How 3 Retailers Achieved 20% Conversion Rates with Omnichannel Messaging

Understanding how consumers behave and how those behaviours shift is at the core of effective omnichannel strategies. Static plans no longer suffice. Retailers need agile frameworks that reflect how people shop, browse, and make decisions across different channels.

This article explores how retailers are:

• Using mobile messaging to drive foot traffic back to physical stores
• Connecting local communities with neighbourhood shops through apps like WhatsApp
• Preventing churn using behaviour-based segmentation and real-time outreach
• Testing geolocation for personalised in-mall experiences

We’ll also look at how these strategies can be measured and made accessible even for smaller retail businesses.

Boosting Store Traffic Through Targeted Messaging

A regional toy retailer set out to reconnect with busy parents and increase foot traffic. Recognising that traditional emails or SMS are often ignored, the brand turned to Viber —popular among its customer base— to send timely updates.

The message was personalised based on location, recent activity, and store behaviour. Campaigns were timed for moments when parents were more likely to engage, such as evenings and weekends.

This hyper-targeted approach led to:

• Conversion rates in double digits, reaching as high as 20%
• Overall communication campaigns increase LTV of customers by 6%
• YoY increase in revenue from direct communication of 30%

Using Segmentation to Re-Engage Supermarket Shoppers

Another exciting example of targeted omnichannel outreach comes from a local supermarket chain that offers last-mile delivery services. The marketing team wanted to address customer drop-off. By analysing behavioural data, the team created dynamic segments based on changes in purchasing frequencies.y.

Using dynamic customer segmentation, they identified shoppers whose purchasing frequency had noticeably dropped compared to their previous habits.

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, like a single discount for all, incentives were tailored. Push notifications—delivered at peak engagement times—proved more effective than passive email.

Customers who had slightly reduced their purchases received moderate discounts, while those with more significant drop-offs were offered higher incentives to return.

By combining real-time behavioural data with tailored offers and immediate outreach, the supermarket enhanced reactivation of lapsed customers, strengthened loyalty and repeat business over time.

With such strategies, the retailer achieved :

• 21% reduction in churn 
• 44 ROI due to the highly targeted communications
• 19% increase in conversion 

Empowering Local Grocery Stores with Direct Communication

In the Middle East, a compelling example of how mobile messaging can shape customer behaviour for the greater good comes from a fast-growing marketplace.

A fast-growing marketplace is helping small neighbourhood grocers—Baqalas—connect more effectively with local shoppers. By equipping these small shops with innovative digital tools and giving them a voice through technology, the marketplace is empowering local businesses while fostering stronger community ties.

Rather than relying on in-person visits only, the platform enables each shop to use its own branded app and communicate via WhatsApp and push notifications.

These messages are behavior-triggered and driven by highly specific needs—fresh produce, forgotten essentials, or convenient lunch items—for specific customer segments, turning local convenience shopping into a highly personalised retail journey.

The messaging strategy is both behavioural and personalised, designed to anticipate needs and prompt timely action. For example:

• Weekend reminders to buy fresh produce
• Nudges around mealtime for forgotten essentials
• Inactivity discounts and late-night offers for younger audiences

This simple yet powerful model has helped drive consistent growth, with retention playing a key role in the platform’s 30% month-on-month expansion.

Geolocation for In-Mall Engagement

In a pilot project, a shopping mall is testing geolocation-based messaging. Shoppers receive real-time push notifications based on their location inside the mall, alerting them to promotions, events, or new arrivals as they move through specific zones.

This experimental strategy aims to blend physical presence with digital engagement, offering a more dynamic in-store experience.

Ultimately, the vision is to create a seamless communication loop between the mall and its visitors, enabling personalised instant messages to be delivered as shoppers browse.

Measuring Success of Omnichannel Retention Strategies

Measuring effectiveness of your communication strategies is key for successful data driven marketing. However, while it is very tempting to measure Clicks, Open rates, Conversions or even ROI in communications, doing just this risks losing woods from the trees and ultimately failing to retain customers.

For example, while communications with your regular customers can be relatively successful in terms of ROI, you might omit the fact that your churn increases and actually you are gradually losing your customer base.

Therefore, before diving into the nitty gritty of measuring metrics of your communications, having a big picture of your customer retention is of great importance.

The most critical metric for customer retention is Customer Life Time Value. We call LTV the North Star for customer retention. LTV is a metric that estimates the total profit a retailer expects to generate from a customer throughout their relationship, and therefore the total value retailer can generate from the existing customers.

But although the North Star gives a clear direction in your retention journey, it does not provide the best and shortest way to get to your destination. One needs more detailed, down to earth metrics that can be easily transformed into effective communication strategies that drive real improvements.

Metrics that measure Life Cycle of your customers, such as:

• Number of Subscribers
• Conversion rate of subscribers to customers
• Activation of new customers
• Purchase frequency
• Risk of churn
• Churned customers
• Average order value (AOV)

Can indicate opportunities and give an early warning about issues in the customer retention that require your attention.

For instance, the right strategy to increase AOV is to offer a discount for any second product in a basket, or offer personalised cross sell opportunities for your high value customers.

Or to convert your subscribers to purchase you might want to send an offer for the first purchase made by them. Such intelligent strategies which reflect the customer’s life cycle journey also make every communication much more personalised strengthening brand loyalty.

So having an overall, data driven understanding of your customer Life Cycle puts you on the right track in designing communication strategies that are right for your customers, and have the greatest impact on your bottom line. The good news is that these metrics can be at your fingertips using existing marketing automation technologies.

Omnichannel Strategies for Retailers

These examples might suggest the need for complex technology stacks, but omnichannel marketing no longer requires enterprise-level infrastructure.

• Build a unified customer profile by integrating online and offline data from websites, apps, ERPs, and POS systems
• Segment flexibly and dynamically based on real-time behaviours and in-store or online events
• Centralised communication across web, app, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and Viber
• Deliver personalised product recommendations at every customer touchpoint

What was once resource-intensive is now more accessible and cost-effective, putting advanced tools within reach for retailers of all sizes.

The retailers in these case studies started exactly where you are now—looking for better ways to connect with customers. The difference? They stopped waiting for the perfect moment and started testing. Your customers are already moving between channels. The only question is: will you be there when they do?