The way consumers shop has fundamentally changed. A landmark survey of 46,000 retail shoppers found that 73% engage across multiple channels during their buying journey. Modern consumers average six touchpoints before making a purchase, up from just two touchpoints 15 years ago. The financial stakes match the behavioral shift: multichannel e-commerce sales are projected to total $892.4 billion in 2026, up 15.0% year over year. Brands that still operate in single-channel silos face a widening competitive gap that grows more costly to close with each passing quarter.
This article distills the most current and authoritative omnichannel marketing data into a single reference. It covers the market's explosive growth trajectory, the measurable revenue and retention advantages of cross-channel strategies, the channels B2C and B2B marketers rely on most, the rise of click-and-collect and BOPIS fulfillment, the accelerating role of AI and personalization, the influence of mobile and social commerce, and the persistent challenges that prevent organizations from achieving true omnichannel execution. Every statistic reflects the landscape as it stands heading into 2026 and beyond.
Market size and growth trajectory
The omnichannel solutions market is expanding at a pace that reflects its strategic importance to global retail. The omnichannel retailing market is estimated at USD 11.57 billion in 2026 and expected to reach USD 29.30 billion by 2033. That growth represents a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% from 2026 to 2033. This trajectory signals that retailers worldwide view omnichannel infrastructure not as a discretionary upgrade but as core operating architecture.
The broader e-commerce ecosystem fueling this growth is equally massive. Global retail e-commerce sales are projected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026. E-commerce sales are projected to make up over 21% of total retail sales in 2026, a slight increase from 20.5% in 2025. The convergence of online and offline channels is no longer a strategic choice—it is the economic reality of modern retail.
Market size and platform projections:
The omnichannel retail commerce platform market is projected to reach $14.6 billion by 2026, covering the software and infrastructure that powers cross-channel selling.
The omni-channel retail solutions market, valued at USD 8 billion in 2024, is projected to reach USD 16.6 billion by 2030, growing at a 12.9% CAGR.
The omnichannel retail market is set to grow from $10.13 billion in 2025 to $25.35 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 14%.
North America dominates the global omnichannel retailing market, capturing a 37% share during the forecast period.
E-commerce platforms dominate the global omnichannel retailing market with a commanding 69.7% share.
The global marketing technology market is valued at USD 557.94 billion in 2025, predicted to reach approximately USD 3,286.94 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 19.40%.
Customer retention and lifetime value
Retention is where omnichannel delivers its most compelling financial argument. Companies with strong omnichannel engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, while those with weaker strategies retain only about 33%. That 56-percentage-point gap compounds rapidly over time, given that acquiring a new customer costs 5 to 7 times more than retaining an existing one. Brands that invest in cross-channel consistency build a structural cost advantage that single-channel competitors cannot replicate.
The lifetime value data reinforces this pattern. Shoppers who purchase both online and in-store are worth 30% more to a business over their lifetime compared to those who shop through a single channel. Companies with omnichannel customer engagement strategies see an average 9.5% yearly increase in annual revenue compared to 3.4% for non-omnichannel companies. These are not marginal differences—they represent structurally different growth rates that reshape competitive dynamics within three to five years.
Retention and revenue metrics:
Companies with strong omnichannel engagement see 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates.
Strong omnichannel companies see a 7.5% year-over-year decrease in cost per contact, compared to 0.2% for weak companies.
Converting a single-channel customer to omnichannel increases their shopping frequency and basket size by 8%.
Omnichannel customers spend 10% more online and 4% more in-store than single-channel customers.
Companies with effective omnichannel strategies see approximately 179% faster revenue growth.
Companies improving retention by just 5% see profit increases of 25–95%.
Campaign performance and purchase rates
The performance lift from multi-channel campaigns is not incremental—it is transformational. Multi-channel campaigns generate a 0.83% order rate versus 0.14% for single-channel, a 494% increase. Marketers using 3 or more channels earn a 287% higher purchase rate than single-channel campaigns. These numbers reveal a compounding effect: each additional coordinated channel does not just add value linearly—it multiplies the effectiveness of every other channel in the mix.
Engagement rates tell the same story. The average engagement rate of campaigns using 3 or more channels is 18.96%, versus 5.4% for single-channel—3.5 times more engagement from the same audience. Retailers using 3 or more channels increase consumer engagement by 250% compared with single-channel retailers. The data is unambiguous: isolated campaigns underperform coordinated cross-channel efforts by enormous margins.
Campaign and engagement performance:
Omnichannel customers spend 16% more per order than single-channel shoppers.
Omnichannel customers shop 1.7 times more often than single-channel shoppers.
27% of retail sales are generated by omnichannel consumers.
Omnichannel strategies drive 80% higher incremental store visits.
