Omni-Channel Retail Marketing Strategy for Warehouse Corporation

This report focuses on developing an omni-channel strategy for Warehouse Corporation, considering the opportunities and challenges in the retail sector. It evaluates Warehouse Corporation's existing channels, identifies weaker retail mix elements, and suggests improvements. The report critically reviews literature on chosen retail mix elements and proposes adaptations to enhance the omni-channel experience. A timeframe for achieving these modifications is specified, with a focus on solving B2B customer-related issues in retail stores. The analysis includes understanding customer personas, leveraging online and offline materials such as infographics, email subscriptions, social media, product bundles, kiosks, and endless aisles, along with budget considerations and the consumer buying decision process, ultimately aiming to improve customer engagement, loyalty, and referrals.

Running head: Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Name of the Name
Name of the University
Author Note

1Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Executive Summary
In this report, the main aim or objective of the discussion will be to devise an Omni-channel
strategy for the business, in context of the opportunities and challenges which are faced by
the retail sector as a whole. Evaluation of the various channels where the organization of
Warehouse Corporation is operating, as whether they are operating as a multiple channel or
multi-channel. Two retail mix elements will be chosen which are comparatively weak for the
retailer as per the observation and suggestions will be laid to improve them. The literature on
the two elements of the retail mix chosen will be critically reviewed. Adaptation and
modification of these two elements will be done to help the Omni-channel. The timeframe
will also be specified within which the improvements or the modifications will be achieved.
There will also be an aim on the retail stores to solve their problems related to their B2B
customers.

2Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Multi-Channel or Omni-Channel...............................................................................................4
Retail Mix Elements...................................................................................................................7
Review of the Retail Mix Elements.........................................................................................10
Adaptation of These Mixes by WC..........................................................................................10
Time Frame..............................................................................................................................11
Recommendations....................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14

3Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Introduction
In this report, the main aim or objective of the discussion will be to devise an Omni-
channel strategy for the business, in context of the opportunities and challenges which are
faced by the retail sector as a whole. Evaluation is done of the various channels where the
organization of Warehouse Corporation is operating, as whether they function as a multiple
channel or multi-channel. Two retail mix elements will be chosen which are comparatively
weak for the retailer as per the observation and suggestions will be laid to improve them.
Critical analysis will be done on the literature on the two elements of the retail mix chosen.
Adaptation and modification of these two elements will be done to help the Omni-channel.
The timeframe will also be specified within which the improvements or the modifications
will be achieved. There will also be an aim on the retail stores to solve their problems related
to their B2B customers. Warehouse Stationary was developed in the year 1991 and it is a
continuation of The Warehouse Group. The company has become one of the leading office
equipment as well as stationary retailers in the region of New Zealand with a variety of over
20,000 products distributed and sold under its belt. The organization was one of the primary
in its sector to transform the stationary retail market within the country by taking the help
from large supermarkets to exchange the traditional stationers performing in the marketplace
for a long period of time. That time onwards, the company has persisted to grow or increase
its business with more than 70 physical shops in and around New Zealand, and has become
the favourite stationary retailer nowadays for both personal and business customers present in
the marketplace. In year 2001, Warehouse Stationary launched their first online webpage
which actually permitted and helped them to offer multi-channel retail know-how for the
customers who uses their products. The organization has been capable of continuing to grow
their business functions by using their online presence in the region of New Zealand by
providing free of cost delivery services as well as loyalty programs to their customers, who

