A Guide to Omnichannel Marketing For F&B Businesses

Introduction

Innova Market Insights revealed the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the way consumers interacted with food and beverage businesses 35% of people reported their reliance on food delivery systems increasing—unsurprising, given the circumstances at the time. Only, these numbers haven't wavered toward the negative; understanding convenience, people around the world are now more reliant on the digital realm for consumption habits involving the F&B industry. The Asia-Pacific region alone is predicted by experts to face a remarkable 11.44% growth in the online food delivery market.

Given that consumers expect food service products to be as fresh as possible, omnichannel marketing works best to enable widespread access. Remember that omnichannel is not just about advertising, it involves online availability services too.

Are you ready to catch up?

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Chapter 1 - Customer Experience And Retail Media Advertising

What makes omnichannel such a success in the F&B industry? For starters, gathering information from different sources enables businesses to uncover valuable knowledge about customer behavior and preferences. By using multiple channels for data accumulation, the businesses can cover a diverse audience, as well as generate more traffic. The data acquired can be an effective means of ideas to shape your marketing strategies and enhance your product offerings.

Platforms on omnichannel marketing have numerous analytics tools that help harness insights about consumers. For instance, various social media platforms have built-in analysis tools that enable brands to track customer preferences via view count and the pattern of interaction with competitors. The introduction of contactless payment is another aspect of omnichannel that enhances customer convenience. As a result, F&B businesses are able to make more informed business decisions.

Take Amazon Fresh’s hi-tech shopping carts for example. The unique Amazon Dash Cart experience leverages the best of omnichannel tech. These shopping carts have cameras, scales, sensors and a video display screen to keep track of your purchases. To use them, scan a QR code through your phone's versatile Amazon app and start shopping. The cart recognizes each item you add to your bags and removes it from your running total if you change your mind and return it to the shelf. When you're done, sign out on the touchscreen and your credit card associated with your Amazon account will be billed automatically. You'll receive an instant email receipt and can take your bagged groceries and go!

Addressing Customer Pain Points

Omnichannel marketing benefits businesses by making it easier for customers to gain access to F&B products and services. On that note, here’s the top five points (for both consumers and retailers) that omnichannel marketing addresses effectively.

Pain Point #1: Separate Customer Convenience Channels

Imagine your customer wanting to access customer service or a deal at their preferred platform, —only to know that another platform has what they need. The need to access two different platforms, and the time and effort spent on the process, can easily frustrate the user. What if customers could discover, consult, browse, buy, and pay without leaving a platform?

To seamlessly provide customer support, brands can turn to omnichannel, supported by cloud databases—thus ensuring that customer issues are resolved efficiently.

Starbucks is one of the first F&B businesses to adopt omnichannel strategies. Their partnership with Grab in 2022 allows customers in Southeast Asia to earn stars when they purchase a drink through GrabFood. Additionally, these purchases also earn GrabRewards points, useful for delivery or transport services on the Grab app. Customers can even gift Starbucks vouchers to loved ones through the GrabGifts vouchers option.

One example of superior omnichannel integration is WhatsApp purchasing. The practice is being adopted by leading F&B services in Asia. Wow! Momo, an Indian chain of fast-food restaurants, introduced a WhatsApp-based ordering system in partnership with app developers Gupshup.io. Their WhatsApp chatbot makes food ordering a seamless experience for customers in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. WOW! Momo’s convenient ordering system includes, as specified by the Beerud Sheth (Gupshup.io CEO), “end-to-end food discovery, ordering and support, within WhatsApp, automated 24/7, developed using Gupshup.io's Conversational Engagement Platform".

The use of WhatsApp also includes incredible features like automated replies to queries, order updates, product/service campaigns, and communicating offers with customers.

“There is now an oncoming thing, WhatsApp ordering, where I actually have a journey that starts with WhatsApp. So, in the F&B area actually the omnichannel is far, far more prevalent and agile than in other industries such as FMCG”, reported Gitanjali Sriram, the former head of marketing of Taco Bell Malaysia.

Pain Point #2: The Need for Contactless Purchase

Over the past few years, people have been hyper-aware of how they interact while buying food at a restaurant. Contactless purchases are the latest rage for convenience, speed, and health and safety purposes.

One of the many aspects of omnichannel technology is QR code integration, which can help minimize contact. Implementing QR code menus helps F&B businesses and increases customers’ trust, by providing them with better in-house experience, reducing order errors, and enabling faster transactions.

Take China, for example. 15 million SMBs accept QR code payments by AliPay—the most populous Southeast Asian F&B brands are also adopting contactless payments. Take Pizza Hut Malaysia for example. The company partnered with TabSquare.AI to implement SmartWeb BYOD QR code ordering solution. Each customer is presented with a menu personalized especially for them. Customers can use their phone to scan the QRCode and order. This level of tailored solution, combined with the contactless convenience of QR code, gives consumers a better experience—and gives Pizza Hut Malaysia revenue boost in stores across the country.

Pain Point #3: Loyalty & Retention by The Brand

By embracing omnichannel communication, you demonstrate a genuine concern for your customers and their satisfaction. The approach shows your commitment to going the extra mile for their convenience.

For instance, Kellogg, operating widely in Southeast Asia, has implemented a comprehensive omnichannel strategy. The company created around 250 personalized video campaigns, putting the customer as the center of attention and promoting an omnichannel approach to enhance convenience—thus boosting engagement and sales. One of their tactics involves location-specific ads to attract customers to their stores and introduce new products. For instance, they placed an ad on the Weatherbug iPhone app to promote a 70-calorie snack. When clicked, customers are provided with directions to the nearest Kellogg retailer selling the snack. This allows Kellogg to successfully launch new products and drive traffic to their retail stores.

