Omnichannel Retail Experiences

🗺️ AirBnB Customer Journey Blueprint, a wonderful practical example of how to visualize the entire customer experience for 2 personas, across 8 touch points, with user policies, UI screens and all interactions with the customer service — all on one single page. AirBnB Customer Journey (Google Drive): https://lnkd.in/eKsTjrp4 Spotify Customer Journey (High-res): https://lnkd.in/eX3NBWbJ Now, unlike AirBnB, your product might not need a mapping against user policies. However, it might need other lanes that would be more relevant for your team. E.g. include relevant findings and recommendations from UX research. List key actions needed for next stage. Add relevant UX metrics and unsuccessful touchpoints. That last bit is often missing. Yet customer journeys are often non-linear, with unpredictable entry points, and integrations way beyond the final stage of a customer journey map. It’s in those moments when things leave a perfect path that a product’s UX is actually stress tested. So consider mapping unsuccessful touchpoints as well — failures, error messages, conflicts, incompatibilities, warnings, connectivity issues, eventual lock-outs and frequent log-outs, authentication issues, outages and urgent support inquiries. Even further than that: each team could be able to zoom into specific touch points and attach links to quotes, photos, videos, prototypes, design system docs and Figma files. Perhaps even highlight the desired future state. Technical challenges and pain points. Those unsuccessful states. Now, that would be a remarkable reference to use in the beginning of every design sprint. Such mappings are often overlooked, but they can be very impactful. Not only is it a very tangible way to visualize UX, but it’s also easy to understand, remember and relate to daily — potentially for all teams in the entire organization. And that's something only few artefacts can do. Useful resources: Free Template: Customer Journey Mapping, by Taras Bakusevych https://lnkd.in/e-emkh5A Free Template: End-To-End User Experience Map (Figma), by Justin Tan https://lnkd.in/eir9jg7J Customer Journey Map Template (Figma), by Ed Biden https://lnkd.in/evaUP4kz Free Figma/Miro User Journey Maps Templates https://lnkd.in/etSB7VqB User Journey Maps vs. Service Blueprints (+ Templates) https://lnkd.in/e-JSYtwW UX Mapping Methods (+ Miro/Figma Templates) https://lnkd.in/en3Vje4t #ux #design

Polling vs Webhooks As systems grow more complex, choosing the right update strategy becomes crucial. Let me break down the two primary approaches that define real-time data synchronization: Polling: The Traditional Approach • Client periodically requests updates • Predictable but resource-intensive • Full control over request timing • Higher latency, higher costs at scale Webhooks: The Modern Push System • Server notifies client of changes • Event-driven and efficient • Near real-time updates • Better resource utilization Concrete Implementation Examples: Polling Works Best For: 1. Payment status checks 2. Order tracking systems 3. Basic monitoring tools 4. MVP implementations 5. Systems with predictable update patterns Webhooks Excel In: 1. Payment processing (PayPal) 2. Repository events (GitHub) 3. CRM integrations (Salesforce) 4. E-commerce inventory updates 5. Real-time messaging systems Key Decision Factors: - Update frequency requirements - Infrastructure complexity tolerance - Development team expertise - System scalability needs - Budget constraints Currently implementing these in production? Both approaches have their place. The key is matching the solution to your specific requirements rather than following trends.

In 2007, a pair of pants ignited a retail revolution that would forever change how men shop. Andy Dunn, a Stanford graduate and innovator, identified a significant gap in men’s fashion: the absence of well-fitting, high-quality pants available online. This insight inspired the creation of Bonobos, a company that would revolutionize men’s retail. Bonobos stood out by focusing on one key issue: providing great-fitting pants for men. They didn’t just sell pants; they transformed the shopping experience. Here's how Bonobos transformed men's fashion retail: > Bonobos proved that men would indeed buy clothes they couldn't try on.  90% of their initial sales came through their website, challenging long-held beliefs about male shopping habits (Harvard Business School). > The "Guideshop" concept: Bonobos introduced a revolutionary hybrid model. Their guideshops allowed customers to try on clothes in person but place orders online, blending physical and digital experiences. > Mastering the perfect fit: Bonobos nailed fit customization with a variety of sizes and fits, which helped them reach over $200 million in annual revenue by 2019 (Inc. Magazine) > Customer service excellence: Bonobos elevated customer service with their "Ninjas" - representatives empowered to go above and beyond for customers. This approach yielded an impressive 83% customer retention rate (Forrester) The Bonobos story teaches us that addressing real customer pain points can transform an industry, and blending online convenience with offline experiences creates a powerful retail model. As fashion industry professionals, we can draw inspiration from Bonobos' success. What areas of fashion retail do you think are ready for a Bonobos-style disruption? Share your ideas in the comments below. #FashionInnovation #RetailRevolution

