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Deloitte’s 2026 Retail Industry Outlook found that 46% of retailers are focusing on enhancing omnichannel experiences in 2026, identifying it as the number one growth opportunity. According to Capital One Shopping Research, multichannel ecommerce sales are projected to reach $892.4 billion in 2026, up 15% YoY in the US alone.
This means that shoppers no longer separate online, mobile, and in-store shopping. Instead, brands that focus on omnichannel marketing will be able to retain more customers and generate more revenue.
At the center of omnichannel marketing are SMS and push notifications. Omnisend’s 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report showed that SMS volume grew 40% in 2025 after growing 31% in 2024, and push notification volume grew 11%. Together with email, these channels can help brands create unified experiences and guide shoppers from start to purchase.
This article covers key omnichannel marketing statistics for 2026, covering shopper behavior, customer retention, marketing automation, AI, BOPIS, and the performance of channels such as email, SMS, and push notifications.
Marketing takeaway: Multichannel means multiple channels with separate contact records, but omnichannel connects all channels to communicate the same messaging
Omnichannel shopper behavior and retention statistics
DHL’s 2026 E-Commerce Trends Report explains that shopper behavior and changing consumer expectations shape modern seller trends. Shoppers change devices, apps, and services before they complete a single purchase, which extends the buyer’s journey and makes it more complicated. A buyer might stumble upon a product by scrolling on social media, compare other products and prices on a personal computer, and only decide to buy days later.
- 86% of shoppers research products online, even when they buy in-store (Capital One Shopping)
- Gartner has shown that 88% of consumers engage in omnichannel behaviors (Gartner)
- Consumers needed an average of 11.1 touchpoints before buying in 2025, up from 8.5 in 2021 (NP Digital)
- The mobile commerce market is projected to grow from $2.82 trillion in 2026 to $4.16 trillion by 2031 (Mordor Intelligence)
- 80% of shoppers planned to use social media as much as or more than the previous year to find holiday gifts (Sprout Social)
- 41% of Gen Z turn to social platforms first when looking for information, ahead of search engines at 32% (Sprout Social)
- Over 91% of Gen Z (1997–2012) shoppers use mobile phones for shopping in physical stores (IESE)
- Shoppers across generations mix online and in-store buying: 56% of Gen Z, 57% of Millennials, 58% of Gen X, and 56% of Baby Boomers prefer a combination of both (Capital One Shopping)
- Multichannel shoppers spend 15% more per order on average and have a 70% higher year-over-year (YoY) retention rate (Manhattan)
- Retailers that focused on customer movement within the customer lifecycle had an average three-year retention rate of 59% vs. 22% for retailers focused on channel-led growth (Bluecore)
Omnichannel helps brands retain customers by engaging them through channels they already use. Shoppers can churn in one channel, but a unified brand profile uses multiple channels to engage and reconnect with customers.
In other words, a single-channel strategy is becoming increasingly limited. To capture and retain shoppers’ attention, brands should use web pop-ups while shoppers browse, then follow up via SMS or email with more information or deals.
Omnichannel automation statistics: email, SMS and push benchmarks
Behavior-triggered messaging is one of the most important omnichannel success strategies. Omnisend’s 2026 Ecommerce Marketing report analyzed over 150,000 brands and their emails, SMS messages, and push notifications from 2025. Automated messages contributed to 30% of email revenue in 2025, earning 16x more per send than scheduled campaigns.
Omnisend’s data shows brands increasingly use emails, SMS, and push notifications together. They combine all three marketing channels in targeted automations for better engagement and conversions. Merchants who use Omnisend for emails, SMS, and push campaigns saw an ROI of $79 per $1 spent.
Where is retention beating acquisition right now? Pretty much everywhere CAC has gone up. For most brands I’m in, flows are doing 30 to 40% of email revenue on like 5% of the sends. That’s the whole game. A second purchase is roughly 5x cheaper than a first. So if you’re spending everything to win the first order and nothing to win the second, you’re basically funding your competitor.
