NewStore, the omnichannel cloud platform provider, has released an international edition of the company’s Omnichannel Leadership Report. The new version looked at the omnichannel capabilities of 275 retailers in six key global markets, including the U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The company said it also used data from its North American report, which was released last fall.
NewStore said it deployed a team of “third-party mystery shoppers to conduct the research, auditing each retail brand’s online, mobile app and in-store shopping experiences. The results helped determine overall score percentages as well as score percentages for each report category.” The company also said to remove bias, it “excluded the 60 plus brands on its platform from the study, which by definition would be omnichannel leaders.”
The top omnichannel leaders were Marks & Spencer, Calzedonia, Moncler, Gucci and Cotton On.
The authors of the 58-page report said shoppers around the world “have similar expectations of their favorite brands. While there are, of course, some differences based on culture, economy and geography, fundamentally, people want an uncomplicated shopping journey, whether it be online, on a mobile app or in-store.”
That said, NewStore said it found that the overall adoption of omnichannel “is not uniform in Europe and Australia. This is despite consumer behavior changes being similar coming out of the pandemic. First, a shift online; then, a renewed interest in brick-and-mortar; and now, the desire for an integrated digital and physical experience. Some countries have made significant strides in their omnichannel capabilities while others still have work to do.”
Within that context, NewStore assigned a score percentage to each market that reflects the average performance of retailers there. Italy came in first with 40 percent and was followed by the U.S. at 36 percent and then Australia and Spain — both with 34 percent. Canada scored 32 percent and was followed by France and the U.K. with 30 percent and Germany at 26 percent.
NewStore said it determined omnichannel competence “by looking at the adoption of specific capabilities essential to the customer journey across a brand’s online, mobile and in-store experiences.” Researchers at NewStore found that 96 percent of global retailers studied offer contactless payments, which compares to 76 percent in North America. The data also showed that 59 percent of global brands offer shoppers the option to buy products online and pick them up in-store. This compares to 54 percent in North America.
Regarding in-store capabilities, 31 percent of the global retailers studied equip store associates with a mobile device, which compares to 32 percent in North America. Additionally, the global data showed that 23 percent of brands studied in this report provide a branded app, which compares to 33 percent in North America.
Stephan Schambach, founder and chief executive officer of NewStore, said consumers “don’t think about the channel they use to buy products. They simply want the experience to be consistent, regardless of when, where and how they decide to shop.”
Schambach said the global edition of the company’s Omnichannel Leadership Report “shows that smart brands have woken up to the fact that multichannel strategies are no longer enough to meet this shift in expectations. Retailers should continue to focus on building seamless, omnichannel experiences that meet the needs of their customers across regions.”