Every consumer brand today understands that to grow and scale profitably, they have to be omnichannel. Simply because their consumers are. Whether it is commerce or content consumption, consumers are doing it across channels seamlessly. Research offline, buy online, and vice versa is extremely common For example- 70% of consumer durables/electronics research begins online, but 70% sales are still offline. The keyword searches for many categories on Amazon/Google is only a small % of actual sales happening online. Same for youtube views on product review videos And now, with the advent of Quick-com, there are categories like beauty, general merchandise where research/discovery is happening on Nykaa/Amazon/Google/offline and purchase on Q-com For brands which have both D2C websites and EBOs, the best/highest converting footfall in the EBOs are actually people who have visited and researched the products on the website But despite understanding all of these, most consumer brands fail miserably when it comes to being truly omni-channel. So, if you are looking to scale across channels successfully, here are some must-dos across 4 heads a) Organization Structure & KPIs : Traditional structures simply won’t work if you are trying to build omnichannel. Most often we see different sales heads for different channel. We also see independent teams for e-commerce/modern trade resulting in internal competition for same consumer and often conflicting promotions And as a result channel conflict emerges from different margins across channels, Separate targets and KPIs and separate marketing budgets by channel Even for many new age brands who have a good D2C business and have newly opened EBOs, there are no synergies. The team that drives D2C has absolutely no incentive to drive relevant consumers to EBOs. In fact I will not be surprised if D2C teams in these companies will hide/remove the store locator to improve site conversions as that is what they are incentivized for The first way to solve it is to structurally remove silos and align incentives. Incentives drive behaviour. Have common joint goals and KPIs. At Atomberg, the growth team which drives e-commerce demand is also responsible for generating searches on Google and Youtube as this has highest correlation with offline demand. They are also responsible for generating leads that can be forwarded to the local teams. They are also responsible for driving footfalls to our marquee MBOs using the store locator. And all of these at a city level and a state level. So, in addition to channel wise targets at a national level, there are region wise targets for all channels combined which is of equal importance for the growth team The link to the complete post is in the first comment. It covers technology, product portfolio and pricing/promotions must dos for an omnichannel brand Do read

Here’s something most retail brands are finally waking up to: What works at one store might totally flop just 10 km away. I’ve seen this first-hand. Back when I was at Reliance Retail, heading marketing for 170+ stores across 30 cities, we had a dedicated budget for local store marketing. But this wasn’t centrally planned. We encouraged local store teams to take the lead, to understand their micro-market and suggest activities that would grow awareness in their communities. From sponsoring local events, eye check up camps at housing societies & corporates, organising in-store promotions tied to local holidays or festivals, or even collaborating with nearby businesses for cross-promotions, we did everything to reach the people closest to us. Even when marketing our malls, we follow the same philosophy. Hyperlocal marketing helps us connect with our hyper-primary catchment—the people most likely to visit, shop, and return. And that lesson carries over just as powerfully to online retail today. Online retail is playing on the same turf now. D2C brands are using geotargeting campaigns, collaborating with local influencers, offering region-specific discounts, and running ads in local languages. In both worlds, today, physical and digital, local context wins attention. And often, loyalty too. Because today, success doesn’t come from being everywhere. It comes from being right where it matters most. Have you spotted a hyperlocal campaign that made you stop and take notice, online or offline? #marketing #retail #hyperlocal #branding

Subscription commerce failed in India for a decade. Now it's working. Why? I remember 2016. Every other pitch deck had "subscription box" on it. Fab Bag, beauty boxes, meal kits - everyone wanted to build India’s Dollar Shave Club. By 2020, most were gone. My Ayurveda brand tried too, even with 6–9 month purchase cycles, it didn’t work. Cut to today, a very different picture.I recently spoke to 3 founders running subscription businesses. All launched post-2022. All profitable. One doing ₹50-1000 Cr+ ARR with 65% retention at month 6. That got my attention. So I spent the last few days digging into why it's suddenly working. Why did FAB BAG, Doctalk, Doodhwala, Otipy fail but today's winners are killing it? The answer came down to two words: UPI AutoPay. The successes: → Kuku FM: >12 M+ paying subscribers for regional audio-video content (our first investment at @V3 Ventures India) → Country Delight: Daily milk delivery via subscription, does ₹600+ Cr in revenue → Wholsum Foods (Slurrp Farm and Mille): Kids nutrition products on weekly/bi-weekly subscription. Parents don't want surprises, they want the same healthy millet cookies delivered automatically. Aisha is a big customer → Licious: Meat subscription component growing fast. You pick your cuts, they deliver weekly What changed? 1. UPI solved the payment problem: 131 billion UPI transactions in 2023. Auto-debit on UPI is now seamless. It had a lot of friction in the past. This has led to what one founder told me: "COD customers churn at 40%. UPI auto-debit customers churn at 12%. Payment method is the business model." 2. Q-Com also proved daily delivery is possible: When Zepto can deliver groceries in 10 minutes, milk every morning doesn’t sound crazy anymore. Cold chain, reliability, last-mile ops - all the boring things finally clicked. 3. Model Shift: Replenishment > Discovery, Subscription in India isn't about trying new things. It's about auto-delivering stuff you already buy by removing friction & making customers loyal. Indians now buy the same atta, same milk brand, same baby food every week. Subscriptions just automate what we'd do anyway - with a small discount as incentive. So, what works is obvious now Category: Consumables (milk, eggs, baby food, meat)  Frequency: Weekly/bi-weekly (monthly too long)  Discount: 5-15% ( like Country Delight’s early-bird plans)  Flexibility: Easy skip/cancel (trust builder)  Payment: UPI auto-debit (not COD) After a decade of failed experiments, subscription commerce has finally found its moment in India and it looks nothing like the US playbook. The brands that understand this will build annuity businesses in categories everyone else is fighting for one transaction at a time. The question: there’s been talk of consumers forgetting their upi auto pay subscriptions. Will this be regulated/some friction be added?

