Omni.  From the Latin, a prefix or combining form meaning 'all; of all things.  In all ways or places.'  In Retail we're well used to using it when discussing channels to market, even if the execution of the principle is still not completely understood or practiced by all (ha!).  But as I've talked about previously, there's another, more urgent 'omni' which Retail and Hospitality needs to embrace sharpish - omni-Digital.

Omni-Digital is particularly prevalent and relevant in the Insurance and Financial Services industries, where interaction with customers has moved all-but wholly to digital means.  Tech-savvy customers choose to engage with the providers of such services exclusively via online and/or Digital processes, whilst the providers ensure a cohesive, unified customer experience (CX).  The generational shift in so-called Digital Natives accessing and requiring these financial products has led to a situation whereby physical channels (such as call centres and high-street branches) are no longer necessary and are hence phased out/dispensed with.  From a Retail perspective you can probably already see where I'm going with this...

'Disruptive' Retail models aren't new.  Many exist across multiple sectors - here are just a few of the best-known of what we call Pure Play operators:

Amazon - the 'granddaddy' of Pure Play, ironically now moving into Bricks and Mortar with programmes such as Amazon Go, but still with an eye towards digitally enabled frictionless trading leveraging cutting edge in-store innovation.

Wiggle - an online powerhouse of a business built from the ground up to exploit online retailing in the European sports sector.

Cazoo - "The new way to buy a used car".  A relatively new business but one looking to leverage the pandemic's lockdown and social distancing needs by offering remote purchase of a 'big ticket' item in safety and with security - both health- and moneywise.

AO.com - UK-based online-only electrical appliances retailer with a keen eye on customer service.

Deliveroo - why queue up in a QSR fast-food chain outlet when, with a few clicks or taps, your burger/pizza/whatever can be delivered to your doorstep in a few minutes?

And many, many more.  All engaging with customers in an omni-Digital way, all acutely aware of the need for superlative customer experience and service in markets where they have little or no physical, human interaction.  As I have said on many occasions it is what drives (or should drive...) true Digital Transformation - the desire to place the customer at the heart of everything you do.  So how does it go wrong?

I'd like to impart a recent personal experience to illustrate matters.  Where I live there is no mains gas supply, such is the remote rural location, hence properties have to rely on either tanker-delivered gas or home heating oil (kerosene).  I have the latter and its price is particularly volatile due to the fact that oil is a traded Commodity - I have paid as little as 19p per litre and as much as 76p per litre over the years and there's nothing one can do about it if one likes a nice hot shower and a warm home.  The current price is round 25-27p and I recently ordered another 500 litres ahead of the forthcoming cooler autumnal weather.  Stick with me, this isn't becoming The Archers.

I checked the per litre price online.  I ordered online.  I paid online and received an e-Mail and text confirmation of the transaction, detailing the proposed delivery window dates.  At no point did I have any human interaction with the oil provider, it had been an omni-Digital experience.  Right up until when the delivery tanker arrived and its driver moaned that, due to the time of the year and the abundant overhanging vegetation bordering the driveway, his company might not be able to deliver in future unless it (the vegetation) was cut back "because it might scratch the vehicle's paintwork".  Nice to be able to pick and choose your customers, isn't it?

As I have said, heating oil is a commodity.  The provider adds zero value but this time around, a business which had digitally transformed to undertake the receipt and execution of orders has fallen down because they failed to ensure that the human element of their transformation was on board.  I'm a peeved (ex-...) customer who will take his business elsewhere next time.

Poor old John Lewis and Partners (JL&P), that doyen of the British high street, is the type of Retailer that desperately needs to embrace omni-Digital.  This week, its incoming Group Chair Sharon White has been explaining how she intends to revitalise sagging fortunes as the business reported a £635m pre-tax loss for the six months to 25 July along with 1,300 job losses tied to the closure of eight UK stores.  In, perhaps, the most British of ways, the most shocking news has been that JL&P is dropping its tag-line - "Never Knowingly Undersold" - which it has used since 1925.  The upshot presumably means that, in the pursuit of margin, the business will in future be 'knowingly undersold' as it seeks to recover losses and resume presently-suspended payments of Partners' bonuses.  But the problem is that, as the quote from the BBC article highlighted below demonstrates, whilst large, airy, glossy stores have the so-called halo effect in enhancing online sales, they are expensive to run and maintain - and with the change in 'Never Knowingly Undersold', will in future run the risk of simply becoming large, airy, glossy (and expensive) showrooms for the omni-Digital consumer to browse before finding the best deals online elsewhere.

The saving grace will be CX.  JL&P has always been renowned for high-quality service and after-sales care, but it needs a far more mature Digital Transformation, omnichannel and holistic Loyalty programme for this element to make the difference.  Please, Ms. White, do this; don't allow JL&P to become a purveyor of commodities...

Omni-Digital may have begun life in Insurance and FS but the inexorable march of time, together with the changing demographic of consumers insistent upon using Digital routes only to interact mean that Retail and Hospitality has to step up to the challenge - now.  It's all aboard the omnibus.