Authored by Aditya Swaminathan, Associate Vice President, Paytm Ads - PART 2

As technology continues its rapid pace of development, so too does our understanding of how best to market products and services across different channels in a cohesive manner – known as omnichannel marketing. In 2023, trends such as data integration across channels increased focus on user experience, and data-driven tactics will play an integral part in shaping successful omnichannel strategies that allow businesses to create meaningful connections with their customers while staying competitive within the marketplace.

Building first-party data: Shoppers visit multiple channels in their buying journey and expect a convenient experience at each touchpoint. Creating & storing first-party data of your shoppers allows brands to personalize experiences in the physical and digital realms, leading to higher levels of loyalty and engagement with a brand. Furthermore, online activities reflect offline behavior. For example, customers not only do their research about products online before purchasing but also do so even when buying in-store. Subsequently, monitoring online data and incorporating it across all channels would help create a unified customer experience.

Convenience: The pace of life is accelerating, and digital giants have created amenities that would have seemed remarkable only a few years ago. Convenience is critical for any customer experience, so retailers have had to diversify, making their services accessible in both physical and online stores. To guarantee shoppers the ultimate shopping experience, retailers must focus on providing faster deliveries, contactless checkout options, as consumers expect convenience & speed at every stage.

Digital coupons: Sales, Discounts & Offers have been around from the beginning of advertising. Earlier, what used to be promoted using print media and pamphlets is now available on digital platforms. Digital coupons have played a significant role in discovering new brands and have been adopted as a strong marketing strategy, especially by new-age D2C brands. Companies can create tailored offers according to their customer's lifecycle and reach a large base by leveraging deterministic audience insights. Fintech platforms such as Paytm, which have a large share of online and offline transactions, have seen significant growth in Offer Ads on the back of increasing digital payment adoption. Paytm has promoted offers to millions of its transacting users across brands and helped them acquire new users and even repeat transactions.

Omnichannel Loyalty Program: An omnichannel loyalty program can incentivize repeat purchases by offering customers exclusive rewards tailored to their needs. Most loyalty programs are ring-fenced within the platform. Imagine ordering from a restaurant outlet, later through their d2c website/app, and then again from a food aggregator and getting rewarded for all three activities. What loyalty, repeat transactions, and LTV could be derived from a well-designed omnichannel loyalty program? Lenskart has been able to drive growth by leveraging technology to shift from a digital native to an omnichannel business. It offers Lenskart Gold, a membership program heavily promoted across digital media. Further, by providing personalized services through AR on its app, where people can try different glasses, Lenskart could personalize the buying experience for users. This enabled them to make users aware of both the branded and unbranded eyewear categories by using data from the classic marketing funnel - awareness, consideration, and intent, to drive engagement, curiosity, sampling, and purchase. Being supported by physical stores that are easily accessible, Lenskart leverages data to run cross-platform loyalty programs to fuel retention and repeat purchases.

The Next Commerce: Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) links retailers, customers, and service providers to provide a seamless online buying experience. ONDC will make visible all participating products and services in search results across multiple network buyer-side platforms. Brands should consider participating in the ONDC initiative that can enable the future of commerce, rewrite the way users currently shop online, and reduce dependency on a handful of e-commerce platforms. Omni-channel marketing constantly evolves as technology advances and customer expectations change. As a result, CMOs & CDOs need to be aware of trends shaping omnichannel marketing in the coming years. Are you ready? It's time for marketers everywhere to start preparing for the future!

This article is the second part of the two-part series. The author is Associate Vice President Paytm Ads, leading strategy, marketing, and partnerships.

About Paytm Ads: Paytm Ads is a marketing solutions provider that helps businesses to connect with over ~350 million users of Paytm. Paytm Ads provides immersive ad solutions for brands that users can relate to by leveraging first-party audience insights based on transactional signals