Prioritising omnichannel digital performance this shopping season

The approaching holiday shopping season provides exciting opportunities for the retail sector; however, it also brings with it additional challenges. With ongoing supply chain disruptions, shifting consumer demands, and an impending recession, the potential for things to go wrong is enormous. One area that retailers can control, however, is ensuring a pleasant omnichannel experience.

The foundation for a successful shopping season is ensuring that digital systems work as expected, especially amid spikes in demand. This necessitates testing not only websites and apps but also in-store software and systems to determine whether the experience is seamless. To make this vision a reality, businesses must use innovative technology to gather the necessary insights, such as issues with the checkout or inaccurate inventory levels. Otherwise, they will also have to worry about driving customers to competitors.

In the run-up to the peak shopping season, retailers can boost the performance of their digital assets in a variety of ways.

Prioritise performance
Performance must supersede every metric. For example, retailers should not fall into the trap of creating a visually appealing site that is slow to load, thus negatively impacting the consumer experience. Reducing page widths, removing extraneous content, optimising photos, auditing material from other parties, and decreasing text files all improve website speed. Furthermore, given that 75 per cent of consumers prefer mobile for e-commerce, websites and systems must be adapted for mobile devices.

Retailers must also accept that performance enhancement is an ongoing journey but instead a continuous process. For example, monitoring performance in the run-up to the holidays is insufficient; instead, businesses must continuously review a myriad of systems and software. If there is a deviation from the norm in key indicators like time on site and conversions from buy online, pick up in-store, retailers can take steps to address the problem before it impacts revenue.

Understand customer journeys
To optimise customer experiences, retailers must identify the paths that matter and generate revenue among the millions of possible alternatives in their software and systems. Once retailers have this information, they can direct their efforts to improve the customer experience in these areas. Furthermore, businesses can avoid wasting time and money by focusing on areas that aren’t moving the needle.

Intelligent testing
As businesses attempt to provide a seamless omnichannel experience, the need to evaluate the UX to ensure consistency across every touchpoint and channel. Customers, for example, may browse several possibilities on a mobile device to make a shopping list, but then transfer to a desktop to conduct detailed research before making a purchasing decision and potentially picking up in-store.

To address these variations, retailers must leverage the capabilities of AI-driven test automation to understand the user experience, independent of where customers begin and end their journey or where they go next on their route to purchase.

Digital twins to emulate and optimise
Digital twins are being utilised by retailers to enhance the customer experience. The technology makes it simple to replicate complicated interconnected physical and digital systems and software, providing merchants with a virtual model of their actual storefronts and software systems. This enables businesses to test and replicate numerous variables such as store layouts, multiple packing techniques, and product positioning to understand the impact without having to commit the time or money required to do so physically.

Peak performance
As retailers navigate the holiday shopping season, they must combine cutting-edge technology to provide a smooth omnichannel experience. Those who are able to utilise this intelligence will be able to learn how to optimise their software and systems to prosper during this vital time.

Delivering a delightful digital experience is critical for retailers expecting to prosper over the holiday shopping season and beyond. They can gain a competitive advantage by implementing breakthrough technology.

Rawad Darwich is the regional sales manager – GCC, Network Solutions Sales at Keysight Technologies