86% of marketers agree that multichannel campaigns are increasing their marketing effectiveness.
Teams that align sales and marketing around omnichannel efforts achieve 208% higher marketing revenue and 67% faster deal velocity.
Channel usage and marketer priorities
Email dominates the omnichannel mix, but the channel landscape is diversifying fast. The top five channels B2C marketers use in 2025 are email (82.4%), social media (66.7%), mobile website (58%), desktop website (52.7%), and mobile app (51.6%). On average, B2C marketers use at least five channels to execute their customer engagement campaigns effectively. The channel mix reflects a strategic reality: customers move fluidly across platforms, and brands must follow.
The fastest-growing channel merits special attention. WhatsApp's usage as a marketing channel has more than doubled, jumping from 13.5% to 34.8%. Meanwhile, the most popular business objective for B2C marketers in 2025 is increasing customer engagement or loyalty (51.9%). Marketers recognize that new channels create new opportunities to reinforce consistent brand experiences across the entire customer journey.
Channel adoption and investment priorities:
Email remains the number one channel used (82.4%) and the one perceived as most effective (73.5%).
Only 26.9% of marketers leverage offline channels for marketing.
79.3% of B2C marketers plan to invest more in marketing technology to improve customer experiences in the next 12 months.
31% of marketers credit integrated marketing technology as the number one component for building effective cross-channel marketing strategies.
30.8% of B2C marketers say integrating online and offline interactions is a top objective in the next 12 months.
The top two requirements for marketers purchasing a customer engagement platform are positive reviews on software comparison sites (54.2%) and capabilities to facilitate personalization and cross-channel engagement (54%).
82% of marketers increased their direct mail spend in 2024, pairing it with digital campaigns for omnichannel engagement.
Click-and-collect and omnichannel fulfillment
Click-and-collect has transitioned from a pandemic-era convenience into a permanent pillar of omnichannel retail. The click-and-collect retail market, including curbside pickup and BOPIS, is projected to total $177.9 billion in 2026, up 15.3% year over year. Click-and-collect sales will represent 19.9% of multichannel e-commerce sales in 2026. The sustained double-digit growth rate confirms that consumers now view hybrid fulfillment as a baseline expectation, not a premium feature.
The incremental revenue BOPIS generates extends well beyond the original order. 85% of BOPIS shoppers make additional purchases when they come in to pick up their order. Among the Top 1,000 retailers, offering curbside pickup increased conversion rates by 25.8% in 2024. Every in-store pickup trip becomes a revenue expansion opportunity that pure-play e-commerce cannot capture.
Fulfillment and pickup data:
Among the Top 1,000 retail chains, 77.2% offered buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) in 2024.
As of January 2025, 72 million Americans used curbside pickup in the last 12 months, representing 25.3% of U.S. consumers, with curbside pickup retail sales estimated to reach $154.3 billion in 2025.
26.5% of consumers who use BOPIS or curbside pickup say they do so because they need products sooner than shipping would allow.
30.9% of online shoppers are more likely to make a purchase if they can return items to a physical location.
Shoppers are 14.5% more likely to purchase from stores that offer omnichannel pick-up services such as curbside pickup.
Buy online, return in-store (BORIS) accounted for 50% of online purchase returns in 2023, totaling $123 billion.
The physical-digital multiplier effect
Physical stores and digital channels do not compete with each other—they amplify each other. Opening a new brick-and-mortar store leads to a 37% increase in web traffic and a 6.9% increase in online sales in the trade area surrounding the store. After closing a physical location, retailers experience an 11.5% decrease in online sales in the store's surrounding area. These findings shatter the narrative that e-commerce growth makes physical retail expendable.
The cross-channel spending behavior reveals even stronger interdependence. When consumers spend $100 online and then visit the retailer's physical location within 15 days, they spend an additional $131; when a consumer spends $100 in a physical store and then visits the retailer's online store, they spend an additional $167. Physical and digital channels create a reinforcing loop where each visit in one channel triggers incremental spending in the other.
Physical-digital integration metrics:
For emerging retailers that open a new physical store, online sales increase by 13.9%.
Big-box retailers experience a 30.6% increase in online order size after opening a new physical store, while home goods retailers see an increase of 25.3%.
The average online order size increases 10.6% from $94 to $104 for established retailers that open a new physical store.
Despite digital acceleration, 61% of shoppers still value in-store experiences.
86% of shoppers research products online, even if they ultimately buy in-store.
In-store, 72% of shoppers use their smartphones for comparing prices or reading reviews while on the floor.
41% of online shoppers consider the quality of a retailer's app when choosing what physical stores to shop at.
