It takes a different thought process to go to a store to buy something than it does to open a website or app and buy online. Regardless, there are certain touchpoints where online sales and retail sales meet. For example, commonalities they the share include:
- The primary goal is to optimise profit
- Payment is required to complete a transaction
- Business needs to deliver the product/service the customer purchases
- Customer service need to be well managed
Even though this is the case, a business cannot manage their retail sales exactly the way they handle their online sales. The consumer’s buying journey must be considered from beginning to end. With retail, the consumer’s journey usually entails travelling to the store, browsing products, paying at the checkout point, then taking the products home. Online shopping, however, begins with a customer entering a website/app, picking the products they want, making an online transaction to complete the payment, then waiting to get products. The experiences are different, so you need to manage them accordingly to succeed with them both.