Omnichannel vs Multichannel: What is the Difference and Why Does It Matter?

In the overlapping worlds of ecommerce, social selling, digital marketplaces, and physical storefronts, omnichannel and multichannel are the most popular buzzwords. But it’s not always easy to tell the difference between the two.

If you don’t end up reading this entire post, here’s the TL;DR:

• Multichannel retail (i.e., “many” channels), revolves around your product and lets customers engage and purchase natively wherever they shop but often treats channels as silos independent from one another. Each channel in a multichannel strategy exists as a separate purchase opportunity.
• Omnichannel retail (meaning “all” channels) revolves around your customer and creates a single customer experience across your brand by unifying sales and marketing that accounts for the spillover between channels 

We’ll arm you with the information you need to decide which approach to take.

What is multichannel retail?

Multichannel blends the customer experience and gives consumers choice to engage on the channel they prefer. It’s flexible but expects brands to behave in the confines of the channel.

Think of multichannel marketing as a wheel with spokes. At the center of the wheel is your product (i.e., a sale). On the outer rim of the wheel are your customers where each channel offers a separate and independent opportunity to purchase.

Once it’s clear which channels resonate best with your target market, you can optimize marketing in those channels to maximize sales