When the pandemic struck, online shopping reached sky-high numbers. But as the world bounces back to normalcy, in-store shopping has started returning to pre-pandemic numbers. According to a report by Shopify, 82% of businesses think that physical stores will continue to play a significant role in future commerce growth. 

Read on to uncover the biggest UX secrets to attract and engage today's omnichannel, physical + digital shopper. 

The Era of Omnichannel Retail Is Here

Pre-2020, physical shopping was an extremely popular and widespread mode of purchasing goods. Despite plunging footfall during and soon after the pandemic, brick-and-mortar stores have once again begun creating memorable physical experiences and shaping the future retail landscape. 

In today's day and age, the physical experience that brick-and-mortar stores offer is the main reason why 35% of consumers shop in-store. In addition, physical stores also give digitally native brands a compelling way to engage audiences locally. 

But with fluctuating consumer behavior, rising competition, and a constantly evolving retail environment, offering exceptional experiences has become extremely difficult. Although a majority of shoppers have begun thronging physical stores once again, online shopping continues to be a popular choice. 

UX Secrets to Embrace

While both modes of shopping enable a wide choice for customers, for retailers, the challenges have grown manifold. With most customers expecting the same sophistication and convenience of online shopping in the offline world, retailers are struggling to offer seamless omnichannel experiences. 

Keeping up with the demands of the physical shopper while offering experiences that are digital-like doesn't come easy. Here are some UX secrets to embrace to attract and engage today's omnichannel customer base: 

1. Immersive Retail

Since shopping in today's world can happen anytime, anywhere, and via any device, brands need to offer immersive experiences to allow shoppers to interact with the product before making a purchasing decision. By allowing customers to touch, feel, and try on products, they will improve the overall experience. 

2. Responsive App Design

As customers fall back on different devices and form factors to satisfy their wide-ranging shopping needs, the chances of app fatigue have grown manifold. Instead of delivering single-purpose apps, offering a responsive app design is a great way to enable seamless shopping experiences on every device. 

By providing customers with a graphical user experience and functionality that is best tailored to the device, context, and situation they are in, businesses can enable an interface (and experience) that adapts to the device's layout, facilitating seamless usability, navigation, and conversion. 

3. Intelligent Chatbots

Whether online or in-store, today's shoppers need assistance all along the shopping journey. Integrating intelligent chatbots is a great way to offer that assistance to customers – whenever they need it. 

Chatbots can offer smart recommendations based on the latest action taken by the customer. Using technologies like AI and ML, they can recognize current customer needs and emotions and offer suggestions that serve them in the best way possible. Chatbots are also a great way to enable tailored and personalized shopping experiences and drive higher sales and satisfaction. 

4. Voice and Gesture Control

Embedding voice and gesture control can enable brands to offer high levels of convenience and comfort to today's omnichannel customers. These controls can help reduce friction throughout the purchasing journey while enabling seamless self-checkout or buy online and pick-up in-store (BOPIS) experiences. 

By incorporating technologies like computer vision, touchless gesture control, and conversational AI, retailers can pave the way for safe, convenient, and efficient experiences. 

5. Mobile Payments

Enabling payments on the go is yet another compelling way to attract and engage customers in an increasingly omnichannel world. Offering mobile wallets can allow shoppers to view products online or in-store and make payments electronically in real-time. 

With the global mobile wallet market reaching $269 billion in 2023, now is a good time for brands to integrate on-the-go payments and create new opportunities to enhance the customer experience both online and in-store.

Keep Customers at the Center of Your UX Design

As customer experience becomes a crucial aspect of retail success, keeping customers at the center of your UX design process is vital. Designing and developing the visual aspects of the customer journey plays a huge role in increasing customer engagement and boosting loyalty and lifetime value. Here are some steps you must take to attract, retain, and satisfy your physical + digital shopper: 

• Begin by conducting detailed research on what your customers need, what the latest design trends are, and what UX experiences you can offer to stand out from the competition. 

• Get clarity on the devices your customers use most, the communication medium they prefer, and the design elements they find most aesthetically pleasing. 

• Define user personas and build target groups based on their digital savviness. 

• Then, tailor customer journeys according to individual preferences and offer experiences that help them in making the right decisions – without much effort. 

• Make sure to constantly collect feedback on your UX patterns and refine the customer journey to ensure long-term satisfaction. 

Adapt To Fast-Changing Omnichannel Demands with Recode

The digitalization of commerce compels organizations to adapt to fast-changing demands from multichannel customers. At Recode, we help build the most innovative digital commerce solutions to attract, engage, and satisfy customers. We bring together the right expertise and technologies, allowing you to adopt a flexible, omnichannel approach to support your go-to-market strategy and tactics.

Explore our digital commerce solutions here.