Omni-Channel has been the buzzword in brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. For the past two and half years.

So what is Omni-Channel?

it’s not facebooking or a social media platform.

-According to a VP- at a top consumer brand.

The word Omni originated in the early 21st century: from Omni– ‘all’ + channel.

Omni-Channel – relating to a type of retail that integrates the different methods of shopping available to consumers (for example: online, in a physical store, by phone, Mobile & Social). “80 percent of sales for omnichannel retailers happen in the offline world,” which is determined by online actions.

Omni-Channel is that evolution of multichannel and cross-channel at its finest.  This is a new way of doing commerce, marketing & customer care into one.  Today our lives are both in a digital and physical world. So are experiences and buying habits. The experience your customers have on your website, with your mobile app or with customer service will affect your online & retail sales.

Every organization needs to develop its own Omni-channel strategy and infrastructure. You will need to work with the following departments well you are building your own Omni-channel Program:

• Executives
• IT
• Marketing
• Customer Service
• Logistics

Getting everyone involved to begin and will make things a lot easier and building your own program.

Here are the five top retailers doing Omni-channel well:

Amazon – is the biggest online retailer.

Amazon accounts for 43% of US online retail sales – businessinsider.com

They are also planning to open 2,000 stores across the US.   Many retail is now trying to catch up with the “Amazon Effect”.

Apple – is more than just a retailer and a brand.

Its brick-and-mortar store has become more of a hang out for Apple fanboys and techies, But they still deliver great service.

Target – Has a follow like no other retailer. Target makes it easy for it customer to link with top brand in-store, online or mobile.  All seamlessly integrated.

With the options to ship it to your home, ship to the nearby store for pickup or Just walk in and just buy it.

Walmart – US’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer was a little slow getting online, but however they are fastly catching up to the number one online retailer amazon.

With their acquisition of jet.com, there are ready to go to war with amazon.

Uniqlo – is making it too cool to buy cloth. Across both online and brick-and-mortar.

Here are the five top brands doing Omni-channel well:

DJI Technology Company – is taking customer service and educating consumers all the same. From there detailed and informative product pages to answering questions on all major online retailers.

Bose – sync all of their product reviews across multi online retail for a complete buyer experience.

Graco – With a combination of sync reviews, support answering concerned parent questions and education buyer.

Keurig – have created a cross brand following in the work place and at home. They also have the reviews and Keurig care team to back it up.

Dyson – Is one of the topped vacuums on the market.  They all the product exports to support the customers on all online retrailers.

Here a great TEDx Talks – about Omnichannel: Retail (R)evolution by Kilian Wagner

All brands need to be forced on their own omnichannel to improved customer experience, brand equity and increase sales.