Top 5 Best-in-Class Omnichannel Retailers

Some of the industry's most familiar names landed at the top of a list of retailers deemed to be leading omnichannel enterprises by their peers.

In Omnichannel Readiness report, tied for first and chosen by 45.8% of retailers are perennial leaders Nordstrom and Apple. Macy's tallied 37.5% percent of the vote, with Walmart trailing closely behind with 33.3%. Rounding out the best-in-class list are Target and Best Buy with 20.8% apiece.

These retailers are held up by their peers as enterprises that enable a seamless shopping experience across channels by integrating services, technologies and processes. What steps have their taken to achieve this and what's at stake with omnichannel preparedness?

• Survey respondents say they're missing out on 6.5% of revenue as a result of not being an omnichannel retailer — which translates to $65 billion being left on the table.

• Data indicates that retailers have focused their initial efforts on updating the twin pillars of retail: merchandising and supply chain.

• Retailers' top priority for the next 12 months is shifting to a single transaction platform that unifies POS, e-commerce and m-commerce, with 65.4% planning such an investment.

• The current lack of a true omnichannel transaction platform available on the market today is driving 53.8% of retailers to rely on a hybrid of many channel-specific platforms linked together.

• E-commerce edges out POS for the primary transaction platform of choice, with 23.1% of retailers preferring the former and 19.2% opting for the latter. Not surprising, half of retailers say e-commerce is the consumer touchpoint most fully integrated across channels.

• Price matching emerged as a significant trend, with 40% of retailers deploying the technology in their stores.

• In the next 12 months, 23.1% will implement geolocation technology in and around their stores.

• Among omnichannel technologies that retailers are evaluating for future implementation, social shopper check-ins emerged as the top consideration, with 50% of retailers mulling this over.

Source: RIS