How omnichannel retail fosters in-store and online connection

74% of consumers expect more brands to provide personalized experiences in 2025, according to our future of consumer marketing report. With an omnichannel approach, retail brands are better equipped to deliver on this expectation.

With access to data across all channels, you can more effectively segment your audience and provide personalized offers that increase the chance of people moving from interest to purchase, faster.

Retention has never been trickier. In fact, according to Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report, 1 in 5 customers will stop buying from a brand after one negative experience. 

With more data at your fingertips, you’re less likely to make a mistake that might cost you a customer. When you have better visibility into what your customers need, you’re more likely to deliver the kind of communications that keep them shopping with your brand over and over again—boosting both loyalty and customer lifetime value.

Because the foundation of omnichannel retail is a unified data foundation, it solves one of the biggest challenges retailers face today: data silos. According to Klaviyo’s state of B2C marketing report, the majority (60%) of B2C organizations have 6–15 different tools in their marketing stack. 

With an omnichannel approach, you and your team spend less time (and money) manually transferring data between disconnected systems and more time figuring out creative, strategic ways to create consistent experiences as customers move between touchpoints. 

Imagine a customer is going on vacation in a few days but realizes that they forgot to buy good walking shoes. They don’t have time to wait for a delivery, so they hop online to the app of their favorite footwear brand.

The brand recommends a pair of sneakers to the customer based on their past purchases and preferences, and lets them know that the shoes are available for pick-up at a store location near him. So the customer makes the purchase and, a few hours later, swings by the store location to pick up their new shoes. 

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) is a classic example of how omnichannel creates a seamless experience for consumers. By keeping your finger on the pulse of all your data—from available inventory to purchase histories—you provide the customer with several benefits: 

• Clear wait times
• Zero shipping costs 
• Guaranteed availability of product 
• Convenience

Imagine a customer orders a pair of jeans online. When the jeans arrive, the customer doesn’t quite like how they look. Since the customer doesn’t want to go through the process of requesting a return, printing out a label, and going to UPS, they go to a brick-and-mortar store to return the jeans.

While the customer is at the store, they try on another pair of jeans that they love. They end up purchasing those instead. It’s a win-win: the customer returns the product that didn’t suit them, while the brand makes a sale.

Here are just a few of the benefits of in-store returns for customers: 

• Convenience
• Immediate return process, with no wait time
• Greater chances of a sale since they can try on other options in-person

Imagine a customer browsing in a boutique. As they check out a new collection, they notice a small sign at the register with a QR code inviting them to connect on WhatsApp for instant perks. Out of curiosity, they scan the code. Within seconds, they’re subscribed and receive a welcome offer—10% off their purchase today—and a promise of exclusive updates on upcoming product drops.

It’s a win-win: the customer gets a seamless, in-the-moment reward and stays in the loop for future collections, while the brand grows its owned audience and opens a direct, high-engagement channel for ongoing communication.

Here are just a few of the benefits of in-store WhatsApp QR code sign-ups for customers:

• Instant rewards: Immediate access to welcome discounts or special offers
• Exclusive updates: First to hear about new products, events, or restocks
• Seamless experience: Quick sign-up with a simple scan—no forms or extra steps needed

Remember, the majority (60%) of organizations have 6–15 different tools in their marketing stack. It’s one of the biggest challenges of adopting an omnichannel approach: many retail brands are relying on a patchwork of disconnected tools for email, SMS, WhatsApp, POS systems, and loyalty programs that were never designed to work together. 

While this fragmented approach might work for single- or multi-channel retail strategies, it creates significant operational headaches for omnichannel retail. Teams end up manually transferring data between systems, running duplicate campaigns, and struggling to create consistent experiences as customers move between touchpoints.

The result? Broken customer journeys and frustrated teams spending more time managing tools than engaging customers.

Solution: Consolidate multiple tools into a single platform that can orchestrate experiences across channels. A B2C CRM like Klaviyo bridges the gap between online and offline with a built-in customer data platform and 350+ pre-built integrations with platforms like Shopify POS and Square Online, so that brands can act on real-world behavior and reach out to customers with personalized, consistent communications. 

Apparel brand Marine Layer, for example, has both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce stores. To present a cohesive brand experience for their customers, they decided to consolidate all their marketing efforts into Klaviyo.

As a result, the brand was able to craft more personalized welcome flows, offer better VIP experiences, and track engagement across all their channels—all of which contributed to a 40.4% YoY increase in Klaviyo-attributed revenue.

Imagine a retail customer is dissatisfied with a product they purchased and reaches out to customer support for help. While they’re waiting for a resolution, they receive an email from the same brand urging them to make another purchase. This not only deepens an already negative experience, but also increases the risk of customer churn and increased unsubscribe rates.

It’s another common challenge with omnichannel retail: you might do everything right on the marketing front, but if you don’t also connect your customer service touchpoints into your omnichannel strategy, you may create continuity issues like this one. 

Solution: Connect marketing and customer service data to provide a more consistent, responsive, and empathetic customer experience.

When travel brand CABAIA, for example, adopted Klaviyo as their single source of truth, they were able to develop more sophisticated segments based on each customer’s purchase history, customer service interactions, and online activities. One important result: they gained the ability to exclude customers with open support tickets from promotional marketing messages.

Customers expect personalization when it comes to their retail experiences, whether it’s in-store or online. In fact, more than one-third of consumers believe that brand messages should feel either connected (39%) or personalized (39%) when they receive them in different places, according to our online shopping report.  

When customers encounter inconsistent pricing or product availability across channels, or they have to repeat their preferences and history, it creates friction in the customer journey.

Solution: As your business grows, AI is the only way to make sure your high-quality experiences grow with you. According to our online shopping report, 62% of consumers prefer AI remembering their past purchases and preferences over explaining them in-person to a sales associate. 

Klaviyo AI is built in to the platform, not bolted on as an afterthought. From generative AI for email subject lines and text message copy to predictive analytics around customer churn risk and lifetime value, it can tell you which channel to use and when, suggest optimal message timing and frequency, and much more.

Australian streetwear brand Culture Kings uses Klaviyo AI to: 

• Segment customers who purchased during a sales period so they can retarget them with promotions.
• Generate high-performing email subject lines.
• Tap into dynamic product feeds to create even more personalized experiences for their customers.

“We have diverse audience segments across 3 regions, each requiring a unique approach,” says Jarrod Hinvest, the brand’s former head of commerce. “That’s where Klaviyo, supercharged by its powerful AI features, comes in. It enables us to easily and effectively build complex automated flows that deliver the right message to the right customers, in the right region, at the right time.”