4Omni-channel Retail Marketing
they valued the most as they are the base who helped the organization to grow rapidly by its
length and breadth. Warehouse Corporation contains a fixed interest for this report as it is a
well acquainted business entity in New Zealand, and possess a powerful brand relationship
with many customers in the region of New Zealand. The company is also attempting to
improve a stronger and larger B2B presence in the retail industry, which will assist them to
expand further in future (Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014).
Multi-Channel or Omni-Channel
The retail industry has changed drastically in the past two decades, mainly due to the
rise of the online channel as well as ongoing digitalization. The online channels have become
very controlling in nature in some particular retail markets which can also be considered as a
troublesome improvement. Many business models in the retail sectors have been affected
because of the alterations or changes in their retail mixes and also changes in the behaviors of
their customers due to these improvements. To overcome these improvements, many retailers
have started to use multi-channel strategies. These strategies mainly included the decisions of
adding the new channels in the existing channel mixes or not. This decision includes
traditional brick-and-mortar players as well as new age channels like sales through online
portals, as well as whether to have their presence in the offline channel or not. The scope or
the opportunity of the multi-channel retailing has been enlarged by taking into account the
issues like the management of customers and assimilation of the retail mix across all the
channels. It has been observed in the recent years that digitization in retailing has faced some
particular challenges. The numbers of usage of the social media and mobile phones has
changed the online and offline retail channels drastically, which, in turn, has changed the
retail landscape as a whole. It has been suggested that the retail channel is moving from the
multi-channel to an Omni-channel retail model globally (Huré, Picot-Coupey & Ackermann,
2017). Multi-channel retailing involves consideration of the channels as the customer contact

5Omni-channel Retail Marketing
points, or a medium through which the retailers of the business operations can contact their
targeted customers or the end customers. Through this way, a two-way communication
process in initiated by the organizations, where there is no entry of the traditional one-way
mass-communication channels like advertising through newspapers and televisions. Through
all these, the purchase behaviour of the customers, customer loyalty and the customer
profitability can be identified properly and organizations can formulate their strategies
accordingly. The attention for the multi-channel has been guided or motivated by the rise or
growth of the online channels, and also the extent of the effects on the customers who are still
sing the traditional channels like catalogues and stores. In this total developmental process,
these channels have been improving as well and managed separately within the organizations
(Carroll & Guzmán, 2013). As said earlier, the onset of new digital and more specifically the
mobile channels have led to a troublesome change in the retail environment of the
organizations. Omni-channels includes more channels than the multi-channels. This
development is affecting the competitive strategies of the companies related to the retail
industry. As per to the studies, it has been noticed that these new channels will be able to
break down the old barriers like the customer ignorance and geography related with the
business operations of the retail companies along with the customers who are getting
benefitted from these industries. So, it will become tough for the retailers and their supply-
chain partners of other sectors to think again about their competitive strategies. The channels
are smoothly and continuously used during the search and buying methods by the customers
and it is very difficult for the retail companies to control this usage power of the customers.
Research shopping acquired some attention in the multi-channel phases, whereas in the
Omni-channel phases the showrooming has risen up as an important issue. Customers
nowadays look out for information in the stores as well as on the mobile devices to get more
information about the offers and are able to find more offers and discounts are available or

6Omni-channel Retail Marketing
not. The opposite cases also happen in case of web rooming, where the people search for the
information in the online platforms but buy their products through offline channels.
Companies can also provide these seamless experiences to the customers, by providing them
mobile devices in the stores, where the customers can gather information about the products
and order them according to their choices. Apart from this, the organizations can
communicate with their customers in the sores through in-store Wi-Fi networks and can track
their behaviour as well (Dorman, 2013).
Multichannel Marketing can be termed as the practices or the ways followed by the
companies to interact with their targeted customers by the help of multiple channels, by both
direct and indirect ways, in order to sell their products or services provided by the
organizations to their targeted customers. This actually helps to control the buying processes
of the customers properly than that of the marketer. In this report, it will be noticed that
which are the ways which is used by Warehouse Corporation. Coming to the multi-channel
retailing, it is a marketing strategy used by the organizations to offer their targeted or new
customers the choice of ways to purchase their products. A proper and effective multi-
channel strategy helps to cover the entire buying process from the stores or online and also
for the orders through mail, telephone, catalog, television and shopping sites. It actually
involves the entire buying and selling process to the customers through offline outlets, like
pop-up shops and brick-and-mortar shops and also through online channels, like mobile apps
and direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce websites (Harsha, Subramanian & Uichanco,
2016). The channel light be also a print ad, a promotional event, package of the product or
word-of-mouth publicity. The channels which are available for the multi-channel retailing
have started to broaden in a significant matter in the recent years. It actually offers the choice
of the places to buy the products to the targeted customers, and also optimizing their buying
experiences on the most appropriate sales channels based on the shopping behavior of the

