The 7 Pillars for an Omnichannel Strategy That Boosts Your Sales in 2025
By Charlotte Journo-Baur, Founder of WISHIBAM
In a world where boundaries between physical and digital commerce are fading, I daily observe retailers who continue to treat these channels as two separate universes. Fatal mistake. In 2025, commerce is no longer a question of “either/or” but “both” – consumers don’t choose between store and mobile anymore; they want both simultaneously, without friction.
After guiding dozens of retailers through their transformation, I can affirm: succeeding with an omnichannel strategy is no longer a luxury but a condition for survival. In this article, I share the keys to transform this necessity into a growth opportunity, based on field experiences and concrete results.
Why Omnichannel Is No Longer Optional in 2025
The Hybrid Consumer: Between Store and Mobile, They No Longer Choose
Have you ever observed a customer scanning a QR code in-store to check reviews, then asking for advice from a salesperson before finalizing their purchase on mobile? This behavior, once marginal, has become the norm. According to the latest McKinsey study (2024), 73% of consumers now use multiple channels before completing a purchase. More striking still: this figure reaches 82% among millennials and Gen Z.
What strikes me in my daily work with retailers is how much customer experience has supplanted price as a loyalty factor. A Salesforce study reveals that 67% of consumers are willing to pay more for a smooth and coherent experience across channels. I’ve seen retailers lose loyal customers not because of high prices, but because their experience was fragmented – impossible to find online a product seen in-store, inaccessible purchase history, inconsistent promotions between channels…
The 2025 consumer is impatient and demanding. They want to start their journey on Instagram, continue it on your website, and finalize it in-store – all while enjoying the same level of service and recognition. And if you can’t offer this fluidity? They’ll go elsewhere, it’s that simple.
Retailers Who Don’t Adapt Are Falling Behind
The figures are relentless. According to a Forrester Research analysis, retailers without a coherent omnichannel strategy lost an average of 4.7 points of market share between 2022 and 2024. This isn’t erosion; it’s hemorrhaging.
Take the example of this French textile chain I met last year – I’ll keep its name confidential out of respect. Despite solid brand recognition and quality products, it saw its revenue drop by 18% in two years. The reason? A fragmented customer experience: non-shared inventory between channels, inability to return online purchases in-store, and a mobile app disconnected from the boutique experience. Meanwhile, its direct competitor, which had invested in an omnichannel platform since 2021, showed 12% growth.
Or consider this major appliance retailer that lost 23% of its premium clientele in 18 months, unable to offer a coherent experience between its showrooms and e-commerce site. Its customers, tired of navigating between two distinct universes, migrated to retailers offering a unified experience.
The reality is brutal: in 2025, a retailer that isn’t omnichannel is a retailer preparing to disappear. Not immediately perhaps, but inexorably.
The Pillars of a High-Performance Omnichannel Strategy
Unifying Data to Better Serve the Customer
At the heart of any successful omnichannel strategy lies a fundamental prerequisite: data unification. I insist on this point because I’ve seen too many retailers launch into omnichannel without this essential foundation.
Concretely, what does this mean? It’s about creating a single reference point for your inventory, your customers, and their purchase journeys. Imagine: a customer enters your store after putting a product in their online cart the day before. Your salesperson should be able to instantly access this information to personalize their advice. Similarly, your online and in-store inventory should be synchronized in real time to avoid disappointments.
For one of our clients, a premium ready-to-wear retailer, data unification reduced stockouts by 37% and increased the average basket by 24% in just six months. How? By allowing salespeople to access customers’ purchase history and offering total visibility on available inventory across the entire network.
Another striking example: this perfume chain that reduced its return rate by 42% by implementing a system to identify customers with a history of high purchases and returns, to offer them personalized support.
The 360° customer view isn’t a marketing luxury; it’s a concrete commercial performance lever. And that’s precisely what we implement at WISHIBAM: a platform that centralizes all customer and product data to offer a truly unified experience.
Creating Bridges Between Digital and Physical
In 2025, omnichannel services like click & collect are no longer “extras” but “musts.” Yet not all are equal. Our experience shows that certain levers are particularly effective.
- E-reservation: This service allows customers to reserve a product online and come try it in-store before purchase. Among our clients who have deployed it, we observe a conversion rate of 68% – far superior to the 2-3% of traditional e-commerce. Why? Because it combines the best of both worlds: the convenience of digital and the sensory experience of physical retail.
- Ship-from-store: By transforming your stores into mini-logistics hubs, you reduce delivery times and optimize inventory. A home decoration retailer we work with reduced its delivery times from 4.2 to 1.8 days on average while decreasing logistics costs by 17%.
Sophie Martin, Digital Director at Maison du Style, testifies:
“Before WISHIBAM, our salespeople saw digital as a threat. Today, they understand that every online order shipped from their store contributes to their performance. Our sales increased by 31% in one year, with a balanced distribution between channels.”
What makes the difference is the smooth integration of these services into the customer journey and internal organization. Poorly executed click & collect can do more harm than good. That’s why change management is crucial – I’ll come back to this.
