Retailers are pushing omnichannel for the holidays

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Traditional retailers in the US are turning to omnichannel tools more than ever for the holiday season in order to maximize brick-and-mortar performance, while still engaging shoppers on the digital channels they so heavily rely on, according to a report from Multichannel Merchant cited by eMarketer.

Investing in omnichannel tools gives physical retailers a significant advantage over e-commerce pureplays for the holidays, especially considering the tight deadlines for gift-giving, and the potential for weather-related delivery disruptions.

Legacy retailers in the US significantly bolstered their omnichannel efforts for this year's holiday season.

• Click and collect: 44% of US retailers are offering buy online, pick up in-store services, compared with 21% last year. Click and collect services provide consumers with much more fulfillment flexibility and can drive up traffic to brick-and-mortar locations.
• In-store returns and exchanges: 61% of retailers now offer in-store returns or exchanges of online purchases, while just 19% offered this service last year. This could greatly drive up brand engagement and loyalty as retailers can eliminate the need for shoppers to ship back unwanted items and wait for new ones.
• Ship-from-store: 42% of retailers are using inventory in physical stores to fulfill online orders, compared with just 14% last year. This is one of the most beneficial ways for retailers to compete with e-commerce players as they can serve more online orders, while maximizing brick-and-mortar performance. This is an especially effective strategy when it comes to items that have a low turnover rate.

These tools have the potential to give retailers a boost beyond the holiday season. With shoppers getting used to perks like free shipping from heavyweights like Amazon, keeping pace with omnichannel strategies that amount to equally attractive fulfillment and return options is of increasing importance for legacies. Once the holidays are over, the retailers that chose to implement these tools early on will have a leg up heading into the new year.

E-commerce has been on the rise in the last several years, thanks in large part to titans in the industry such as Amazon and Alibaba. E-commerce will truly become the future of retail, as nearly all of the growth in the retail sector now takes place in the digital space.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, forecasts that U.S. consumers will spend $385 billion online in 2016. Moreover, BI Intelligence predicts that number will grow to $632 billion in 2020.

This is hardly surprising considering e-commerce's healthy growth. Though the U.S. retail average growth rate in the first half of 2016 was just 2% for total retail, it was 16% for e-commerce.

The number of online shoppers has grown by nearly 20 million from 2015 to 2016. And these 224 million shoppers are spending more, as the total amount spent online grew from $61 billion in the first quarter of 2015 to $68 billion in Q1 2016. Finally, these customers are transacting more frequently, as the number of online transactions has risen by 115 million from 2015 to 2016.

But all of this shopping online creates its own set of challenges, both for consumers and the companies that are trying to get their products onto shoppers' screens and into their shopping carts. In short, you need a plan.

And to create your ultimate e-commerce battle plan, you need the right intel.

BI Intelligence is here to help.

Our team of industry experts has you covered on topics such as:

• Shopping cart abandonment
• Marketing effectiveness
• Merchandise returns
• Customer satisfaction
• Social media monetization
• Mobile payments
• Accommodating shoppers at the 11th hour
• And much more

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