7Omni-channel Retail Marketing
customers. It also helps to merge the retailing strategies with that of the marketing strategies.
Omni-channel retailing, in context with this, is a multichannel approach to sales of their
product used by the companies with a seamless shopping experience, like shopping from their
mobile applications, desktop, or from a brick-and-mortar store. It is also a multi-channel
approach that helps to provide the customers with a combined customer experience, where
the customers will be able to buy their product according to their taste and preferences and
selecting from a wide range of varieties of product (Lazaris, & Vrechopoulos, 2014).
From the study dome on the company of Warehouse Corporation, it can be seen that
they are very much into the Omni-channel retailing. As it can be learnt from the researches
that they are using the online as well as offline modes of retailing, which is actually the
characteristics of the Omni-channel. Online channels include the likes of Infographics, E-
mail subscriptions and Social Media, whereas the offline modes consist of Product Bundles,
Kiosks and Endless Aisles. As many people have become more tech-savvy, it will be good
for them to avail the online mode where they can search the products according to their
requirement and can order through online only, where the payment can also be done. It can be
said that the customers will experience a virtual experience in the online mode of retailing,
though they can search for the information through online and buy through offline mode,
after viewing the products through their eyes and feeling them with their hands. On the other
hand, customers can view the products and gather knowledge and order the product according
to their needs and wants. They can use their information gathered from the online modes
which will be helpful to them as well as the sellers in the time of purchasing the products.
Discounts on the products can be available on both the modes of retailing, where the rates
may vary according to the location and number of products purchased. So, it can be said that
Warehouse Corporation are very much into Omni-channel of retailing (Manser Payne, Peltier
& Barger, 2017).

8Omni-channel Retail Marketing
Retail Mix Elements
It has been discussed in the earlier studies that Warehouse Corporation has many
retail mix elements. Some of them are strong and some of them are comparatively weak. It
can be observed that the Store Location is a weak point of this organization. The store of this
organization in the suburban area of Auckland, which is surrounded by other business houses
and other retail stores of different things. But the outlet of Warehouse Corporation is not
centrally located, rather than it is located at a corner in the area of Ti Rakau Dr. It hampers
the revenue earning of the company as it is unable to catch the eyeballs of the people, which
it could have done if it was more centrally located like Office Max Mount Eden, whose store
is located in a place which is surrounded by all type of business houses, and are easily able to
attract the eyeballs of different types of people. Apart from that, Office Max Mount Eden also
covers two major schools in the area. Warehouse Corporation can take some steps to
overcome this barrier and increase the revenue earning of the company. They can give a
hoarding advertisement in front of the two schools as well as in the busy business areas where
people gather during the lunch time. People will able to know about the organization, the
kind of products they are providing, the types of products and the prices of the products. They
can also open a small temporary kiosk in front of the schools and the offices during the lunch
time, office breaks or during the time when the schools gets over. They have to offer some
discounts initially so that the people can get attracted to them rather than buying products
from Office Max Mount Eden, and once people will come to know about the quality of
product they are providing to the people, they will automatically move to them and buy
products from them and will help the company to earn revenues, which can be utilized by
Warehouse Corporation to improve their retail channels (Galipoglu et al, 2018).
Another element where Warehouse Corporation gets lacked is the usage of
technology. The competitor company, Office Max Mount Eden is involved in giving

