Faced with ever-increasing competition, online and physical retailers are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves and increase their market share. Today, the omnichannel trend is booming, responding to the needs of consumers who want an ever more advanced shopping experience. Here's how it works.
E-commerce was initially based on 100% online shopping, where consumers surfed the web to find the product they wanted and had it delivered directly to their door.
Many people thought that buying in (physical) stores would be swept away by online shopping. To date, however, this has not been the case at all, as traditional retailing still accounts for over 90% of all retailing in France, and this doesn't look set to change any time soon, with the store playing an ever-increasing role in online purchasing.
Indeed, retailers have found that in-store conversion rates are much higher than online ones, thanks to a better customer experience. What's more, there's been a sharp increase in the number of consumers doing online research (features, prices, reviews, etc.) before making an in-store purchase.
Retailers who once thought they could do without physical outlets have taken a new strategic direction, and are now more than ever keen to implement solutions that offer their customers a seamless omnichannel customer experience. Discover our article explaining the importance of having a physical store for a retailer.
Online retailers are looking for physical footholds, either by opening their own stores or by forming alliances with partners with store networks. More and more of the market's leading Pure Players are forging alliances with store networks.
This is the case of Rakuten France, which recently announced a new partnership with Cash Converters. This is not the first collaboration of this type, as the brand has already forged alliances with other e-tailers such as Back Market, Fnac Darty and Cdiscount.
Rakuten, for its part, has already forged more than a dozen alliances with Boulanger, Célio, Culture and PicWicToys, among others.
LDLC, meanwhile, aims to sell its products in over 100 stores by 2021. This is also the case for La Redoute, which has set up more than 53 corners in Galerie Lafayette since early 2020.
Other Pure Players, such as Zalando, are currently focusing on setting up showrooms in partner boutiques.
Finally, others like Amazon have gone so far as to buy up the networks of retailers like Whole Foods.
Advantages for the Pure Player
These alliances have a number of benefits for online businesses, with the aim of enhancing the consumer experience and boosting brand awareness.
Physical retailers can handle online orders directly at the point of sale on behalf of the pure player, using solutions such as Click and Collect, Ship From Store or returns management.
Pure players can also offer their products directly on the shelves, and vice versa. Pure players can add to their online catalogs flagship products that are prized by consumers but not available online, and at the same time benefit from the expertise of the distributor and its sales staff to optimize sales.
Advantages for the distributor
These partnerships enable physical retailers who do not have a sufficient online presence to develop their digital side and benefit from the Pure Player's audience.
This means they can easily market their products on their partners' websites, benefiting consumers who like to discover products in-store before finalizing their purchase online.
At the point-of-sale level, traffic increases significantly thanks to the implementation of cash & carry solutions, thus expanding the catalog of products available in-store.
Market solutions
Numerous solutions for professionals exist on the market to transfer their physical feed or their website to several Market Places, such as SellerMania, Lengow Shopping feed,... But there isn't really a turnkey solution to go from Web to Physical and vice versa, especially for E-traders without a physical point of sale or for individuals.
In addition to putting your products on sale on its own marketplace, the 18h08 solution will enable you to create your ads on the marketplace(s) of your choice in just a few clicks, take care of storing your products and shipping your orders, and find the best physical partners to enable you to implement a real omnichannel strategy and optimize your customers' experience.
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