O2O (Online to Offline) business model refers to online marketing or purchase, and then to offline operation or consumption. This view was put forward by TrialPay CEO Alex RamPell in a guest article post on “TechCrunch” in August 2010 proposed “O2O is to find consumers on the Internet, and then guide them to physical stores, which is a way to create passenger flow.” Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers have become more popular, extending the O2O model to both online and offline to drive customer traffic. For example, consumers can try out products or services in physical stores, and then buy them on online e-commerce platforms after the trial.
Although O2O’s cross-online and offline consumption model can lead to both ends, the online and offline data is not integrated, causing consumers to have a fragmented shopping experience. Merchants also failed to obtain customer information in order to implement more precise and customized marketing strategies.
Therefore, the O2O business model is constantly evolving with the changes in the market environment. The evolution to the OMO (Online Merge Offline / Offline Merge Online) business model will better meet the needs of today’s new retail!
What is OMO (Online Merge Offline / Offline Merge Online) business model?
The popularity of mobile devices and the integration of humans and machines into the network age have subverted the entire retail consumption pattern. The concept of OMO integration of virtual and reality was first proposed by Dr. Kaifu Li, founder and CEO of Innovation Works. He published a column in The World in the 2018 special issue of The Economist magazine. For future retail, it must cover Online Merge Offline and Offline Merge Online, pointing out that the overall retail environment in the future will be further improved with the advent of the 5G generation. The addition of AI will make real-world digitization, automation, and sales forecast easier, and electronic payments will become the norm, making transactions more real-time and convenient.
What is the difference between O2O and OMO?
Whether the O2O model is from online to offline, or from offline to online, the boundaries between the two ends are still clear, forming online and offline data disconnection. While OMO pays more attention to data integration, regardless of whether consumers online or offline consumption can be integrated and synchronized update member information. Collecting consumer behavior footprints with people as the core can achieve more accurate analysis and formulate more effective marketing strategies.
Covid-19 fuels the rise of omni-channel e-commerce platforms and sets off a new scene of retail consumption
The development of retail business is often closely related to changes in the social and economic climate, technological innovation, and market trends at the time, which affect consumption patterns.
Until the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, the traffic of physical stores fell sharply, and everyone was forced to stay at home. It became a catalyst for online shopping, electronic consumption, and express delivery services. In addition, in the age when mobile phones are indispensable, almost no one can completely detach from social media networks. During the epidemic, people try to avoid contacting shop assistants or products in physical stores, which may accelerate the development of social e-commerce.
It can be seen that in recent years, the speed of commercial retail model changes has been very rapid, and industry competition has become increasingly fierce. Traditional physical stores were impacted by online shops, and when it comes to social e-commerce sales channels, consumers’ shopping footprints have become diversified and timeless. The new retail era has also arisen at the historic moment, and it is imperative for retailers to carry out digital transformation.
STOREBERRY Omni-channel Retail Platform helps you to develop OMO (Online-Merge-Offline) business with painless digital transformation.
Now is the opportunity for merchants to move into the new retail era, and mastering the integration of OMO virtual and reality is an important key to the current retail digital transformation. Although seeing the changes in the retail business environment and wanting to accelerate the pace of OMO digital transformation for the business, yet you don’t have the support of the IT technical team and the huge capital to execute, feel distressed and unable to start?
In fact, with the popularization of cloud services nowadays, even without any computer programming knowledge, you can rent the system at a low threshold price, and you can digitally transform your business in a short time. STOREBERRY omni-channel retail platform is a cloud based e-commerce store opening platform (SaaS) built on cloud provider AWS (Amazon Web Services), which helps you create online store, manage social e-commerce, and physical stores. One-stop management and integration of all sales channel information, collecting huge consumer behavior data behind consumers, making it easier for you to formulate accurate business strategies!
STOREBERRY omni-channel retail platform allows you to manage online stores, social e-commerce, and physical stores in one-stop, and review the sales performance of each channel and customer consumption behaviors with one click, allowing you to easily develop a three-in-one OMO business model:
1) STOREBERRY allows you to quickly build an exclusive online store in a few steps
The platform system provides a variety of online shop theme design templates. No computer and design knowledge are required. You only need to drag and drop product pictures or videos in the selected templates. Then set up a connected third-party payment system and logistics method, and finally create a classification for your uploaded products and enter inventory data. You can simply build your online store and start operating your business with these steps.
