Hybrid commerce: one customer, whether they paid at the till or online
Selling online and in person, through a shop, pop-ups, markets or events. The hard part isn't the shop. It's knowing the till customer and the website customer are the same person.
- 057Hybrid Commerce
- Combining online and offline sales channels to provide a seamless shopping experience across multiple touchpoints.
- Looks like
- A shop, pop-ups, market stalls, events, click and collect
- Close to
- Omnichannel, the wider idea that every channel knows the same customer
- Hardest part
- One customer record across the till and the website
- Email's job
- Turning an anonymous till sale into a customer you can reach
What hybrid looks like for a brand that started online
For most online brands, hybrid starts small. A Christmas pop-up, a market stall, a stand at a food festival, then maybe a shop of your own. Each one sells, and each one puts you face to face with customers, which no website can.
The textbook version talks about a smooth experience across every touchpoint. In practice the problem is far more boring. The till and the website keep separate books, and a customer who buys in both looks like two strangers.
A till sale stays anonymous until somebody asks
Somebody pays by card at your stall and walks off happy. You know a product sold. You don't know who bought it, so they never get a thank you, a care guide or a reason to order online next month.
The fix is asking for an email at the till, with a reason to give it: a digital receipt, a guide that goes with the product, a member price next time. If the till runs on Shopify POS, that sale can sit on the same customer record as their online orders. Check those orders actually reach Klaviyo before you build anything on them.
An address taken for a receipt isn't a marketing subscription. Ask for permission separately, or make sure the soft opt-in conditions were met, and read the ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing if in doubt.
Emails that only make sense when you sell in person too
- An invite to the pop-up for people who live near it, picked from the delivery addresses you already hold
- A follow up after a shop purchase, with care tips and what pairs with it
- Click and collect emails that say exactly where and when to pick up
- A last call the day before a market, not a week before
It works the other way round too. Direct mail is the offline channel aimed at online customers: a card through the door of somebody who's stopped opening your emails.
Related terms
FAQs
Is hybrid commerce the same as omnichannel?
Close, but narrower. Hybrid commerce is about selling in two worlds, online and in person. Omnichannel is the wider idea that every channel, from email to SMS to the shop floor, should know the same customer. A brand can be hybrid without being omnichannel, and that's exactly the two strangers problem.
Do in-store customers count as email subscribers?
Only if they gave you permission, or the soft opt-in conditions were met when you took the address. A customer who handed over an email for a receipt, with no chance to say no to marketing, hasn't signed up for anything. Ask clearly at the till, record when they said yes, and keep receipt-only addresses out of your campaigns.
Should an online brand open a pop-up shop?
If you want to meet customers, test products or reach a town where plenty of your customers live, a pop-up is a sensible way to learn before you sign a lease. Judge it on more than the till. Count the emails it collected and what those people bought online afterwards, because the till report never shows that.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
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