“Go omnichannel” seems to be the solution to every marketing problem:
- Struggling to get leads? → “Go omnichannel” to spur demand gen.
- Spending too much money on ads? → “Go omnichannel” and you’ll lower your CAC.
- Poor customer retention? → “Go omnichannel” to remind them why your products are great.
But that advice is falling on deaf ears.
Most marketers feel like they’ve already got an omnichannel thing going. They’ve got their emails, SMS messaging, in-app notifications, display ads, and social media handles all saying the same thing.
While that may have delivered a seamless experience a few years ago, who your buyers are and how they behave is changing at a rapid clip. And that means your strategies have to change, too.
The economic climate — which is changing drastically — is influencing what, when, and how people buy. Younger Millennials and Zoomers, who now have $450 billion in spending power, have different buying habits and a lower tolerance for traditional marketing strategies, even if they’re woven together well. Plus, AI is changing the way everyone is searching and shopping for new products, introducing gaps in omnichannel strategies that worked just last year.
To help you adapt to this new world, we’ve put together a list of four things that need to be on your omnichannel radar.
5 trends that should be reflected in your omnichannel plan
1. AI search
Consumers are getting more and more savvy to AI tools, using them to find new products, suggest recommendations, and to find the best deals. Just to give you a sense of how much AI usage has exploded, retail sites saw a 1,800% increase in traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT during Black Friday last year.
While gaining extra traffic to your site from AI is great, it’s only going to happen if your brand is reflected positively and accurately in AI search. Without dedicating time and effort to your content, people could be getting different answers about what your products do, who they’re for, and the value they bring depending on the platform they use for research.
To improve the chances that your brand will show up in AI search the way you want it to:
- Create topic clusters. Build content hubs around key topics with interconnected pages that thoroughly answer the most common questions customers have. Original research, user-generated content, and comparison pages make for particularly good content and provide structured data that’s easy for AI to parse.
- Concentrate on the long tail, too. Scan your Zendesk or other customer support platform for the edge cases. Can you answer those questions? What about some of the specific applications of your product? Or even seasonal or location-based searches? The more specific you can get with your answers to those questions, the better (and more personalized) AI search results will be.
- Optimize for mobile. Chances are, consumers will look at the answers ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude give them and then go confirm on your website — all on their phone. That means that besides having consistent information on your mobile site, it should also have fast load times and be easy to navigate. Mobile-friendly content can improve time on site and conversion rates, too.
2. Performance-based rewards
Here’s the thing about consumers today — they don’t buy when they want something. They buy when they get the right deal. Case in point: 62% of shoppers will delay a clothing purchase until they get a discount.
But just because you get someone to buy once doesn’t mean you’ll get them to spend again. As Blake Ziolkowski, Kard’s Senior Director of Merchant Sales, explains: “One-off promos only attract bargain hunters who then quickly unsubscribe.”
The solution to this problem? A pattern of consistent rewards.
“If you offer a diminishing discount structure — get 15% off on a first purchase, 10% off on a second purchase, and 5% on the third purchase — we’ve seen that you not only encourage repeat purchases, but also gain higher average order values.”
A leading casual shoe brand, for example, used Kard’s cash back rewards to increase their AOV by 17% and capture an additional 35% in market share in just 90 days. Other Kard customers have seen similar results:
- A lifestyle brand gained 13% market share in just 60 days.
- A major clothing retailer recently drove 167% WoW revenue growth in 90 days.
Offering cash back at the right time can shift buying behavior, trigger purchases, and drive fast conversions. And the beauty of a platform like Kard first-party data is what informs and refines that timing, making your offers as targeted as they can be.
3. Social commerce integration
So far, in 2025, sales through social networks accounted for an estimated 17.11% of total online sales, according to Statista. And recent Sprout Social research shows that 56% of social media users anticipate maintaining their current level of social purchases in 2025, while 32% expect to buy more.
TikTok Shop, Instagram Shop, and Facebook Shop are the leading platforms for social purchases, with TikTok leading the way — the share of TikTok shoppers spiked 165% year over year.
But just being on those channels isn’t going to cut it.
According to that same Sprout Social research, 34% of shoppers still visit company websites for product research before buying a product. 30% prefer to complete purchases directly through these sites. Having a consistent message on every channel (and throwing in purchase triggers like rewards or discounts) is what can turn those eyeballs into sales.
Want some examples of companies doing it? Check out the social profiles and websites of TikTok Shop’s top performers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, like:
4. Immersive VR/AR experiences
The global VR market is expanding fast. Per Statista, the consumer VR market projected to increase from less than $16 billion in 2024 to more than $18 billion by the end of 2025.
AR is growing quickly, too. A NielsenIQ survey found that 61% of consumers preferred shopping at retailers that provide AR experiences.
Why is this important?
Well, if more and more people are embracing VR and AR technology, you also need to embrace it. Turns out, both can complement your other marketing strategies. AR and VR:
- Are another way to get in front of a new audience. Unique and interactive experiences differentiate your brand from competitors.
- Let people ‘try before they buy.’ When consumers can interact with your product, it increases their confidence in purchase decisions.
- Bridge online and offline experiences. Maybe someone sees a great furniture piece in store, but can’t really picture what it looks like in their apartment. AR can help bring that vision to life and let them check out from their home computer. (Ikea and Wayfair have been doing this for a while now)
Need some inspiration? Here are some brands using AR and VR — in tandem with other channels — to drive sales:
- Gucci and Snapchat launched a global AR shoe try-on campaign
- Nike created a virtual world in Roblox (and then brought the experience to stores)
- Several brands launched partnerships with VR headset Apple Vision Pro last year, like Don Julio, E.l.f. Cosmetics, Snickers, and Alo Yoga.
5. Purpose-driven programs
Gen Z consumers are increasingly drawn to brands that align with their values and demonstrate a commitment to social and environmental causes. But it’s not just them. PwC found that 80% of today’s consumers will pay 5% more for sustainably-produced products.
Launching a sustainable product is one thing, but incorporating purpose-driven initiatives into your marketing plans is another — and is perhaps a more critical piece of the puzzle. Without showing the brand’s mission and values across all customer touchpoints, your corporate social responsibility projects can seem inauthentic.
So, before you dive in headfirst, make sure you articulate the brand’s purpose beyond profit, focusing on social, environmental, or ethical commitments and make sure it’s clear across email, social media, ads, and in-store displays. Then, create content and campaigns that authentically showcase the brand's commitment to its purpose, such as storytelling, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes insights.
Companies doing a great job with this include:
- Patagonia. Their “Worn Wear” program encourages customers to repair and recycle their old Patagonia gear, aligning with the brand’s commitment to sustainability. But this is just one way they connect with environmentally conscious consumers — you’ll see this message in basically every product or campaign they launch.
- Grove Collaborative. They’ve built their brand on making environmentally friendly decisions easy for its customers, and take sustainability very seriously themselves (just take a look at their ESG investor page). Last year, they launched a rebrand of their flagship private label, Grove Co., to highlight its sustainability focus and partnerships to end single-use plastic waste.