Getting online returns back into the supply chain as quickly and efficiently as possible is a critical component to profitability and healthy working capital for retailers. In any given week, millions of unwanted online orders are sitting in car boots, hallways and gym bags, slowly winging their way back to retailers across the country, and every additional day is silently eroding profits. Indeed, £9.8bn worth of returns take over 10 days to be returned, in some cases missing peak resale windows, forcing markdowns, and adding to waste.   To put another way: 📉 15.5% of online consumers take more than 10 days to return items. 💸 That represents over a third (35.5%) of all returns, which are at risk of losing value.   Speed matters. The longer it takes, the less it’s worth. These delays pose significant risks for retailers, especially in fast-paced sectors like fashion, where item values decline if products miss peak sales periods during the returns process. Generational differences also affect return timings. Gen Z and Millennials take an average of seven days to return items, while Baby Boomers average within four days. Nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials place a high value on longer returns windows when selecting return methods for online orders. How can retailers fix this? ➡️ Optimise returns policies to encourage faster returns, addressing pain points for shoppers through streamlined processes. ➡️ Use AI to predict and manage return cycles. ➡️ Offer incentives for early returns to maximise resale value. With margins under so much pressure, addressing slow returns is not merely an operational challenge but a critical driver of financial performance and strategic agility. Products that miss peak resale windows experience accelerated markdowns, eroding margins and increasing inventory holding costs. More importantly, slow return cycles tie up working capital, limiting the ability to invest in growth. Leading retailers are reframing returns management as a strategic function. This transition not only minimises costs but also enhances customer experience by providing faster refunds and improved inventory availability. For those that get this right, it can become a competitive advantage. Those that fail to act risk falling behind in an increasingly dynamic and margin-sensitive market.   Download the Annual Returns Benchmark Report, conducted by Retail Economics in partnership with ZigZag Global, for full insights and strategies to reduce returns losses. >>📥 Click here to access free: https://lnkd.in/esPSSz9K   #Retail #Ecommerce #Returns #RetailTrends #CustomerExperience #ReverseLogistics #Sustainability #RetailEconomics

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁! So, this is what happened. For the first time, I ordered shoes online. Now, when it comes to shoes, I prefer a store for the look and fit factor. But this time I broke the trend! Let's be honest - their product video was pretty persuasive. 😜 So I ordered this pair of loafers from Yoho lifestyle, a young D2C brand. I ordered a 9, but that turned out to be too big for me. I placed an email request for an exchange. Got a reply on the same day to share a couple of pictures. After I did that, a return was booked. Within 2-3 days, the shoes were picked, and a pair of size 8 shoes were dropped at my place. Now, this again did not fit well for me. So, once again I sent out an email with a couple of pictures. The reply came within a few hours that a pickup had been booked. Again, within 2 days, the shoes were picked up. They informed me that they didn't have a size between 8 and 9, and hence a refund is being issued. Within a few hours, the complete refund hit my account. End of story? Not really! Because I will definitely check out their other products and if I get the same service, maybe even recommend the brand because I have the trust that if there is a concern, there are a group of people who are prompt, responsive and efficient in managing it. One of their products may not have been right for me, but they have got a crucial customer touchpoint covered and that makes me trust them. That's the thing with 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀. It is a very underrated element of the customer journey map, but it can make or break your customer relationship. Here is an easy framework (I call it A.S.R!) to optimize it: - - 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲: Be proactive about predicting possible concerns that may prompt customers to seek an exchange or refund. You may not get it 100% right but get started and keep updating it. - 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲: Put in place clear systems and processes for returns and refunds. Empathy, Transparency, and Simplicity should be the three main areas of focus while designing the system. - 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱: Be prompt with a response, esp when it is regarding a return or a refund. Your customers are mostly in a triggered or at least unhappy mood when booking a return/ refund. Every minute delayed leads to stress and possible escalation. A well-crafted Return & Refund strategy can not only salvage your customer relationship but also elevate your brand. If you found this useful, consider re-posting, and help a fellow business owner nail their return strategy! 🧡 #customercentricity #customerexperience #customerservice #customerjourney #vinaypushpakaran

