How Unifying In-Store and Online Channels for Millennial and Gen Z Consumers Creates Brand Relevance — Retail Bum

Consumers today expect a fully integrated shopping experience regardless of whether they are shopping in-store or online. Unfortunately, inconsistent messaging, inventory discrepancies and failure to recognize customers across digital and physical channels are just some of the many factors that continue to break an otherwise seamless shopping experience.

Delivering a less-than-optimal shopping experience might have been sufficient pre-pandemic, but millennial and Gen Z consumers see it as non-negotiable today.

Millennial consumers, for one, value convenience above anything else, whether they are making grocery purchases online or buying clothes and accessories. On the other hand, Gen Z has a penchant for shopping in physical stores but making purchases online.

Meeting the needs of younger shoppers — Gen Z in particular — means retailers must unify their in-store and online channels and deliver a friction-free shopping experience.

“Gen Z doesn’t distinguish between offline and online. Rather, they view shopping as a singular retail experience that’s the sum of all of a brand’s touchpoints and channels,” said BigCommerce’s Director of Content Melissa Dixon, in a recent interview…