Channel combustion: Over two-in-five retail leaders say there are too many channels to effectively sell through

This is according to Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology’s “Brands, don’t fail… eRetail!” report, which found nearly all (94%) retail CEOs, founders and C-Level executives claim to have a multi-channel strategy in place despite many not knowing what a successful approach looks like or how to best harness the slew of available channels amid a sea of digitally native competitors.

Two-thirds (66%) concede they could be using digital channels more efficiently and 44% struggle to deliver a consistent brand experience across every channel. Nearly half (49%) struggle to benchmark their own omnichannel initiatives to evaluate success.

While 59% said their organisations have tailored strategies for individual platforms, as few as one-in-10 (11%) believe there is no differentiation and – perhaps more worryingly – 29% didn’t even know.

Marketplaces were seen as the easiest channel to sell through by over a third (35%) of leaders, closely followed by social platforms (33%). The prominence of marketplaces may prove to be a double-edged sword however, with two-thirds (68%) saying they are vital to their brand’s future but 42% seeing their growth as a threat.

And in a warning shot to the high street, physical stores are rapidly falling off leaders’ priority list. Only 11% of budget is expected to be spent on bricks and mortar and under one-in-five (17%) think it’s the easiest channel to sell through, ranking last among all channels in both cases. This lack of attention is perhaps unsurprising given three-in-five (60%) find it difficult to compete with digitally native brands and marketplaces.

Ken Platt, Director of eRetail & Marketplaces EMEA at Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology, said: “Online competition is as high as it’s ever been and brands that fail to recognise the unique opportunities presented by different channels risk being left behind by peers. It’s not easy to balance coherent and consistent brand principles while devising dedicated strategies for every audience, but it’s a challenge retailers need to overcome. A true omnichannel framework recognises that no channel is perfect and instead focuses on putting all of the jigsaw pieces together.”

The rise of retail media

The good news is that it appears as though much of the market has caught on to the retail media boom, with two-thirds (67%) saying they’ve already implemented a retail media strategy. However, 34% remain unclear on what an effective retail media network entails, adding another complex channel to understand to the retail mixing pot.

Unsurprisingly, 57% say it’s hard to find agency partners with the right retail media expertise to help them make investments in retail media, even with data at their fingertips. 53% go as far to say it’s difficult to identify the right retailer sites to buy media on to drive traffic and sales.

Platt concluded: “Retailers are increasingly seeing the value in reaching shoppers directly at the digital point of purchase, particularly as the depreciation of third-party cookies makes it harder to understand what customers want. Retail Media not only uses first-party data and offers better ROI, it offers clarity in a world with fragmented channels and waning budgets. Leaders aren’t on their own when embarking on this journey, but time is ticking and it’s only a matter of time before slow movers are truly left out in the cold.”