Getty Images/iStockphoto
9 omnichannel marketing platforms to consider
To reach customers consistently on any platform, marketing teams should embrace omnichannel marketing. These software options can help marketers in any industry boost their reach.
Customers have interacted with companies across multiple touchpoints since brick-and-mortar stores set up their first websites in the late 1990s. Yet, businesses still struggle to understand customer behavior and make sense of customer data across those touchpoints.
Omnichannel marketing platforms can piece together data and enable real-time customer support, among other interactions. These platforms offer tools to integrate customer data from multiple touchpoints, so marketers can segment customers, personalize interactions and target audiences regardless of where they shop: online, in an app or in stores. Omnichannel marketing software also uses automation and workflows to streamline how organizations reach customers and create consistent messages regardless of channel.
For marketing teams that want to implement an omnichannel marketing strategy, the following tools can help. The unranked, alphabetical list of platforms below was created based on reports from leading analyst firms, such as Gartner and Forrester and user reviews on G2 and Capterra, plus additional research by TechTarget editors.
1. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an omnichannel marketing platform that offers marketing automation, audience management and analytics features to help businesses create personalized campaigns across email, social media and SMS marketing.
Its main features include the ability to create dynamic content for every customer, segmentation to sort contacts and landing page creation. ActiveCampaign can also sync order and subscription data to Stripe, which helps streamline subscription management.
Pricing is split into four tiers: Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. For businesses with 1,000 contacts, Starter begins at $15 per month, Plus starts at $49 per month, Pro starts at $79 per month and Enterprise starts at $145 per month.
2. Adobe Experience Cloud
Adobe Experience Cloud is a suite of tools for marketers that includes AI, customer profiles and real-time data. Organizations can pull all their customer data into the Adobe Experience Platform, generate reports and output campaigns tailored to their customers.
Within the platform, the Adobe Journey Optimizer app helps marketers schedule campaigns based on real-time data gathered from online and offline sources. Adobe Analytics then lets marketers analyze how different digital touchpoints perform, while Adobe Commerce serves as a commerce platform.
New features in Adobe Experience Cloud are tied into AI, including Edge Delivery Services to create storefronts using Adobe Commerce and new drop-in capabilities.
Pricing varies for Adobe Experience Cloud but is based on the modules chosen, the number of customer profiles in the system and the features used. A price quote is available upon request.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a platform that lets users create online storefronts, manage content and provide recommendations to shoppers. It offers headless commerce features, such as integration with Acquia and WordPress and the ability to sell across multiple storefronts, social media, marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, and brick-and-mortar through point-of-sale (POS) integrations.
BigCommerce also offers B2B features, such as quote management, support for bulk pricing and purchase orders. It includes an improved back-end draft order experience for specific pages, regions and guest customers, with custom shipping methods.
BigCommerce splits pricing into four tiers: Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. When billed annually, Standard starts at $29 per month, Plus starts at $79 per month and Pro starts at $299 per month. Information on the Enterprise plan is available upon request. BigCommerce also offers a free 15-day trial.
4. Braze
Braze is a customer engagement platform that gathers data to personalize experiences, uses AI to share consistent experiences across channels and maps the customer journey so organizations can offer relevant content at the right touchpoints.
Notable features include cross-channel messaging through social media, push notifications, SMS and in-app messaging; real-time messaging; and analytics to measure how well campaigns perform, among other metrics. It also offers support for Portuguese and Spanish content, and lets users create brand guidelines for AI-assisted writing.
Pricing is available upon request.
5. Centra
Centra is an omnichannel marketing platform primarily suited to the fashion industry. It brings together direct-to-consumer, retail, wholesale and marketplace data, enabling in-store employees to fulfill online orders.
Its other features include headless commerce capabilities through APIs; the GraphQL API to integrate marketing, payments and other systems; and developer resources so they can build their own commerce stacks. It built its product information management system specifically for fashion brands to manage the nuances of different clothing pieces. Licensed as SaaS, Centra automatically updates features, frequently making updates like mutations in GraphQL and fixing issues with Excel exports.
Pricing for Centra is available upon request.
6. Openbravo
Openbravo's Commerce Cloud is an omnichannel platform for brick-and-mortar businesses to expand into omnichannel selling and marketing. It includes reporting and analytics features, and can support flexible discounts, turn stores into fulfillment centers and use purchase history and recommendations in-store and online for personalized experiences.
Other notable features include open APIs to connect to other systems, like ERP and payment software, and support for self-checkout and mobile payment kiosks in store. The latest release includes price limit controls, credit sales on the POS and improvements to discount coupons.
Pricing is available upon request.
7. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Coming in both B2B and B2C editions, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an omnichannel marketing platform that the vendor's Einstein AI fuels. It includes digital storefronts, conversational AI, personalization and order management features. Because it's in Salesforce's cloud, it integrates easily with other Salesforce tools.
Its features include Data Cloud, which aggregates customer data for segmentation and personalization, and AI-driven recommendations for both customer promotions and search engine optimization metadata.
Pricing varies based on whether a company chooses B2C, B2B, direct-to-consumer, connected commerce or Salesforce Order Management.
8. SAP Commerce Cloud
For large organizations, SAP Commerce Cloud is a cloud-native omnichannel marketing platform with customer insight capabilities, the ability to link supply chain and demand signals, and full integrations with other SAP products. It offers order management and customer self-service capabilities, content management and a decoupled JavaScript storefront.
Like most platforms, SAP Commerce Cloud has integrated AI into its software to offer product recommendations to customers and return more relevant search results. The AI toolkit is one of the latest features to roll out, with the ability to create custom AI tools for specific business roles or industries.
Pricing and licensing information is available upon request.
9. Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is best suited for small businesses and mid-market companies, which makes it fairly easy to use. It's a web-based platform that centralizes data to manage different commerce channels for businesses, including direct to consumer, retail and B2B companies. Its main features include an API for headless commerce, social selling capabilities to engage in commerce through social media channels, and retail and point-of-sale integrations.
Shopify Plus has over 10,000 apps in its app store and over 80 certified app partners. It also includes taxonomy features for product classification, semantic search with AI and APIs for checkout.
Shopify Plus plans start at $2,300 per month for standard setups and integrations on a three-year term.
Christine Campbell is a freelance writer specializing in business and B2B technology.
