspects of your store is impractical and would cost a fortune. Instead, when team members can communicate with in-store experts instantly, the need for intense store-wide training exercises becomes unnecessary. With Theatro, knowledge sharing between store experts and other team members empowers even new team members to become omni-capable assets to the store. Once connected, every team member can access the answers they need… even on day 1!
At Theatro, we believe your frontline team members serve a vital role in bridging the chasm between in-store and digital channels. Still, the solution is not throwing more labor at the problem or investing in expensive training exercises over and over. Instead, connecting team members to each other and their organization bridges the omnichannel chasm and provides a new, more effective way forward.
To learn more about how Theatro’s communication platform is helping retailers close communication gaps and elevate shopping experiences, contact us today.