Mobile is now the primary gateway to omnichannel experiences. Mobile shopping represents 57% of global retail e-commerce sales and is expected to reach 62% by 2027. The average American in 2024 spends 4 hours and 30 minutes on their phone, up 52% from 2022, and checks their phone 144 times per day. Any omnichannel strategy that does not treat mobile as the central nervous system of the customer journey is structurally flawed.
Social commerce is expanding even faster, transforming social platforms from discovery engines into direct sales channels. The global social commerce market is projected to reach $2.9 trillion by 2026. U.S. live commerce sales are expected to hit $68 billion by 2026, accounting for 5% of e-commerce. The convergence of content, community, and commerce on a single platform represents the next frontier of omnichannel execution.
Mobile and social commerce data:
62% of U.S. Gen Z shoppers use TikTok for purchases.
Social commerce is projected to reach $8.5 trillion by 2030, driven by platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Livestream shopping events achieve conversion rates reaching up to 30%.
An estimated 110.4 million people will shop via social channels in 2025.
74% of shoppers rely on social networks for their purchasing decisions.
60% of Gen Z and 56% of millennial shoppers use social media for holiday shopping.
Retail media—ads shown within retailer-owned platforms—is expected to contribute $1.3 trillion to enterprise value by 2026.
AI, personalization, and the technology backbone
AI has moved from experimental to essential in omnichannel execution. 95.4% of B2C marketers now use AI in their omnichannel marketing strategy, up from 77.2% in 2024. 89% of researchers are experimenting with AI to enhance omnichannel insights, and 83% aim to unify disparate data sources through AI. The speed of this adoption—near-universal in under 12 months—underscores how central AI has become to delivering personalized, real-time cross-channel experiences.
Personalization is both the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge. The number one challenge for B2C marketers in driving customer engagement is delivering personalized experiences (52.6%). 71% of customers expect personalized experiences across all channels. Brands that solve the personalization problem at scale unlock the full revenue potential of their omnichannel infrastructure; those that fail see their cross-channel investments deliver diminished returns.
AI adoption and personalization metrics:
Nearly 60% of online shoppers turn to AI for product recommendations.
79% of companies using customer data platforms achieve ROI within 12 months, with average returns of 362%.
First-time buyers receiving personalized post-purchase communications show 45% higher second-purchase rates.
80% of B2B buyers say they are more likely to engage when messaging is personalized across channels and tailored by role or stage.
81% of consumers believe that how a company handles their personal data reflects how the company views them as a customer.
60% of consumers avoid brands with poor data security but trust companies offering personalized experiences.
Retailers implementing unified commerce see 18% lower cart abandonment rates.
Challenges blocking omnichannel execution
Despite overwhelming evidence of omnichannel's value, execution remains elusive for most organizations. 37% of marketers say poor data quality is one of the top challenges of omnichannel marketing execution, and another 27% cite lacking data quantity. Siloed customer data can reduce marketing ROI by 20–30%. The technology exists to solve these problems, but organizational inertia and fragmented tech stacks continue to block progress.
The B2B landscape faces its own complexity. B2B buyers now navigate an average of 10 channels per purchase journey. 42% of B2B buyers use more than 11 touchpoints before purchase. Managing this many touchpoints with consistent messaging and unified data demands a level of cross-functional alignment that most organizations have yet to achieve.
Execution challenges and gaps:
52.6% of B2C marketers cite delivering personalized experiences as their number one engagement challenge.
73% of customers will switch brands after one bad experience.
85% of customer churn is preventable through better customer service.
69% of consumers still want phone support for complex issues, and 71% of Gen Z prefers calls for quick resolution.
61% of customers dislike being placed on hold, highlighting the tension between preferred channels and execution quality.
Around 65% of customers globally want companies to adapt to their needs and preferences as they change.
Omnichannel is the operating system of modern commerce
The data leaves no room for debate. Companies with strong omnichannel strategies retain 89% of their customers versus 33% for weak performers. Marketers using three or more coordinated channels achieve 287% higher purchase rates. Click-and-collect alone will reach $177.9 billion in 2026. These are not marginal gains—they represent fundamentally different business trajectories between omnichannel leaders and laggards.
The convergence of AI, social commerce, mobile dominance, and physical-digital integration is accelerating the pace at which omnichannel capabilities compound. AI adoption among B2C marketers surged to 95.4% in a single year. Social commerce is on track to hit $2.9 trillion by 2026. The brands winning today invest in unified customer data, cross-channel orchestration, and personalization engines that treat every touchpoint as part of one continuous conversation.
The gap between organizations that execute omnichannel well and those that do not is widening, not closing. Retention rates diverge. Revenue growth rates diverge. Customer lifetime value diverges. Every quarter of inaction widens the competitive moat for those already executing. The brands that build omnichannel infrastructure now will dominate their categories for the next decade—and the data proves it.