5 Omnichannel Challenges for Franchises and Retailers

1. How Do You Get to Know Your Omnichannel Customer?

As a retailer, you want to know your customer and reward them for their loyalty. That becomes tricky when customers constantly switch between sales channels. Still, it’s essential to implement a system that recognises a customer who, for example, first makes a purchase online and later shows up at the

2. IT All Over the Place? Here's How to Bring Order to the Chaos

This brings us to the second challenge. To offer a seamless customer journey at the front end, you need to integrate various systems at the back end. Not just CRM and ERP, but also tools for store automation, webshop automation, order management, inventory management, and fulfilment. The payment platform plays a crucial role in this ecosystem. In large or fast-growing organisations, new systems are often added at every growth stage — resulting in a complex, hard-to-manage IT structure. To avoid this, you need to consolidate functionalities into one overarching system, or ensure your systems connect smoothly, for example by using APIs.

3. How Do You Separate Online and Offline Revenue?

For franchise organisations and retailers with multiple locations, dividing online revenue can be a real challenge. Most businesses have a central webshop, and online sales are often automatically attributed to the main location. So how do you ensure that central online revenue also benefits local stores or franchisees? And how do you prevent the back-office administration from becoming overly complex?

One solution is to allocate orders and revenue to local entrepreneurs based on the customer’s postal code. One of our clients, for example, lets local stores hold stock. A customer places an order online, pays centrally, and picks up the item at their local store. The headquarters receives a fee for the sale, while the local entrepreneur receives the revenue. We make sure that payments are automatically split according to the agreed parameters. This not only avoids administrative hassle, but also ensures that online sales don’t cannibalise local revenue — they actually open the door to additional business.

4. How Do You Make Admin and Tech a Secondary Concern?

Consumers don’t think in channels. They just want to shop easily — anytime, anywhere. Local retailers or franchisees shouldn’t have to worry about the technology behind omnichannel either. Their focus should be on the customer. The central organisation should handle everything around it. That’s easier in a hard franchise model than in a soft franchise setup. Still, it’s highly recommended to centralise technology and partners as much as possible to deliver a true omnichannel experience. Having a single payment partner for all locations and franchisees also helps provide customers with a seamless journey — while maintaining control and insight into payment processes.

5. Can Secure Payments Be Even Easier and Faster?

It’s all about convenience. Customers expect a smooth shopping experience — including the checkout. And payment is becoming easier and faster every day. Fast checkouts are increasingly common online, allowing customers to pay in just one or two clicks. PayPal and Apple Pay have offered this for some time, and iDEAL now offers it as well. Buckaroo also provides Click to Pay, so customers no longer need to enter their card details with every purchase.

In physical stores and during deliveries, paying is also becoming more convenient thanks to solutions like Tap to Pay, which turns a tablet or smartphone into a payment terminal. That means a sales associate can handle the order and payment on a single device — whether in-store or at the customer’s door. It eliminates the need for extra hardware and allows more focus on the customer.

Because that’s what matters most. Omnichannel or not, the customer is at the centre. They want speed, convenience, and great service — or they’ll walk away in no time. All the tech, tools, and partners should empower retailers and franchisees to serve their customers as smoothly as possible. That remains the most effective way to win and retain loyalty.