The distinction between online and physical retail spaces is diminishing at an increasing rate for customers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, meaning operators need to innovate or risk becoming obsolete in the minds of consumers.
Of course, this phenomenon is not restricted to APAC, so embracing an omnichannel approach also has the added incentive of reaching out to a wider – and potentially global – customer base.
Omnichannel strategy
In their customer experience (CX) research for McKinsey, Jorge Amar, Julian Raabe and Stefan Roggenhofer note that “companies seeking to keep pace with industry leaders must embark on an omnichannel transformation – one that views touchpoints not in isolation but as part of a seamless customer journey”.
To design a successful omnichannel experience, Amar, Raabe and Roggenhofer recommend that companies follow a sequential process of four essential steps:
- Set the design principles based on an overarching omnichannel strategy.
- Design service journeys, ensuring that the end-to-end digital and live-contact journeys. address identified customer needs and preferences and have clearly defined digital migration points.
- Identify foundational enablers to support the journeys.
- Define the IT architecture to support a seamless omnichannel experience.
A prime example of an APAC company successfully following the omnichannel playbook is Australian activewear brand Lorna Jane.
Lorna Jane was founded in 1989 by fitness instructor Lorna Jane Clarkson, who sought to be a pioneer in the activewear category. The brand operates more than 100 stores across Australia and New Zealand, and ships to other territories including Singapore and the USA.
E-commerce engagement
In common with many brands, Lorna Jane boosted its ecommerce capabilities during the pandemic to increase customer engagement. The adoption of Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud saw the launch of six new sites in July 2020.
“Due to Covid-19, we reached our goal for 50 percent of sales to come from online almost overnight, but what’s important is that we have maintained that growth by providing customers with a great experience when they land on our sites,” says Jessie Dean, head of ecommerce and marketing operations.
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In-store omnichannel experience
Another cornerstone of Lorna Jane’s strategy was set in place in June 2023 with the adoption of NewStore – a mobile-first omnichannel cloud platform designed for retail brands to digitize their in-store shopping experience.
Rolled out across 107 stores, the technology allows Lorna Jane’s associates, equipped with an iPhone or iPad, to serve customers anywhere on the store floor. In addition, the platform’s API architecture allows it to integrate with Lorna Jane’s ecommerce platform and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
The upshot is that all customer, inventory and order data is available in real-time on the store associate’s device. This enables omnichannel capabilities such as mobile checkout, inventory lookup, store fulfillment, buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS) and buy online return in-store (BORIS).
“NewStore is a critical component of our digital transformation strategy," says Peter Clarke, Lorna Jane’s chief technology officer. “We were able to rip and replace our old system and roll out NewStore across two countries and more than one hundred locations with a cutover of just one day.”
According to the company’s founder and chief creative officer, Lorna Jane Clarkson, the feedback from store teams has been “overwhelmingly positive” since the technology went live, and associates have been able to master it “almost overnight”.
She added: “On top of that, the mobility of NewStore has allowed us to rethink the layout of our stores. We can now remove our traditional cash wraps, creating a dedicated space for fulfilling online orders in-store and modernizing the overall look and feel of our physical brand."
One of the important aspects of the partnership between Lorna Jane and NewStore is a shared vision. According to Stephan Schambach, founder and CEO of NewStore, the Australian retail market is at the forefront of evolution in the retail industry, and Lorna Jane is an example of how brands in the region are “doubling down” on omnichannel.
He says: “The success they have seen in such a short amount of time is a testament to our shared vision, and we will build on the foundation we have laid by further optimizing the shopping experience for both store associates and customers.”
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Omnichannel challenges
Omnichannel strategies are designed for growth, so if the result is more sales and demand, that’s obviously a welcome occurrence. However, growth can also bring challenges – not least in the area of stock management.
At one point in Lora Jane’s omnichannel journey, only inventory located in the company’s main warehouse was available for sale online, and stores were holding only a limited amount of stock.
Renee Reimer, global stock integrity manager, observes that the system was not keeping pace with fast-moving inventory.
“We were limiting ourselves,” she says. “Our product and order systems weren’t aligned. Stock at stores wasn’t available online, and staff were handwriting customer addresses onto parcels. Customers didn’t have access to all our products through all channels.”
Reimer adds: “To never miss a sale, we needed a truly omnichannel experience.”
The solution came in two steps. First, Comestri’s Product Information Manager (PIM) was implemented to consolidate and synchronize inventory across locations, languages and currencies. The PIM is now a “single source of truth” for approximately 60,000 stock keeping units across six countries.
Next, orders from all sales channels were consolidated in one place via the Comestri Distributed Order Management System (OMS). This enabled simple fulfillment workflows for click and collect and ship from store, as well as creating cross border and endless aisle functionality.
In the first three months, the system helped generate an extra eight percent in sales by giving customers access to the entire inventory. “Our product and order inventories talk to each other, so a customer can shop our entire inventory online, in store and through click and collect,” says Reimer.
Reflecting on Lora Jane’s omnichannel transformation, Clarke observes: “Once upon a time in retail, physical and ecommerce were competing, but we have shifted the online versus retail mindset. Our biggest inventory win has been engaging our teams on how valuable our stock is.”
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