Many organizations assume they're delivering omnichannel experiences because they're present across digital and physical platforms.
There’s a website, there’s an app, the call center logs tickets, social media handles are responsive — on paper, everything looks complete. But when a customer browses a product online and walks into a store only to start over, or contacts support and has to repeat the same issue to three different people across different channels — what's being delivered isn't omnichannel, it's fragmentation.
And that gap isn’t just frustrating, it’s deeply out of step with how people shop today. A Harvard Business Review study of 46,000 consumers found that 73% prefer to shop using multiple channels, while only 7% shop exclusively online and 20% in-store. When the journey doesn’t carry across those touchpoints, customers feel the disconnect and brands feel the consequences.
The issue isn’t how many channels exist. It’s how well those channels communicate behind the scenes. To the customer, there’s no such thing as digital vs. physical. There’s just one company, and every interaction should feel like part of a single, coherent relationship. When that breaks down, so does customer trust.
Multichannel means a business has multiple ways to reach the customer. While omnichannel means those methods are integrated and designed to work together in real time.
This is where most strategies fall short. It’s not enough to offer support via chatbot, email, phone, and social media. If each of those channels has its own system, its own logic, and its own version of the truth, the result is confusion for the business and the customer.
In a true omnichannel environment, data moves with the customer. If someone starts a product return through an app, visits a store the next day, and later follows up with support, every step should be visible to every team involved. There’s no need to ask for order numbers or context again, because the system and the staff already know.
Customer behavior has changed dramatically. A decade ago, the average person used two touchpoints before making a purchase. Today, it’s closer to six, and nearly half of consumers are regularly moving across four or more channels to complete a single journey.
A seamless transition between browsing, buying, and support isn’t seen as innovation anymore — It’s seen as baseline. When these expectations aren’t met, customers are at risk of churn.
But when they are met, the upside is significant:
Omnichannel customers tend to spend more, stay longer, and engage more frequently:
Target’s app, website, and stores are fully synchronized. Customers can browse online, place an order through the app, and pick it up via Drive Up without leaving their car. That one feature alone now accounts for over two-thirds of the brand’s digital sales.
During Q2 2024, Target reported that same-day fulfillment (including curbside Drive Up and Target Circle 360) made up over 66% of its online sales, generating more than $2 billion in that quarter and over $4 billion in the first half of the year.
This is a retail experience built for how people actually shop — cross-channel, time-constrained, and expecting flexibility.
American Express maintains one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in financial services, thanks in large part to how it connects customer data and engagement across products and platforms.
Whether it’s identifying fraud, delivering a relevant offer, or routing a complex issue to the right support team, American Express does it using a single customer view powered by billions of data points.
For example, a customer browsing high-yield savings offers is served a personalized application flow based on credit history, usage patterns, and past interactions; no forms, no friction. This is the kind of omnichannel continuity most banks still aspire to.
The impact is measurable. Integrated cross-sell campaigns drive 86% of new bank mail responses, despite making up just 7% of total volume. That’s the value of making service proactive, not reactive.
Through its “Advanced Care at Home” model, Mayo connects remote monitoring devices, virtual visits, and on-site care teams into a unified patient experience. A patient might start care through a video consult, receive follow-up instructions in the Mayo app, and sync their health data using a wearable device, all without any break in context.
The scale is substantial. Mayo has deployed over 15,000 Apple devices to staff, ensuring clinical workflows and patient records remain aligned across mobile, portal, and in-person care. Asynchronous consults through Mayo’s e-Consult system have reduced specialist response times by 75%, while maintaining full visibility into each patient’s care journey.
This is what true omnichannel healthcare looks like: care that follows the patient, not the other way around.
The answer is familiar: silos. Functional, technical, and operational silos block visibility, slow down collaboration, and create disjointed experiences. Each team works hard, but without shared context, their efforts pull in different directions.
Data fragmentation is another obstacle. When customer information is spread across multiple systems, it becomes nearly impossible to create a unified experience. Without a central source of truth, personalization breaks down and so does continuity.
There are also cultural hurdles. Many organizations still think in terms of channels. There’s a team for mobile, a team for email, a team for stores, and another for call centers. Each one optimizes locally, but no one owns the entire journey.
Technology isn’t the limiting factor anymore. The bigger challenge is alignment. Without it, even the best platforms underdeliver.
Getting omnichannel right doesn’t require a complete rebuild. It requires focused, deliberate steps. The goal is to align teams, systems, and decisions around the customer journey, not around internal structure.
Choose a common, measurable customer journey. Something like product returns, onboarding, or support escalation. Map every touchpoint. Look for gaps in context, communication, or handoff. Those gaps are the friction your customer feels.
Once the journey is mapped, identify where data gets stuck. If a support agent can’t see order history, or a store associate can’t access online browsing behavior, that’s a barrier. Focus on getting the right data to the right people at the right time.
Avoid the temptation to fix everything at once. Choose one journey, improve it end to end, and measure the result. Use it as a model for other teams. Show that integration drives better outcomes. Let that momentum create buy-in.
One of the most important steps is to assign someone (or a team) to own the full customer journey. Not just a piece of it, but the whole thing. Without clear accountability, gaps will reappear. Ownership is what turns strategy into sustained execution.
Measuring omnichannel success means moving beyond isolated channel metrics. Open rates, ticket resolution time, and store conversion are useful, but they don’t tell the full story. The focus needs to shift to outcomes across the entire journey.
Here are metrics that indicate progress:
These aren’t theoretical. They are measurable and actionable. And they tell a far more complete story of how effective the experience really is.
Omnichannel is not a new idea. But the execution has never mattered more.
Customer expectations are ahead of most organizational capabilities. What used to feel like innovation (like being able to message support or buy online and pick up in-store) is now the starting point. Experiences that fail to meet those expectations push customers away.
Building an omnichannel strategy is not about chasing trends or adopting more tools. It’s about designing a business that remembers, adapts, and responds across every point of interaction. The companies doing this well are seeing more loyalty, stronger revenue growth, and better alignment between teams.
For those just beginning, the advice is simple. Start with one journey. Make it seamless. Show the impact. Then scale.
