EU countries have different omnichannel strategies

In Germany for example, retailers are generally very familiar with the definition of omni-channel but still has some way to go to offer it in practice, according to ‘The Omni-Channel Journey‘ report issued by LCP Consulting, ecommercenews.eu reports.

Retailers are working on delivering multichannel retail services with properly developed websites and important functions in-store, such as online reservation and total view of stock and pricing. “With 60 million smartphones in Germany, it’s clear that the omni-channel future will be driven by mobile”, LPC Consulting writes, the source cites.

Spain and Portugal are also seeing more and more omnichannel business models, but there is a difference between these two Iberian countries. Spain is far more advances in terms of ecommerce and omni-channel. That may have to do something with the presence of Amazon. Consumers in Portugal still tend to order from Spanish or UK websites. Also, the move towards omnichannel in Spain is more customer-driven than in Portugal, the consulting firm states. “Spaniards tend to browse the internet before going to physical stores where they are more comfortable.

In Portugal, despite having superior broadband, the cultural norm of buying in shopping malls has a strong hold over consumers.” At the same time, it seems click-and-collect is becoming more prevalent in Spain. It quotes Miquel Aguas, the CFO of retail company Sonae: “In Portugal, you have one very big retail player offering e-commerce. But then you have number two not even having an e-commerce platform – and that just doesn’t happen in Spain – everyone is offering that service.”, the source cites.

On the other hand, in Scandinavia brick and mortar still rules. There are very few signs of complete omnichannel or multichannel retailers. “Where it is emerging, it’s in response to customers wanting greater convenience, time savings and lower costs.” When a retailer wants to start being an omni-channel player, he needs of course a decent store network. But in Scandinavia most retailers don’t have the density of sites to make this work. “There’s a lot of hype about omni-channel, but I don’t see a mature model yet. Customers want convenience and if it has to be convenient then it needs to be local. But most retailers don’t have the store network needed”, says Lars Syberg, supply chain director at Zebra, the source cites.

As far as Poland is concerned, it seems moving from a multichannel approach to an omnichannel model. “Polish retailers closely watch what’s going on in the rest of the world”, it writes, thereby saying they are influenced by omnichannel initiatives elsewhere.