The connection between the online and offline world is getting stronger. For this reason, the importance of the O2O concept in marketing, which means Offline to Online (and vice versa), is growing. In Uzink, as marketing consultants, we want to analyze the true meaning and potential of this acronym that represents great opportunities for companies.
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What is O2O in marketing?
Basically we talk about omnichannel. In other words, how our marketing strategy should offer the same level of experience to both our physical and digital sales spaces. But the O2O concept in marketing goes further. It means that our strategy must be designed to encourage our online customers to connect with our points of sale and vice versa based on the objectives and interests of the company.
New consumers ROPO and showrooming
If we want to explain the importance of O2O in marketing, we have to understand two key phenomena in customer behavior. We refer to ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline) and Showrooming.
ROPO refers to customers who have searched for the product on the web but end up buying it in store. While showrooming explains the practice of visiting the physical store to complete the online purchase.
How to design an O2O strategy in marketing?
If we don't want to lose a sale, we must create an O2O strategy that understands new consumer behaviors. And in the same way, that it offers incentives to finalize the purchase in the channel that most interests you.
We share some practical examples to visualize the options:
– If what we are looking for is that our client, even if they buy online, visit the point of sale, we can offer them free collection at the store where we can present other products.
– If our goal is boost sales of our online store We can work on communication at the point of sale that strengthens key messages such as stock availability or additional benefits.
The meaning of O2O in marketing has much more travel. Currently it is key for all companies with an on and off presence. For this reason, at Uzink we are at your disposal to share how a good O2O strategy can help you increase sales and profits.