9Omni-channel Retail Marketing
technical solutions to the customers in various ways. The product’s electronic display sold by
them is displayed on big smart screens which actually assists the customers to get information
of the products with the assistance of the staffs of the shop (Saghiri et al, 2017). Apart from
this, Office Max also provides Office Max Online checkout within the store where the
customer is able to order the out of stock objects and then get it from the store afterwards and
are also able to receive them at their doorstep. They also offer limitless aisles to choose from
the online kiosks with in-store ordering joints or kiosks including both online and offline
product reviews. Common POS as well as Modern check-out methods are also accessed at
the check-out points along with the payment through mobile and scanning QR codes to avail
free vouchers and various types of discounts. On the other hand, Warehouse Corporation
needs application of technology in comparison to the Office Max Mount Eden, mainly in the
application of Endless Aisle within the store. Endless aisles are not used by Warehouse
Stationers though it gives the collecting point to receive the previously ordered products from
online shops. Apart from this, the store situated in East Tamaki does not offer the technical
variations in checkout for the checkout methods and also mobile paying option is not
provided by them (Verhoef, Kannan & Inman, 2015). Moreover, the advertisement
procedures do not get involved in redistribution of any technical involvement along with
digital screens or smart digital displays like their rivals. Hence it can be said that they should
update the facilities from technical side given by the staff along with the managers in behalf
of the company. People have become more tech-savvy and this is point where the
organization have to hit the most. They have to engage the customers in their social media
platforms, by allowing the people to participate in quiz competitions, where they can get
some gift vouchers from the Warehouse Corporation and can redeem them in the stores. They
can do the same in their stores as well, which will help on the word-of-mouth publicity.
Promotional links can be shared in the social media platforms of the people through which

10Omni-channel Retail Marketing
the people can learn about the company and its products. Many people nowadays use online
payment methods and without the application of this system, Warehouse Corporation will
gradually lose their competitors to the rival companies. Small tokens can be provided to the
customers who will but a certain amount of products of the company which will become an
advertising campaign by the company. Endless aisles need to be introduced to the stores so
that it will help the company to attract more people as well as earn revenues for the company.
They can view the fresh innovative product in those in-house kiosks which are not currently
in the store and can order them accordingly for future purposes. Every single consumer can
approach and order the items that they want and receive them in their offices. This particular
operation helps to draw attention of more customers to them as it is totally current and fresh
functionality and the freshness or newness of the service will boost customers to try it out in
the stores (Fulgoni, 2014).
Review of the Retail Mix Elements
According to the researches, the two elements of the retail mixes which can be
critically acclaimed in almost all the sectors present in the marketplace are Place and Physical
Evidences. These two are the most important mixes which can be used by the companies in
context to all the sectors. Proper allocation of places helps to target the customers effectively
and efficiently. And physical evidences will be help the companies to attract the people and
help to retain them (Bhalla, 2014).
Adaptation of These Mixes by WC
The above said two elements can be applied by the Warehouse Corporation in a
proper and structured way. It has been discussed earlier in this report that the location of the
stores plays a vital part in order to attract people as well as to earn revenues by the company.
The outlet of Warehouse Corporation is not centrally located in the area of Ti Rakau Dr,

11Omni-channel Retail Marketing
rather than it is located at a corner. It hampers the revenue earning of the company as it is
unable to catch the eyeballs of the people, which it could have done if it was more centrally
located. So, Warehouse Corporation have to keep all these things in mind when they will
open other store outlets in other areas, so that it will help them to properly advertise their
brand as well as the products and can attract more people who can be turned to customers
(Bell, Gallino & Moreno, 2015). Coming to the Physical Evidence element of retail mix, it
has been seen earlier in this report that the ambience or the display part has been lacking in
parts for the organization of Warehouse Corporation. They do not allow endless aisles within
the store although it helps the collecting point to receive the pre-ordered items from online
shop. This is relatively a fresh concept which includes some kiosks of in-store that will
permit the customers to look through the various ranges of items and then order the
unavailable products. In context of Warehouse Corporation, they can supply these kiosks
within the center of the shop, and any consumer can ask the staffs available there and order
the needed items at the doorstep of their offices. This operation helps to draw attention of the
customers as it is a fresh and recent functionality and the newness or originality of the service
will boost customers to give it a try. By that time, as no restrains of timing and no limit of
products is there within the store, it permits the customer to look through the products in a
easy manner, increasing time spent in shop, while it will help to improve customer
satisfaction in the outlets at the same time. Furthermore, endless aisles boost people to visit
their store just in sake to gather the information and buy the products accordingly (Beck &
Rygl, 2015).
Time Frame
Both the above said elements mix in the retail chain are time taking. Warehouse
Corporation have to strategize their plans in a structures way and have to wait for the desired
results or outcome for a certain period of time. Both will need time as attracting customers as