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Emails | 30.7% open rate, up from 26.6% in 2024 |
| Automated messages | Accounted for 2% of all email sends, brought 30% of email revenue, 16x more per email than campaigns |
| SMS and push | 22.9% push automation click-to-conversion rate, 2x+ SMS CTR growth YoY |
| ROI | $79 ROI for every $1 spent using Omnisend |
These metrics lead to a single conclusion: messages triggered by customer behavior outperform messages sent based on calendar dates. Behavior-based triggers tie all three channels together.
| Emails (Information) | SMS (Urgency) | Push (Engagement) |
|---|---|---|
| Product stories, comparisons, and the content that builds a relationship over time | Limited offers, ending sales, low-stock alerts | New drop announcements, deals, discounts |
- Open rates rose for the fifth year in a row, from 26.6% in 2024 to 30.7% in 2025 (Omnisend)
- Click-to-conversion jumped 53% YoY, from 5.9% to 9% (Omnisend)
- Abandoned cart and welcome messages drove 76% of all automation-generated orders (Omnisend)
- Back-in-stock emails had the highest conversion rate of any automation, at 6.46% (Omnisend)
SMS
- SMS volume grew 40% in 2025, following 31% growth in 2024 (Omnisend)
- Automated SMS earned $0.74 per send, compared to $0.15 for SMS campaigns (Omnisend)
- 76% of businesses agree that SMS is an effective way to drive revenue (SimpleTexting 2026 SMS Marketing Report)
Push notifications
- Push automation click-to-conversion rose from 13.9% in 2024 to 22.9% in 2025 (Omnisend)
- Automated push messages converted at nearly 10x the rate of push campaigns (Omnisend)
Marketing takeaway: Evaluate how emails, push notifications, and SMS marketing can work together rather than comparing success metrics separately. For example, you can build one back-in-stock sequence with several channels. Send a push notification when the product is back in stock and follow up with an email that includes product details and reviews. Then send an SMS to urge customers to buy before stock runs out again. Examine the performance of the sequence as a whole and by channel.
Omnichannel AI & chat marketing statistics
Artificial intelligence can influence online ecommerce sales, especially since ChatGPT introduced the OpenAI ads feature in February 2026 (in the US), which can now place ads directly in related queries.
But beyond ad placement, AI covers different use cases: chatbots help shoppers find what they need, and AI assistants guide shoppers through personalized product selection.
AI can automatically determine which channel, message variant, and send time will yield the highest conversion for every subscriber. Thanks to AI, the gap between discovery and checkout can be shortened to effectively strengthen omnichannel strategies.
- 75% of marketers have adopted AI (Salesforce)
- 83% of marketers say customers expect two-way conversations with brands, and 69% say they struggle to respond quickly (Salesforce)
- In 2025, AI and AI agents influenced 20% of global online holiday sales, worth $262 billion (Salesforce)
- 67% of retail executives expect to have AI-driven personalization within the next year (Deloitte)
- Revenue from click-to-WhatsApp ads grew 60% YoY in Q3 2025 (Meta Q3 2025 earnings)
BOPIS & in-store shopping statistics
Online and in-store shopping perform best when they work together, allowing shoppers to buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS) to collect purchases faster and save on unnecessary shipping costs.
Owned channels can connect every step. You can send SMS alerts when an order is ready, send digital coupons via email to bring shoppers back, and offer smooth in-store returns to ensure a fully fleshed-out customer experience.
- BOPIS and curbside sales are projected to reach $177.9 billion in US retail online sales in 2026, reflecting a 15.3% year-over-year increase
- One in five online orders during the 2025 holiday season used BOPIS or click-and-collect, peaking at 35% of online orders on December 22 (Salesforce)
- 80% of consumers use their mobile device while shopping in-store (Capital One Shopping)
- 86% of consumers chose to pick up and return items in store, and 52% of them made additional purchases when doing so (Ryder)
- Opening large stores where customers could explore products boosted total online and in-store sales by 21–23% in the short term (Production and Operations Management Society)
These metrics reflect one straightforward fact: integrated experiences convert better and lead to higher customer retention. BOPIS brings shoppers directly to physical stores for additional browsing at no additional cost, while click-and-collect tactics can use bundling to increase average order value (AOV).
Three steps to build your omnichannel marketing strategy
A successful omnichannel strategy improves both customer experience and business operations, no matter the store’s size. Start with a straightforward three-step process:
- Unify customer profiles: Start by connecting your store platforms with a point-of-sale (POS) system and a messaging tool, so that when a buyer shops in-store, it triggers appropriate messages across email, SMS, and push.
- Launch high-intent automations first: Set up cart abandonment, in-store loyalty rewards, browse abandonment, and welcome series, all of which help capture shopper attention when their interest is highest, and then track your results against email marketing benchmarks.
- Bridge online messaging with physical touchpoints: Use transactional SMS and push notifications to mark significant milestones, like order confirmation, shipping updates, or pickup availability.
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