With consumers becoming more tech savvy, it is increasingly becoming important for merchants to have online presence. At the same time, customers have not totally given up on the good-old charm of shopping in stores, visiting shopping malls, and local markets.
Now customers want to shop at their convenience, which means brands have to be present on all platforms giving customers seamless shopping and payment experience.
The change in customer behaviour
This trend of customers wanting the best of both worlds has accelerated after Covid-19. While the extended lockdown period certainly boosted online shopping sales, it also created a tail-end demand for in-person shopping.
If possible, customers now prefer to compare prices of a product online as well as offline. For example, before purchasing an electronic product, customers have gotten into the habit of checking its price on Amazon or Flipkart. And, the sales person in the shop has also now realised that and they offer them a better price than any online shop.
Interesting Read: Four Payment Features Every Omnichannel Startup Should Use
Alternatively, customers also do the opposite, that is check out the product in-person first and then buy it online for convenience. This generally happens when customers have to buy something that requires them to touch and try before first, like shoes or apparels.
Keeping these shopping trends in mind, businesses should adapt to the changes and integrate omnichannel retail. Today, technology has made it easy for businesses to implement omnichannel shopping experiences for customers.
Is Omnichannel the New Normal for Customers?
While some changes are temporary, some stay on for good. Omnichannel retail and payment is something that is going to stick on for long. Consumers have already started treating it as granted and has become the new normal for them. If your brand has not adopted omnichannel in some way or the other, your customers might flinch at shopping from your platform.
There are several reasons why omnichannel payments are becoming the new normal for consumers today:
- Convenience: People go to great lengths for the sake of convenience. At the centre of a great omnichannel channel strategy lies the convenience of customers. A business with an omnichannel strategy, is convenient for consumers to shop from and make payments using any payment mode. Plus, they are free to purchase from any platform they wish – this was something that customers never experienced before.
- Greater flexibility: Today, consumers want everything on their own terms. To offer this, merchants must offer solutions that are flexible according to customers’ needs and, even their mood. Omnichannel shopping and payment, does exactly that. With omnichannel, consumers can window-shop from one platform, and make the payment from another platform according to their convenience. With omnichannel payments in place, they can use any payment option including credit/debit cards, mobile wallets, and more.
- Improved customer experience: When there is hardly any gap between online and offline shopping, customer experience automatically improves. There is better service from merchants as customers can get in touch with them on any platform and expect a reply or solution to the problem. Omnichannel creates a seamless experience for consumers. This helps increase customer loyalty and engagement, and leads to higher sales for businesses.
- Increased competitiveness: By offering omnichannel payments, businesses can stand out from their competition and attract more customers. In today’s competitive market, offering omnichannel payments can give businesses a competitive edge.
How Can Merchants Meet Customer Expectations With Omnichannel?
If you plan to implement an omnichannel strategy, you should first look at getting your payments in order. Because without a comprehensive payment strategy that includes accepting money from both online and offline platforms, your omnichannel strategy will fall flat.
Here are the steps you can take to meet customer expectations:
- In-store omnichannel payments
As an omnichannel retail business, you should be prepared to close the sale at every platform. Even if you are predominantly an online company, you must have physical presence because customers want you to be. And when customers do come to your physical store you should be able to accept money then and there.
Paytm can help you with its array of tools that will let you accept money in-store. Paytm Smart Machine (POS) lets you swipe any type of card or if your customers prefer to pay via UPI or buy now, pay later method, Paytm POS machine can handle such payments as well.
Interesting Read: Three Use Cases of Omnichannel Payments
Other than this, you should also tap into the power of Paytm’s All-in-One QR device that makes it easier for you to accept money via any fintech app that your customer has.
- Online payments
The biggest obstacle for a brick-and-mortar business that wants to go online, is getting digital payments right. Enabling payments for your online platform requires technology prowess that can deal with thousands of transactions securely.
Paytm for Business is an expert in handling digital payments – you can accept money digitally via all payment methods including debit and credit cards, net banking, UPI, QR code Paytm Postpaid, etc. With Paytm, you can easily process returns and refunds as well without any wait time.
In addition to the ease in accepting payments, Paytm gives you detailed payment reports and analytics, which you can access from the dashboard.
- Innovate and accept payments without a website
For offline merchants, starting a website from scratch can be challenging. Or you might want to first test how selling online works without having a website. But how do you accept money online without a website? Answer is Paytm Payment Links.
Paytm Payment Links is an easy and simple way to accept money without building a website. You can create a Paytm Payment Link from the dashboard and send it to as many customers as possible. These links have all payment options enabled, which makes it very easy for customers to pay for their purchases.
Conclusion
With omnichannel becoming the normal affair day after day, merchants can no longer afford to wait to integrate omnichannel payments to their business. Paytm has a set of payment tools, which is the easiest way to enable omnichannel payments into your business.
With Paytm, not only do you get the benefit of accepting payments safely and securely, you also get to grow by implementing omnichannel payments without any hassle.
Get Started With Omnichannel Payments Today