Convenience retail: where every penny counts Convenience stores operate on some of the tightest margins in retail. Rising energy costs, wage increases, and theft make cost management a daily battle. Yet, across the UK, independent retailers are showing how smart technology, process optimisation, and discipline can unlock significant savings. Several approaches stand out: • Staff productivity: Automating stock checks and order forecasting with advanced EPoS systems can save up to 12 staff hours per week – hours that can be redirected to customer service and sales. • Promotion cycles: Moving away from rigid four-week cycles towards staggered promotions avoids costly staff surges. One Stop Stores Ltd achieved ~£600 weekly savings with this approach. • Apps for operations: Low-cost tools like Connecteam simplify compliance, shift management, and reporting – reducing admin costs and preventing the need for extra hires. • Security discipline & smart locking: With UK shoplifting at a 20-year high, retailers like Costcutter ’s Peter Patel limit evening facings of high-value products. But there’s another evolution: grab-and-go cabinets that act as a “high value shop in the shop”, released only after credit card tap (or app) and potentially age verification. —> A leading example is Reckon.ai, a Portuguese startup whose AI and computer vision modules transform existing cabinets, fridges, shelves into autonomous smart units. —> Customers unlock the cabinet (via payment or authorized app), pick what they need, and simply close the door — all tracked in real time, with inventory updates and automatic checkout. —> This combines the convenience of self-service with the protection of a controlled environment. • Energy management: Smart plugs, timers, and recovery systems optimise usage. For heavy users, suppliers like SmartNest Energy, British Gas and EDF offer tailored contracts – but the key is short-term flexibility. • Cash handling automation: Smart safes digitise deposits, reduce errors, and free up staff from manual counting. The UK convenience retail market exceeds £47 billion annually, with over 46,000 stores serving millions. Efficiency at the execution level is not optional — it is a survival imperative. #retail #convenienceretail #fmcg #grocery #storeoperations #epos #retailtechnology #efficiency #staffproductivity #promotionstrategy #retailsolutions #energymanagement #sustainableretail #smartretail #security #cashhandling #lossprevention #retailsavings #omnichannel #automation #retailapps #ukretail #europeanretail #retailsecurity #retailinnovation #smallbusiness #ukbusiness #europebusiness #retailtrends #retaitech #foodtech

How is your team localizing in-store audience strategies? 🏪 Not all store visits are the same, and localized trip missions vary by region, store format, and shopper demographics. A convenience store in Manhattan serves a different mission than a suburban Sam’s Club. Understanding these distinctions is critical. 🎯 To build an effective in-store audience strategy, we need to align messaging, media, and promotions with two key dimensions: 1️⃣ Why is the shopper here? Each store visit serves a unique purpose based on geography, shopping habits, and store format: 🛒 Stock-Up Trip (Bulk Buy) – Larger baskets, typically planned for weekly or monthly needs. Common in warehouse clubs and large-format stores. 🛍️ Fill-In Trip – Smaller, more frequent visits for fresh or missing essentials. Typical in urban grocery and neighborhood markets. ⚡ Urgent Need (Immediate Consumption) – A grab-and-go mission for an essential (e.g., medicine, baby care, dinner ingredients). Key for convenience stores and pharmacies. ☀️ Daily Shopping (Habitual Trip) – Regular visits, often in dense urban areas, where fresh food and quick-stop items are a priority. 2️⃣ How do shoppers make decisions? Beyond trip type, decision-making mode varies based on location, occasion, and shopper intent: 📅 Pre-Planned Purchases – Shoppers know what they need before they walk in. Personalized app-based reminders, aisle signage, and digital coupons for planned replenishment items. 🛍️ Impulse Purchases – Shoppers are open to discovering something new. Localized product recommendations, in-store sampling, and digital shelf-edge media. 🎯 Focused vs. Browsing Behavior – Some shoppers are on a mission, while others explore. 💡 Time-sensitive shoppers need efficient checkout options and wayfinding tools, while browsers respond to interactive displays, storytelling, and product bundling. 🏪 Retailers who integrate purchase history, mobile app engagement, and real-time in-store behavior can create hyper-localized retail media experiences that feel intuitive and tailored to the moment. The result? More relevant messaging, increased basket sizes, and higher shopper engagement.