How to Build an Omnichannel Retail Strategy (2026)

Learn how to create an omnichannel retail strategy to attracts and converts shoppers.

An omnichannel retail strategy connects the various channels customers use to browse, buy, pick up and return purchases, and communicate with a retailer. But connecting channels is only part of the work. Brands also need connected customer data, inventory, orders, fulfillment, and service systems behind the scenes.

Customer journeys now move across physical and digital channels. NRF and IBM’s 2026 consumer research study found that 72% of consumers still shop in stores, while 41% use AI assistants to research products.

This guide explores how retailers can connect each touchpoint, and the operational systems that make omnichannel

What is an omnichannel retail strategy?

An omnichannel retail strategy connects a retailer’s sales channels so customers can move between them more easily. A customer might browse products online, check store availability, buy through a mobile app, pick up the order in-store, and return the item through another channel. The goal is to make those transitions feel connected, rather than treating each channel as a separate experience.

First-party data plays an important role in this approach because it helps retailers recognize customers and understand their behavior. First-party data is information a retailer collects directly from customers with their permission. Examples include website activity, form submissions, purchase history, email engagement, and loyalty program activity.

When retailers connect first-party data across channels, they build a more complete view of customer behavior. That data can help retailers:

• Tailor messages and experiences across channels: Retailers use data from websites, stores, email, and other channels to create more relevant interactions.
• Reduce reliance on third-party data: As privacy rules and platform policies change, first-party data gives retailers another way to understand customer activity.
• Connect customer journeys: First-party data links online browsing, in-store shopping, mobile app use, and past purchases.
• Inform customer acquisition: Retailers can use first-party insights to refine audience targeting and acquisition campaigns.

For example, Shopify Audiences helps brands activate first-party data across marketing channels while maintaining a unified view of customer behavior.

Using first-party data in an omnichannel strategy can make it easier to connect customer activity, inventory, and order information across channels.

Single channel vs. multichannel vs. omnichannel retail

• Single channel: A business sells its products or services through one channel, such as a retail store.
• Multichannel: A business sells through multiple channels, such as a brick-and-mortar store, an ecommerce site, and marketplaces.
• Omnichannel: A business connects multiple sales channels so customers can shop across them with fewer interruptions. These channels include physical stores, online stores, marketplaces, mobile apps, and catalogs.

The central idea of omnichannel is that every interaction shapes how customers experience your brand. However, adding channels is relatively easy; making them feel connected for customers is harder.

Omnichannel vs. unified commerce

Omnichannel retail and unified commerce are related, but they describe different parts of a retail strategy. Omnichannel retail focuses on the customer experience: Shoppers can move between an online store, a physical store, a mobile app, and customer service without starting over.

Unified commerce is the system behind that experience. Rather than connecting separate tools via integrations, unified commerce puts core retail data on a single shared foundation. That includes customer profiles, inventory, point of sale (POS), orders, and fulfillment.

Put simply: Omnichannel is what the customer experiences; unified commerce is what helps brands deliver it.

The easiest way to understand the difference is to look at how retailers connect operations behind the scenes. BRUNT Workwear scaled to over $300 million in annual revenue by consolidating their online and physical retail channels onto Shopify’s platform. The unified commerce approach eliminated fragmented workflows and manual order entries, increasing operational efficiency across their entire retail ecosystem. 

Running all operations through a central back end, the brand achieved real-time inventory visibility and streamlined multichannel reporting without requiring a massive internal engineering team.

"Now that the retail store is up, all of the performance and inventory data is flowing in and I can see it every day. The unified experience just makes operating the business a lot easier,” says Eric Girouard, founder and CEO of BRUNT Workwear.

That same shared foundation supports core omnichannel capabilities, from inventory visibility and pickup options to cross-channel returns and connected customer service.

Why omnichannel retail matters in 2026

Customers now move across more than one channel when they interact with businesses. Verint’s 2026 “State of Customer Experience” report found that 95% of customers interact across two or more channels. For retailers, that means a customer journey can include online browsing, customer service, order tracking, and store interactions.

Those interactions need to carry context from one channel to the next. Zendesk’s “CX Trends 2026” report found that 74% of consumers get frustrated when they have to repeat their story to different agents.

Customers also leave their preferred channel when another channel gets them an answer faster. Verint found that 78% of customers will give up their preferred channel for a faster resolution.

