What is Multichannel Retailing?

In the first of what I hope to be many blog posts I'm going to attempt to create a succinct definition of what is multichannel retailing.

A quick Google for the term 'multi channel retail definition' didn't really come up with much.

In my view Multichannel Retailing can be summed up with the following phrase; "Multichannel Retailing provides a consistent customer experience regardless of the channel that a customer wishes to use to interact with the organisation"

There are a few key sub-phrases in that sentence I wish to highlight. Let's take them in reverse order...

Interact
I could have easily used the word 'shop' in place of this, but I didn't. The reason is that in this day and age the customer relationship with a retail organisation should be more than simply a shopping experience. With the advent of the Web (forums, customer reviews, etc), IVR and other channel technologies there is no reason why the relationship between customer and retailer should not be more interactive.

Channel
What exactly is a 'Channel'? What makes a retailer 'Multichannel'? Nowadays we can shop with our favourite brands in a multitude of ways; the bricks & mortar shop, web, phone, catalogue/mail order, mobile phone, in-store kiosk, IDTV. Each and every one a different 'channel'. The majority of retailers have at least 2 of these channels operating. So, surely aren't all these 2+ channel retailers classed as 'Multichannel'. One might argue, 'Yes' as they're operating in multiple channels, but how many of them meet the definition I've made above? That bring me on nicely to my final point...

Consistent Customer Experience
The most important of all. I love the phrase 'Customer is King'. If that's the case, why do so many retailers fail to understand that to succeed they must provide customer-centric services. Whichever channel I interact on must know who I am, what I've bought and what my previous interactions have been. Not only will this impress the customer (or spook the more wary), but it will also provide extensive and valuable marketing intelligence and the opportunity to target customer segments and personalise the customer experience.

Not only that, but as the Banking & Finance industry all too well know, the future share value of an organisation will be proportional to the quality of customer data it maintains. (I know somebody else said that, but not sure who - anybody?)