And the website has preset responsive web design (RWD), so that your customers can browse the content of your online store comfortably and smoothly at any time on different electronic mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets or desktop computers.
The online store has been equipped with complete functions such as payment and logistics settings, order and inventory management, CRM member management settings, and social media management posts, etc., to help you easily embark on the road of online business.。
2) STOREBERRY supports Facebook comment and live selling function which helps you operate social e-Commerce
Social e-commerce can be said to be the most prevalent e-commerce model in recent years. Merchants can introduce product discounts through Facebook posts or broadcast on Facebook Live, allowing customers to leave messages and place orders at any time. Interactive promotion with all audience fans, giving the audience a sense of reliability that seeing is believing, and achieving a stronger promotion boost!
However, this kind of social media platform business does not provide any operational support. It relies on manual response to customer messages, and then manually records orders which makes the transaction process time-consuming and easy to make mistakes. The point is that it is difficult to cultivate long-term loyal members without properly recording customer information.
The STOREBERRY platform system has been connected to Facebook, allowing you to directly manage and publish posts on a single platform, and utilize Chatbot David to reply to post messages or instant messages 24 hours a day. At the same time, you can set the Facebook live broadcast content so that your customers can leave messages, place orders, and payment. All customer information updates on a real time basis to help you operate social e-commerce more smoothly.
2）Multichannel Retail Integration (Physical Store/ Online Store/ Warehouse)
If you want to make full use of the inventory management system, you can choose an inventory management system that can fully integrate with the front-end and back-end systems of all your online stores, physical stores, and warehouses. The data connection between the systems can help you speed up the order processing, and more efficiently manage inventory in online stores and physical stores.
In addition, the integration of the inventory management system and the store front also helps to manage the product replenishment and transfer between warehouses in a more direct way. For example, the Store Manager can skip redundant procedures and apply for replenishment directly to the warehouse according to the store’s inventory. This prevents the loss of sales revenue due to out-of-stock situation, and at the same time makes the process of replenishment and warehouse transfer more smooth and easy to control.
3）Systemisation of Purchase Order Process
As you know, the process of procuring goods is also a part of inventory management. An advanced inventory management system can help you save all the suppliers’ contact details and information so that you can check the supplier list at any time in the future. At the same time, you can also review the order history and directly create purchase orders through the system, and automatically update the inventory quantity after the receipt is confirmed, which will help you greatly save operating time!
4）Easily Manage Product Batches & Expiration Dates
Controlling cost-effectiveness is of the utmost importance to your business! With an inventory management system, you can organise products in different batches and specify batch numbers and expiry dates. Meanwhile, the system can automatically update inventory in response to the number of expired products, which helps you formulate sales strategies in time, and avoid waste due to expired products.
5）Moving Average Cost Calculation
Since the cost of newly purchased products may not be exactly the same as the cost of existing products, you will need to calculate the moving average cost in order to accurately understand the actual cost and profit of the products sold. A good inventory management system can provide you with the moving average cost of products for tracking, allowing you to view operating costs and benefits anytime, anywhere, and formulate business strategies in time before problems expand!
Have you ever thought that online stores and inventory management systems can be combined into one? STOREBERRY’s Omni-channel Retail Platform provides you with one-stop online store + physical store integration and management services. At STOREBERRY, you can manage online stores, customer relationship, inventory system, POS and social media platforms simultaneously at one place. Also, the built-in advanced inventory management system includes all the 5 essential features of inventory management, which can easily help you systemize the store’s inventory management and greatly improve operating efficiency!
About STOREBERRY Omnichannel Retail Platform
Whether you want to open an online store or expand your business with digital transformation, STOREBERRY has different system subscription plans to help you open an online store and even an omnichannel retail business!
The STOREBERRY platform has been equipped with a variety of e-commerce functions, such as the cloud based POS system connecting multiple electronic payment methods and logistics options, inventory management, CRM membership management, membership promotion and discount settings, connection to social media Facebook to manage posts, and Chatbot David can be set to reply to customer questions or orders to help you automatically operate and sell 24/7.
No other hidden charges or transaction commission to be charged! Register now to contact STOREBERRY service consultant to make an appointment for system demonstration and explanation, orregister for a 30-day free trial to see how useful it is!