How Does Omnichannel Marketing Affect Retail Media?

Omnichannel offers to streamline the entire shopping experience for customers by removing breaks and delays. Through a successfully implemented omnichannel retail strategy, customers have the freedom to choose their preferred means of communication and location of transaction. Plus, they can switch between different retail media channels if needed.

A good example of this is Greenfields, a top dairy brand in Southeast Asia, which has implemented a seamless omnichannel digital strategy. With their entry into the e-commerce space, Greenfields now caters to customers all across Indonesia, providing the convenience of shopping from the comfort of home. After placing an order for dairy products via the website, the brand dispatches the items from one of its numerous hubs that’s nearest to the customer’s location. Another great example of retail media’s impact is alcohol sales in the U.S. during the pandemic. You’d think that quarantine would affect sales of goods sold at a bar above anything else. However, by adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy, alcohol sellers reported positive results. Drizly, an alcohol delivery startup acquired by Uber in early 2021, and Doordash’s alcohol delivery option through its app were major players in this change. As a result, online alcohol sales in the U.S. went up by a whopping 262 percent that year!

Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash

Chapter 2 – Data

For F&B businesses, a successful omnichannel system is also about aligning digital platforms to derive as much useful customer data as possible.

If you only rely on email as a means of customer communication, there’s not much to go on besides the customer’s email and the message they send. Add social media, website chatbots, and a delivery app customer helpline to the mix, and you can derive more data, useful data. For instance, you can get enough information to target ads better, start a loyalty program, and create surveys to get more direct feedback.

A good example of leveraging data for deploying better service is by LOTTE Mart. The Korean supermarket chain makes use of data analytics, an approach first applied at their stores in Vietnam. As a result, the company familiarizes itself with consumers' needs and ensures they receive top-notch products according to their preferences. Ultimately, delivering seamless shopping experiences remains a constant quality of LOTTE Mart’s business.

The key to successful omnichannel implementation is seamless integration between digital platforms. As you expand your channels, you'll gain access to a wealth of new data, improving your customers’ experience. A detailed research shows that consumers consent to providing data about their buying habits if that means getting better services; 63% of consumers are willing to part with more personal information if a brand promises better customer experience.

As Gitanjali Sriram, Former Head of Marketing of Taco Bell Malaysia said, “There is a lot of data coming in from this explosion of omni-channel, and it is a real struggle sometimes to find a way to connect it. In normal circumstances, when you have this data coming in, you end up storing it in a data lake. And then you hopefully can find gooddata scientists who can help you extract this data and make it useful".

Expanding the channels for your F&B business opens up a world of opportunities to connect with a larger audience. By going beyond in-store shopping and offering delivery through an app, you can tap into a much wider customer base and gather valuable data. However, how brands filter and sort data to make it usable matters. Various platforms such as social media apps Instagram and LinkedIn have sophisticated built-in tools that allow businesses to extract highly targeted, relevant information. Effective management of data not only allows your marketing team to work with greater focus but also leads to increased customer satisfaction and higher revenues.

Chapter 3: The Route from Online to Offline

Omnichannel marketing provides food and beverage (F&B) companies with various benefits. Statistics from reliable sources indeed validate this statement.

According to a report, 73% of shoppers are omnichannel, leveraging multiple mediums to complete their purchases.

This ensures consistent product visibility. Omnichannel strategies also provide enhanced data, which in turn boosts brand visibility as consumers call out superior service and response.

Additionally, the heightened website traffic can translate into increased sales, with the potential for operation costs to range from 10 to 14 percent of sales.

This integrated approach also enables unprecedented coordination across digital touchpoints.

However, F&B brands continue investing heavily in in-store experiences, deliberately guiding consumers from online platforms into physical stores.

For instance:

• Yoshinoya, a notable Japanese fast-food chain, frequently tailors in-store-only promotions and exotic menu introductions that aren't available online, enticing digital customers to visit their outlets in person.
• Foodpanda, a popular food delivery platform across Asia, holds exclusive in-person events with select restaurants in various cities to increase physical traffic. These events can range from "taste preview" offerings for new menus to exclusive food festivals bringing digital traffic in-store.
• Redmart, an online supermarket based in Singapore, periodically collaborates with local farms and suppliers for in-store events, increasing awareness and driving digital users to take part in these occasions.
• Sulbing, a South Korean dessert cafe chain, regularly hosts in-store-only seasonal special desserts, thus providing ample incentive for their online customers to visit the cafes.
• Alibaba-owned Hema/Freshippo, a supermarket chain in China, seamlessly integrates the online and offline shopping experience. While promoting online shopping, it also manages in-store aquaponic live seafood sections and invites celebrity chefs to demonstrate cooking, attracting digital customers onsite.

By doing so, these F&B brands tactfully channel their customers from online platforms to physical stores, promoting the best of both worlds and ensuring a robust omnichannel experience.

The Significance of an Offline Experience

While digital touchpoints are invaluable, the physical presence of store locations offers additional value for food and beverage brands.

They foster deeper, more meaningful customer connections and loyalty, which solely online platforms often fail to cultivate effectively.

As the Salsify report unveils...

Download the Innovation Brief to read the full article!

Digital Food and Beverage Asia 2024 Innovation Brief