An omnichannel retail strategy gives each team the context they need to help the customer. Service teams can see the order. Store staff can see what happened online. Customers don’t have to explain the same issues or preferences again.

What an omnichannel customer journey looks like

A connected omnichannel journey shows how each touchpoint builds on the last. To illustrate, here is an example from discovery to checkout and beyond:

Description	Description	Example
Discovery	Browsing products in-store, then going online to find detailed information and compare prices across channels	A customer tries on a new pair of shoes in-store, then goes online to compare prices.
Purchase	Making a purchase through a retailer’s website, online marketplace, or physical store	The customer purchases the shoes through a retailer’s website.
Fulfillment	Receiving information about the order via email, SMS notifications, or automated tracking	The customer receives an email confirmation of their order and a tracking number.
Post-purchase	Determining satisfaction with the purchase and experience with the brand, leaving reviews and feedback, accessing customer service	The customer is satisfied with their purchase and leaves a positive review.

Discovery

The omnichannel customer journey begins with discovery. A customer researches products, compares prices, and reviews product details across the company website, retailer websites, online marketplaces, physical stores, and social media.

Personalization influences this stage when retailers connect customer data across channels. For example, a customer who browses shoes online can receive product recommendations based on purchase history, browsing behavior, or saved preferences. Each interaction should inform the next one, rather than starting from scratch on every channel.

Purchase

After customers identify the product they want, they move to the purchase phase. They buy through a retailer’s website, an online marketplace, or a physical store. In an omnichannel journey, customers may carry context from earlier interactions, such as saved items, loyalty status, or preferred fulfillment options.

Fulfillment

After purchase, fulfillment begins. The order confirmation gives the shopper the purchase details. They are kept up to date through email, SMS notifications, or automated tracking systems as their purchase makes its way to their door.

Fulfillment workflows connect the order to inventory and shipping steps. Depending on the retailer’s setup, that could mean shipping from a warehouse, routing the order to a store, preparing it for pickup, or handing it off to a third-party logistics provider (3PL).

Post-purchase

After delivery, the customer starts using the product. If the item meets expectations, a review often follows. If there is a problem, the customer contacts service or starts a return.

Returns use the original order record. A customer who buys online might return the item in-store or drop it off with a shipping partner. Service teams, store staff, and return systems all need access to the same order context so the customer doesn’t have to restart the process if they switch channels.

First-party data ties post-purchase messages to prior activity. After buying shoes, for example, the shopper may receive a related product recommendation via their preferred channel.

Core capabilities of an omnichannel retail strategy

The customer journey above depends on several capabilities working together behind the scenes.

Real-time inventory visibility

Shared inventory visibility means your online store, retail locations, and fulfillment teams all work from the same inventory data. 

During discovery and purchase, customers rely on accurate inventory information to decide where and when to buy. Customers can see whether an item is available for shipping, in-store pickup, or in-store purchase. Staff can also see what is available at each location and help customers find the fastest or best fulfillment option.

Omnichannel breaks down when inventory is inconsistent. A customer might order something for pickup that is not actually available, or a store might miss a sale because staff can’t see stock in another location.

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup let customers place an order online and collect it at a nearby store. In this model, stores are both the fulfillment locations and the places to shop. It’s one way omnichannel shows up during the fulfillment step: the customer buys in one channel, but completes the order in another.

The day-to-day work is less simple. Staff need to pick the item, stage it, mark it ready, and send clear pickup instructions. The experience fails when inventory is wrong or the order handoff is unclear. 

Pickup depends on inventory accuracy before anything else. In a Shopify case study, Paige launched BOPIS after improving inventory accuracy from 85% to 98%. As Sofie Kuehnen, head of global retail operations, explains, “We feel confident showing customers what's available in stores because we know the data is accurate.”

Cross-channel returns and exchanges

Cross-channel returns and exchanges allow customers to buy in one channel and return or exchange in another, such as buying online and returning in-store (BORIS). This extends the omnichannel experience into the post-purchase stage, when customers may need service or an easier way to complete a return.

A disconnected return process creates extra work for staff. It also creates uncertainty for shoppers. Appriss Retail’s 2026 benchmark report found that 62% of customers see online and in-store returns as different experiences. It also found 13% have switched retailers because cross-channel return policies were inconsistent. 

A unified return record helps staff confirm the order, apply the right policy, and finish the exchange without sending the customer elsewhere.

