Multi-channel VS omni-channel: What’s the difference?

You’ll have probably come across the term multi-channel, the chances are your fashion brand is probably already multi-channel or perhaps you’ve only got the one channel. But what about omni-channel? There are many marketing buzzwords floating around, particularly in meetings. Do they actually mean anything and is there a difference between these two?

Here at Hit Search, we think there’s a big difference, we’ll explain why…

Multi-channel VS Omni-channel: What's the difference?

What do they both mean?

Both terms refer to your channels, ok, so this much you probably gathered. The main element linking the channels together is that you can’t actually have an omni-channel brand without having multiple channels. But just to confuse you a little more, just because you have a multi-channel strategy doesn’t mean you’re omni-channel. Omni-channel is when your fashion brand offers a seamless customer experience regardless of device or channel. Whereas, if you’re a multi-channel fashion brand, you just have more than one channel, but they don’t necessarily talk to each other.

Why become omni-channel?

Not only does becoming an omni-channel brand help to innovate your fashion brand making it stand out from the competition, but it can also help you unify your brand identity, strengthening your overall brand equity. The more channels you conquer, offering superior user connectivity to your brand, the more presence you have in front of your digital target market. Which is of course the whole point, helping you increase conversions and revenue.

How can you become omni-channel?

Being consistent with your brand offering, tone, all aspects of your company and then ensuring each channel is highly-compatible across all devices (desktop, tablet, mobile etc.) is what makes your brand truly omni-channel. If you need to know how to select new channels, analyse existing channels, need help defining your omni-channel strategy , or would like to see some examples of fashion brands currently embracing omni-channel, download our omni-channel eBook below.