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By Erin Harris, Associate Editor

Multichannel customers are increasingly the most sophisticated, demanding, and time-starved customers; they're also among the most valuable. Consider a recent Harris Interactive survey that found 42% of consumers who have problems during Web transactions abandon the transaction process and/or move to another site. As the online and mobile channels continue to gain in prominence, consumers expect to receive the same brand promise and experience across all channels, making it an absolute necessity that retailers provide a pleasant and seamless e-commerce experience. A truly "personalized" experience needs to be relevant to the shopper's goals and interests. This requires an understanding not only of who the customer is, but also of their behavior and unique attributes, as well as the intent of the activity. Forrester Research reports that by 2012, 49% of all U.S. retail sales outside of grocery will either be executed online or will be researched online before being executed in the store. Progressive retailers are using customer and transaction data, infused with up-to-the-minute customer activity information (e.g. Web browsing history), to identify what the customer wants to do and to help them do it.

Many retailers do business via more than one channel. However, most treat those channels as separate entities with their own strategies, policies, processes, information, and systems. Here are some tips to streamline your cross-channel efforts.

Content Management:
Leverage content consistently across all channels images, text, videos, and other digital assets.

Customer Profile And History:
Access, modify, and utilize customer history data to create a more consistent shopping experience.

Pricing And Promotions:
Provide consistent pricing and promotions across channels regardless of where the customers may be.

Order Fulfillment:
Consolidate cross-channel supply chain management — both planning and execution — allowing for total inventory visibility, order management and fulfillment across all channels. Consolidate assortment planning across channels. Use integrated inventory optimization tools and analytics to balance stock levels and purchasing requirements regardless of channel. This means driving back end modernization and integration for supporting multiple sales channels in a transparent fashion for the entire organization.

Retailers that develop the multichannel capabilities necessary to effectively serve the multichannel customer are likely to gain a meaningful advantage in the marketplace.