AI-assisted shopping channels

AI-assisted product discovery is already part of the retail journey. IBM and NRF’s 2026 research found that nearly half of surveyed consumers turn to AI for help during buying journeys.

For retailers, that makes AI-assisted shopping another discovery channel to consider, not a replacement for stores, ecommerce, search, or social commerce. The opportunity is making sure product data stays consistent wherever customers discover it, including AI-powered shopping experiences. 

Shopify Agentic Storefronts let retailers connect their products to AI shopping channels such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, so shoppers can discover products in AI conversations and move toward checkout where that experience is available.

Connected customer service across channels

Connected customer context means teams can work from a shared view of the customer across online and in-store interactions. That can include purchase history, preferences, loyalty activity, and past interactions. The customer can move from chat to phone to store without starting over.

A delayed pickup order can start online and end at the counter. A return question can turn into an exchange. Verint’s 2026 customer experience research found that 95% of customers now interact across two or more channels.

Connect service tools to order, store, and customer data so staff can resolve issues wherever the customer is. That continuity matters because service is often where omnichannel either works or breaks down.

Personalized experiences powered by first-party data

Personalization uses data you collect from customers across your own channels to make offers and experiences more relevant. In an omnichannel strategy, personalization works best when it reflects the customer’s full relationship with the brand, not just their last click or most recent purchase.

Irrelevant outreach wastes attention and budget. Amperity’s 2026 retail personalization research found that 83% of US customers want personalized shopping experiences. It also found that 74% are more likely to buy when offers feel truly personalized. 

First-party data makes this easier to trust because it comes from owned customer touchpoints. It also helps retailers connect personalization across channels and touchpoints.

Benefits of an omnichannel strategy

For enterprise retailers, the biggest benefits of an omnichannel strategy typically fall into three areas: better customer experiences, more efficient operations, and stronger business performance.

• Improve operational efficiency. MIT CTL’s 2025 omnichannel supply chain survey found ecommerce growth is putting pressure on inventory management and order fulfillment for 60% of respondents. Omnichannel gives a business a clearer view of inventory across stores, warehouses, and ecommerce channels. 
• Build customer loyalty. Shoppers expect retailers to solve stockouts without making them start over elsewhere. In Adyen’s 2025 retail report, 53% of consumers said they’d be more loyal to a retailer if they could buy an out-of-stock item in-store and have it shipped to their home.
• Deliver a better customer experience. Consumers expect retail channels to work together. PwC’s 2025 customer experience survey found 29% of consumers stopped using or buying from a brand because of a poor customer experience online or in person.
• Make personalization more relevant. A unified setup makes it easier to tailor offers, recommendations, and messages based on real customer behavior. Twilio’s “2025 State of Customer Engagement” report found 88% of consumers are more likely to buy when engagement is personalized in real time.
• Create a more consistent brand experience. Consistency makes it easier to keep pricing, promotions, inventory, and service identical across channels. In an 84.51° 2025 survey of omnichannel grocery shoppers, 49% said they expect everything to be the same when shopping the same retailer online and in-store.

How to develop an omnichannel retail strategy

Building an omnichannel retail strategy means connecting the experiences customers see with the systems that support them. Here’s how to create your own:

1. Research where your customers already are.
2. Make every touchpoint shoppable.
3. Bridge the gap between online and offline.

1. Research where your customers already are

The first step in creating an omnichannel retail strategy is figuring out which platforms, media, and devices your customers use daily. That includes where they like to shop, where they hang out, and what influences how they discover and buy products.

Use Shopify's unified core customer model to create a comprehensive view of your customers. This model combines browsing, purchasing, and order data from all your selling channels. Analyze this data to identify which platforms and touchpoints your customers frequent most.

Consider using tools like Shopify’s Analytics to evaluate customer behavior across channels. The centralized dashboard can provide critical insights into acquisition, behavior, and marketing performance, helping you pinpoint where your customers are most active and engaged. You can also use Shopify Sidekick to dig deeper into your customer data, answering questions about your current customer journey.

2. Make every touchpoint shoppable

Every interaction with your brand is an opportunity to make a sale; the goal is to make the next step clear and convenient wherever that interaction happens.

For example, if someone adds a product to their cart on your website, it should also appear in your mobile app on their phone. If they visit your social media platforms, like Facebook or Instagram, they should see suggested products based on their previous browsing. 

