“IoT omnichannel evolution” or how the Internet of things can affect omnichannel

The ecom world is divided into two halves: some know about omnichannelity all along and across; others still ask how this technology can be useful to business. The first talk about how the Internet of Things (IoT) can form a new approach to omnichannel. We have translated an article titled The IoT Brings New Meaning to the Omnichannel Customer Experience and share the main points.



One of the hypotheses of Ness Digital Engineering is that by 2020, user experience will be a decisive factor when choosing a product, bypassing properties such as price and the product itself. It follows from this that in order to attract customers and increase brand loyalty, companies should carefully study customer journey (customer-product interaction map), and identify key brand messages in all communication channels. In this way, you can create a “seamless” (seamless) contact with the client.

Barriers to IoT Omnichannel Evolution

The author of the article calls the connection of the Internet of things and omnichannel IoT omnichannel evolution. Obviously, the Internet of things will help create an improved customer journey. However, there is an open question regarding the processing of the data array that appears when implementing IoT in the business model. How to create truly valuable insights based on data array analysis? The author distinguishes 3P for this.

Proactive experience

As a rule, the interaction of the company and the buyer begins with the initiative of the buyer (purchase, use of the service). In the case of using IoT in the company, the situation can be reversed through continuous monitoring using IoT devices. For example, due to this, the production life and scheduled maintenance period can be predicted. This avoids unplanned costly downtime. Another example, sensors can warn customers about the malfunction of certain parts in vehicles or calculate the period of a planned replacement.

Predictive experience

IoT can predict and anticipate user actions through real-time data exchange with cloud services, in which action models are built taking into account the behavior of all users. Over time, in the future, IoT-like applications using data from surveillance cameras, radars and sensors in cars will make autonomous cars safer and reduce the risk of traffic accidents for drivers.

Personalized experience

Personalization of content based on client’s behavioral scenarios.

Personalization is possible through continuous monitoring and analysis of consumer behavior. For example, if a buyer searched the day before for a certain product on the Internet, the store can offer him, based on past searches, related products and accessories using smart proximity marketing in an offline store. These are marketing offers that use both data from bluetooth sensors that analyze the client’s movement offline, and data received from IoT devices: smart watches and other technical devices.



In conclusion, it should be noted that IoT is not a silver bullet for business. The question is open regarding the possibility and speed of processing big data, and so far only giants like Google, Amazon, Apple can handle this technology. However, the author notes that to use IoT you do not need to be a giant, just be a smart company when it comes to strategy and customer journey mapping.