Relying on a Sovereign Partner for Success
Why Digital Sovereignty Is Becoming a Strategic Issue
The omnichannel transformation raises a crucial question that too few retailers ask themselves: who should you entrust your customer data and digital infrastructure to? In a context where American giants dominate the retail solutions market, digital sovereignty is emerging as a major strategic issue.
- Customer trust: A 2023 OpinionWay study shows 78% of French consumers are concerned about their personal data, and 64% favor companies that are transparent about its use. By choosing a sovereign solution, you send a strong signal about your ethical commitment.
- Security: Cybersecurity incidents in retail have surged by 67% in two years. Working with a partner subject to GDPR and European standards offers added security guarantees.
- Technological independence: Too many retailers are trapped in proprietary ecosystems, unable to evolve without their provider’s agreement or facing prohibitive price hikes.
It’s precisely to address these issues that WISHIBAM was designed as a sovereign, French, ethical solution. Our platform is developed in France, hosted in France, and our teams operate from France. This allows us to offer not only total compliance with European regulations but also an agility and proximity that international giants cannot match.
For a French retailer, choosing WISHIBAM means choosing a partner who intimately understands the specificities of the local market and shares the same values of ethics and transparency.
Support, Agility, Results: What Retailers Expect from a True Omnichannel Partner
Technology alone is not enough. I’ve seen too many omnichannel projects fail not due to technical defects but lack of human support. Deploying an omnichannel strategy means profoundly transforming the organization, processes, and sometimes even the corporate culture.
Retailers who succeed in their transformation are those who surround themselves with partners capable of going beyond simply providing tools. They seek strategic guidance, a proven methodology, and an ability to adapt to the specificities of their business.
- A Marseille shopping center, Les Terrasses du Port, worked with WISHIBAM to deploy an omnichannel marketplace with over 80 retailers.
The result: an 18% increase in store traffic and a 27% increase in average basket size for participating merchants. - In Annecy, we brought together 120 independent merchants around a common platform, generating 1.2 million euros in additional revenue in just six months thanks to omnichannel services.
What makes the difference in these successes? Personalized support at every stage: from the initial audit to team training, performance tracking, and continuous optimization. At WISHIBAM, we don’t just provide technology – we partner in your success, with a commitment to results.
The omnichannel transformation isn’t a sprint but a marathon. It requires a partner who understands your specific challenges, adapts to your pace, and supports you over the long term.
Conclusion: Omnichannel, a Necessity Transformed into Opportunity
Tomorrow’s commerce won’t be omnichannel by choice, but by necessity. This reality is something I observe daily in the field. The retailers who will thrive are those who have transformed this constraint into a strategic opportunity.
Well-executed omnichannel isn’t a cost center but a growth engine. It’s not about opposing physical and digital but creating synergy where each channel strengthens the other. Our clients who have fully embraced this approach see on average a 23% increase in their overall revenue and a 34% improvement in their retention rate.
The good news? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or embark on this transformation alone. Solutions like WISHIBAM exist to guide you step by step, with a tailored approach adapted to your reality.
The future belongs to retailers who can offer a coherent, human, and sovereign customer experience. Those who understand that omnichannel isn’t a technological question, but a strategic vision of tomorrow’s commerce.
Are you ready to take the step?
FAQ on Omnichannel Strategy
How do you measure the ROI of an omnichannel strategy?
The ROI of an omnichannel strategy is measured through several complementary indicators: increase in cross-channel average basket, improvement in overall conversion rate, enhancement of customer retention rate, and reduction in logistics costs. At WISHIBAM, we set up customized dashboards that allow tracking these KPIs in real-time and identifying optimization levers.
What is the first step to deploying an effective omnichannel strategy?
The first step is to conduct a comprehensive audit of your current situation: mapping existing customer journeys, analyzing information systems, assessing the digital maturity of teams. This diagnostic phase helps identify quick wins and develop a realistic roadmap adapted to your specifics. WISHIBAM offers this type of preliminary audit to lay the foundations for a successful transformation.
How do you convince in-store teams to adopt an omnichannel approach?
Field team resistance is often linked to fear that digital will cannibalize their sales. The key is to involve them from the project’s start and rethink the incentive system to value their contribution to omnichannel sales. For example, by attributing web-to-store sales to the relevant stores. At WISHIBAM, we systematically integrate a “change management” component in our deployments, with specific training for store teams.
What are the pitfalls to avoid in an omnichannel transformation?
The most common pitfall is considering omnichannel as a simple IT project, when it’s a global business transformation. Another frequent mistake: wanting to do everything simultaneously. Better to prioritize high-impact use cases and build progressively. Finally, neglecting customer data unification is a fatal error that compromises the entire strategy. WISHIBAM accompanies its clients to avoid these pitfalls thanks to a proven methodology.
What is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel?
A multichannel strategy offers several juxtaposed sales channels functioning in silos. The omnichannel approach creates a unified experience where channels interact seamlessly. Concretely, a customer can start their journey on one channel and continue it on another without disruption. The WISHIBAM platform is natively designed for this integrated omnichannel approach, unlike solutions that merely connect existing multichannel systems.