To be omni is to be everywhere all at once and it’s something consumers expect from their favorite brands and retailers for one big reason: it makes the consumer’s shopping experience easier. 

Some enjoy omnichannel shopping so they can move between the physical store and online to buy products at their convenience. Others rely on omnichannel engagement to research products, watch brand videos, or immerse themselves in content on their own time. This includes searching the web, using mobile apps and social media, and interacting with IoT at home or digital signage in stores.

To keep up with these omnichannel expectations, companies need to have content, images, and video available that perform consistently at every digital opportunity, at scale, simultaneously. Or to put it more concisely: everything, everywhere, all at once.

Effective, well-honed omnichannel execution is not easy. So how do you deliver omnichannel experiences effectively without burning through your internal resources too quickly? 

The key is combining a composable tech stack with generative AI.

Brands and retailers can’t create a digital omnichannel strategy using bolt-on technologies, applied with heavy tape. Instead, companies must develop an integrated, omnichannel experience within their IT infrastructure.

Composable frameworks, or a tech stack that employs best-in-class headless tools working in concert, enable brands to develop efficient and innovative digital experiences. Fulfilling the visual assets layer in the headless stack, Cloudinary optimizes and composes image and video files. To create a stunning visual and omnichannel experience that drives purchasing decisions, Cloudinary y works in tandem with other headless solutions that enhance other areas like:  

• Commerce. A commerce solution, like commercetools, an integration partner of Cloudinary’s, is a crux of the omnichannel experience, hosting product images, pricing, naming information, and search functions.
• Mobile. Similarly, driving the omnichannel experience via mobile devices requires a partner like BILDIT and others.
• Orchestration. Providers like Conscia create a centralized place to connect all composable and API-first services. 
• Content. Integrating a headless content management system (CMS) is also a pivotal piece, such as Contentstack or Cloudinary partner Agility CMS.

Each solution inside the composable architecture flows through another to deliver consistent, high-quality omnichannel engagements. The infrastructure can also be quickly adapted to accommodate future innovation, or as shopper habits and behaviors change. 

Companies relying on a monolithic tech stack face a barrier to innovation. The systems are inflexible, deliver poor performance or images and videos, and disrupt consistency in the experiences.

Once you have a headless tech stack, how do you manage it and make sure it doesn’t burden your internal teams? Digital teams can’t manually edit, format, tag, and manage every file for each digital experience required. So turning to automation and generative AI means you can deliver scalable image and video experiences across digital devices while avoiding internal burnout. 

With Cloudinary’s Programmable Media AI-powered APIs, brands take advantage of a host of generative AI functions to optimize images and video such as:

• Generative Fill. An image’s proportions are automatically extended through AI outpainting. 
• Generative Remove. Unwanted objects in an image are detected and removed.
• Generative Replace. Objects like a piece of clothing on a model get automatically replaced.
• Generative Recolor. Colors are identified and replaced with different colors.
• Generative Restore. Blurry or imperfect photos get instantly repaired.
• Image Captioning. Contextual descriptions get added to images.

Taking advantage of automated GenAI functions gives developers and digital teams time back to focus on larger projects while ensuring images and videos are presented consistently across all digital channels.

Today, omnichannel experiences are no longer just a nice-to-have. Consumers expect them and McKinsey describes them as a “requirement for survival” for brands.  

Cloudinary has extensive experience driving omnichannel engagement for industry-leading brands and companies, yielding incredible results:

• Sports media mobile app Bleacher Report realized a 20% increase in monthly highlight video views within its mobile app.
• The fashion brand Guess improved conversion rates on its product detail pages for both web and mobile.
• German consumer goods company Vorwerk gained both audience reach and engagement through high-performing videos on its Thermomix platform and devices.

To see how Cloudinary can optimize an omnichannel experience with a headless tech stack and generative AI for your organization, contact us for a free demo.