Shopify’s integration capabilities allow you to synchronize your store with these platforms, so customers can check out directly without leaving the app.

Checkout is another touchpoint. Shopify's checkout system gathers and uses first-party data in real time, so it can tailor offers, upsells, and loyalty rewards based on a customer's shopping habits.

Using a unified customer model, you can make all your customer touchpoints shoppable. In addition to driving sales, this approach creates a smoother path from discovery to purchase.

3. Bridge the gap between online and offline

If your retail strategy involves online sales as well as offline, connecting the two is critical. Just being present in both channels isn’t enough; not in today’s world where consumers don’t make a purchase instantly at your store.

Consumers want to connect with your brand both on- and offline. They want to know what’s in stock before they come to visit. They want to add that item to their cart on the way to the store and have it sitting at the register for pickup.

Creating product catalog feeds that work with Google Shopping campaigns is often a messy, time-consuming, and technically complex issue for large inventory retailers. Shopify and Google’s direct integration makes it easy for omnichannel shoppers to discover products online and continue their journey through other channels.

A customer can move from search to product discovery, purchase, and pickup without leaving the retailer’s ecosystem.

Another example is a retail mobile app that connects online and in-store experiences.

When shopping in-store, customers can use these apps to check inventory, access loyalty rewards, or save products for later purchase. Some apps also support virtual product visualization or in-store pickup.

This seamless synchronization is powered by a unified data foundation that brings together customer interactions, inventory data, and transaction information into a single source of truth. 

With platforms like Shopify, everything from customer profiles and storefront experiences to inventory, fulfillment, and operations can work from the same foundation, making omnichannel experiences easier to scale.

Common omnichannel challenges and how to solve them 

Omnichannel strategy works best when systems, inventory, customer data, and store teams are connected. When those pieces are disconnected, the customer experience starts to break down. Here are three common challenges and how retailers can address them.

Technology integration and fragmented systems 

Retailers often use separate systems to create a retail tech stack. That makes it harder to create a unified customer view or deliver consistent service across channels. Verizon and Cisco’s 2025 “Connected Retail Experience Study” found that most retailers still lack true one-to-one personalization capabilities.

Start by connecting the systems that most affect the customer journey. With Shopify, organizations can unify ecommerce, POS, and customer data on a single platform, making it easier to deliver consistent omnichannel experiences. This is where unified commerce becomes practical: the fewer systems teams have to manage, the easier it is to keep customer, order, and inventory data aligned. 

Then standardize data so teams work from the same source of truth rather than different records across disconnected systems.

Inventory synchronization across channels 

Inventory is harder to manage when multiple channels all fill orders. MIT CTL’s 2025 research found that companies are using AI and automation to manage rising complexity in inventory management.

Shopify’s unified commerce model connects inventory, orders, and fulfillment across channels so teams can work from the same inventory view. Teams can put safety stock rules and order-routing logic in place so stores and warehouses can fulfill from a shared source of truth.

Data privacy, consent, and customer trust 

Omnichannel personalization depends on customer data. But customers are cautious about how companies use it. 

Qualtrics XM Institute’s 2025 privacy and personalization report found 53% of consumers are very or extremely concerned about personal data privacy, while only 33% trust companies to use their personal information responsibly.

Make consent clear across every channel. Explain what data is collected and how it’s used. Focus personalization on data customers are more comfortable sharing, like purchase history and website visits. That way, personalization can feel useful without making customers question how their data is being handled.

Omnichannel strategy FAQ

What is an omnichannel retailing strategy?

An omnichannel retail strategy means that you connect the channels customers use to browse, buy, receive orders, make returns, and get support. It also depends on shared customer, inventory, and order data so those experiences feel connected.

What is an omnichannel customer experience?

An omnichannel customer experience is the result of a cross-channel selling strategy, in which brands have a single view of the customer across all sales channels and service touchpoints.

What is an example of omnichannel retail?

As an example of omnichannel retail, Walmart operates physical stores alongside its online store for customers to use. Several options are available to customers at Walmart, including buying online and having an item shipped to their home, picking up orders curbside or inside the store. Customers can find out if a particular item is available at their local store by checking online.

How do you create an omnichannel strategy?

The first step to creating an omnichannel strategy is identifying which channels your customers shop on the most. Then, create strategies for those channels, allowing your customers to make purchases on any of them.