A cohesive shopping experience across channels acts as a silent salesperson – ensuring customers can move effortlessly between online and offline.
Wherever they are on their buying journey, it is in our hands to develop a seamless shopping experience for the customers.
To ensure you match the pace of customers’ expectations, you must develop a data-backed omnichannel merchandising strategy to create seamless, personalised shopping experiences across all channels and platforms.
In this article, we’ll explore eight essential omnichannel merchandising strategies that guarantee faster sell-through.
8 omnichannel merchandise strategies to follow
1. Demand forecasting
If your store doesn’t stock the products the local customer wants, the very foundation of building an omnichannel merchandise strategy will be at a huge disadvantage.
Omnichannel merchandise and merch strategies in general should develop a deep, nuanced understanding of their targeted customer base, their preferences, purchasing behaviours, purchasing power and local market trends at the street level.
This will help forecast demand and stock that sells; in the right quantities. This will help prevent the risk of dead stock for both online and offline channels.
Once you meet customer demand, you can then focus on creating a seamless shopping experience across channels for your customers.
By forecasting demand you can:
- Optimise product assortment – Ensuring the right products are available in-store and online.
- Refine pricing strategies – Adjusting for local demand, spending power, and competition.
- Improve fulfilment efficiency – Stocking inventory closer to demand hubs to enable faster deliveries.
- Improve customer engagement – Targeting the right audience with location-specific promotions.
Book a 15-minute discovery call with us and stock only what sells!
2. Unified inventory management
One of the keys to successful omnichannel merchandising is maintaining a single, centralised inventory ecosystem that provides real-time inventory updates across all sales channels.
To achieve this, retailers must:
- Implement cloud-based inventory management systems to synchronise data across online and offline channels.
- Enable customers to check product availability across stores to improve the shopping experience.
- Offer “Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store” (BOPIS) and curbside pickup for added convenience. This is one of the major retail trends you can capitalise on.
Apart from these, you can also allow cross-channel returns to make it easier for customers to return online purchases in physical stores. Zara, H&M, and Adidas are some of the prominent brands that offer this.
By integrating inventory across channels, you can reduce carrying costs, prevent overstocking, and improve overall inventory management operations.
3. Personalised customer experiences
Consumers want experiences tailored specifically to their preferences, shopping habits, and personal styles. Understanding the demographics is one of the foundations to cater to their growing needs.
Leveraging advanced data analytics tools, allows you to:
- Recommend products based on individual browsing and purchase history
- Create hyper-personalised targeted marketing campaigns
- Develop loyalty programs that genuinely resonate with each customer segment
- Provide contextually relevant promotions across multiple channels
The end goal is to make every customer feel like the only customer, regardless of whether they’re shopping online, via mobile, or in a physical store.
| Related: GeoIQ’s location data helped a major jewellery brand increase conversions by 30% through geofencing marketing.
4. Seamless mobile integration
An effective omnichannel merch strategy must prioritise mobile experiences as one of its crucial parts. Also, the ecosystem must be fully integrated with other shopping channels.
For example, a fashion retailer with both online and offline stores can integrate mobile shopping by allowing customers to scan QR codes in-store to check product availability in other locations or online.
If a size or colour is out of stock in-store, the app can instantly suggest similar alternatives or enable one-click ordering for home delivery.
We can also see a similar experience at PVR cinemas where you can scan QR codes in the hall to order food & beverages online.
This seamless integration results in both convenience and sales.
5. Social commerce optimisation
We shouldn’t leave out social media when we bring up mobile phones.
Social media has evolved from just a marketing channel into a powerful direct sales channel for many brands.
Consumers now expect brands to offer seamless shopping experiences on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
To optimise for social commerce, you should:
- Enable shoppable posts and direct checkout within social media apps.
- Leverage user-generated content as social proof, building trust and authenticity.
- Collaborate with influencers and brand ambassadors to expand reach and credibility.
- Use AI-driven chatbots for instant customer support and personalised product recommendations.
- Run flash sales, exclusive deals, and live shopping events to drive urgency and conversions.
These are all some of the primary marketing strategies you can adopt on social media platforms.
Integrating social commerce into your omnichannel strategy can convert engagement into direct revenue once you start pushing out engaging content.
6. Smart dynamic pricing strategies
Pricing in omnichannel merchandising and in general should not be static.
Adopting dynamic pricing ensures your store remains agile and responsive to market changes, optimising both customer satisfaction and revenue.
Dynamic pricing will allow your offerings to remain competitive while maximising profitability. Utilising our external datasets lets you take the local population’s age, gender, and spending capacity into account, resulting in pricing that resonates with the local audience.
To increase sales, you can also adopt personalised pricing strategies for loyal customers or high-value shoppers and implement intelligent bundle deals and upselling techniques.
7. Flexible fulfillment options
With the advent of quick commerce, modern consumers expect fast and flexible delivery options & rightfully so.
Retailers who offer convenient fulfilment options can reduce cart abandonment rates, increase repeat purchases, and cater to diverse customer needs.
A robust fulfilment strategy should include:
- Same-day and next-day delivery, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction.
- Scheduled delivery windows, giving customers greater control over their shopping experience.
- Transparent order tracking, providing real-time updates to enhance trust and reliability.
For same-day or next-day delivery, fulfilment centres should be strategically located in areas that have higher customer density that resonates with your brand.
Whether it’s large fulfilment centres or dark stores, GeoIQ’s location intelligence can help you choose locations where you can expect consistent online orders.
| Related: GeoIQ helped a quick commerce brand estimate demand potential for new dark stores
8. Continuous data integration and analysis
The key to long-term success in omnichannel merchandising is data-backed decision-making.
As a retailer, you must continuously collect, integrate, and analyse data to remain competitive.
It requires:
- Continuous data collection across all channels
- Advanced analytics to understand customer behaviour
- Agile strategy adjustments based on real-time insights
- Investment in AI and advanced machine learning technologies
By staying data focused you can make objective decisions and stay agile in this dynamic market.
Final Thoughts
Omnichannel merchandising is the future of retail.
By implementing these strategies, you’re creating an ecosystem where customers can interact with your brand seamlessly, consistently, and meaningfully.
Schedule a 15-minute demo with us to understand your local market better and cater for your offerings!