The COVID-19 pandemic taught a harsh lesson to many retailers on how customer experience matters and with it the importance of providing omnichannel payments solutions.

Accordingly, the payment landscape was molded to consistently being able to provide customers with the most relevant touchpoints whether in-store or online.

As such, an omnichannel approach has become an absolute necessity for many businesses.

Omnichannel Payments Explained

In what concerns payments, omnichannel is the general term used to describe the capability of accepting payments via different channels.

This in turn means that customers will be met with payment solutions like NFC (near-field communication), QR (quick response), mobile apps, online, and so forth.

It’s this integration of payment channels which greatly enhances customers' shopping experience as it facilitates the process by allowing them to conduct the transaction in a way that suits them the most in terms of payment and delivery but also does so without them losing any quality of service.

Benefits of Having an Omnichannel Approach to Payments

As new technologies sprout, so do customer payment options whether in physical stores or in online commerce, but the omnichannel isn’t strictly customer-focused as it also allows for businesses to pursue different segments through channel-specific strategies and to even anticipate where customers will spend and through each channel that they are most willing to spend it.

An omnichannel payments platform can thus become an incredibly powerful tool as it’s a comprehensive solution for processing payments which aggregates and integrates the entirety of a business’s payment processes while also facilitating solutions which lead to the pursuit of new avenues of revenue.

The improvement of a business payment processing ecosystem when backed up with a solid payment facilitator (payfac) can thus translate into a more engaging and personalized customer journey.

Difference between Multichannel Payments and Omnichannel Payments

The main difference is how the omnichannel approach to payments focuses on combining payment touchpoints and shopping experiences across a business.

By taking full advantage of data synchronization capabilities, the omnichannel aims to empower touchpoints of customer-brand interaction.

While multichannel payments offer mobile or online channels for which customers can pay (like, for example, a brick-and-mortar store selling on Amazon marketplace), the omnichannel uses different channels to provide a much more centralized view and insights on customer behavior, patterns, and activities.

As such, eCommerce sites and mobile apps are still there, but an omnichannel approach fully utilizes them in a way that goes beyond them being a simple sales channel, granting shoppers an uninterrupted, fully customized shopping experience and business owners a complete view of shopping behavior through data synchronization.

Why Does a Business Need a Payments Omnichannel?

To put it in simple terms, to meet consumer demand. Now more than ever, there is relentless demand from consumers who want to take the reigns and decide how they pay.

An omnichannel provides a seamless, frictionless shopping experience regardless of how customers choose.

Taking the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, it was vital for businesses to deliver a prompt response and reduce physical interactions between buyers and sellers to a minimum.

Those who had an omnichannel approach were better positioned to answer the call of customer demand, those who didn’t were forced to adapt and leverage online solutions through digital transformation.

However, even in a post-covid world, it is highly unlikely that customers will want to go back to a non-omnichannel shopping experience.

Last Words

Businesses have been exploring new avenues in terms of payments and it is evident that they have to bring their a-game if they want to remain relevant.

Ultimately, competition will push the omnichannel experience to greater heights not just in terms of customer experience but also in terms of businesses beginning to better understand their customers and better align their inventories and marketing efforts accordingly.