eCommerce Industry Update: Omni-Channel Strategies Rewarded with Loyalty and Value Creation

According to Salesforce research, companies with strong omni-channel marketing strategies retain on average 89% of their customers, while companies with weak omni-channel strategies retain only 33%. A unified experience leads to increased customer satisfaction, according to Salesforce, resulting in loyal consumers with high retention and strong repurchase rates, driving predictable business well beyond the first sale.

“We have seen a remarkable increase in sophistication from acquisitive strategics and leading financial sponsors who recognize the value of a complementary omni-channel approach to customer engagement, acquisition, and retention,” offered John Tilson, BGL’s Head of eCommerce investment banking. “Businesses that demonstrate thoughtful sophistication in developing and executing a unified omni-channel strategy consistently garner outsized valuations from the M&A market.”

BGL’s eCommerce investment banking team recently spoke with two leading brands to discuss the opportunities and challenges of omni-channel marketing and how their strategies are contributing to growth.

Itzy Ritzy, led by Kelly and Brian Douglas, is an industry leading, community-driven brand that provides innovative, on-trend baby products for the Millennial and Gen Z parent. The company’s fashion-forward baby products are coveted by its fanatical enthusiast brand following which currently numbers more than 300,000 on Instagram and 90,000 on Facebook. Through strong social engagement, influencer collaborations, and brand inclusivity, the company has fostered a community of passionate and committed moms and dads across the country and beyond.

BGL: What challenges do you see executing on your omni-channel strategy? Opportunities?

BRIAN (Itzy Ritzy): The challenge is having some diversification between the channels. It’s not a long-term strategy for us to just offer the same products everywhere. It’s ultimately beneficial for us and for Walmart if Walmart has some Walmart-only SKUs.

But whether you’re meeting the brand online or in the real world, it’s all a gateway to the brand. An introduction at Walmart in the brick-and-mortar space can lead that same consumer into the online funnel. It’s a complete cycle, and it works in the reverse, as well.

KELLY (Itzy Ritzy): The challenge is that DTC thrives when it has its own unique offerings and SKUs, and those same offerings are what our retailers want. Then you can get into some pricing conflicts, so there is potential erosion to your MAP pricing when you’re competing for the exact same SKUs.

An opportunity, which takes a lot of capital and time, is to differentiate the offerings for each major retailer and itzyritzy.com so that marketing spend drives all our traffic to our own website. The consumer must come to us for the latest drops and to get the new items. Then the retailer has its own exclusives. When you’re selling wholesale, you have a buyer or a gatekeeper; with DTC, you can have the confidence to go into whatever SKUs you want and get them on the website.

BGL: Can you provide an example of a time when you’ve been able to successfully meld your social media efforts to benefit your retail customers?

KELLY (Itzy Ritzy): Once a product is on shelf, it needs to move off-shelf. Many people start to celebrate when you get a peg at Target, but the real work begins once you win that peg – to get your audience into the stores to move the product. How do we help our retailers to do that? What we try to do is get creative in supporting each retailer by giving them each individualized attention and a social media campaign.

We will film our customers on TikToks and on Instagram stories, getting them into the store, pushing a red cart through Target, adding Itzy Ritzy items to their basket, and then have all the product links on Insta stories go to that retailer. We’ll create a campaign like that for each retailer to really showcase them, and they will all be different. I think that differentiates us.

To read the full interview with Itzy Ritzy as well as Rich Spratt from MOTIS Brands, we invite you to download our full 16-page Consumer Insider on Omni-Channel Benefits.

Are you looking to explore opportunities for growth for your brand? Our eCommerce team, a part of BGL’s focused Consumer Investment Banking Group, is prepared to help you develop a strategic approach to today’s dynamic eCommerce M&A environment. Contact John R. Tilson, or fill out our contact form below to start a conversation today.