Subject areaProcess and organisation
Also known asdigital-first approach
Digital first (literally "digital comes first") is an approach in which the digital channel is the first point of contact and of design.
The Digital First consumer is an individual who, whatever the final purchase channel, online or in store, always begins their journey in the digital world.
For the company this implies an order of work: first design what the customer finds on the phone (listings, availability, reviews, structured data for local businesses), then arrange the rest of the journey, store included. The retail marketing manager (the person in charge of marketing for a network of stores) works from this starting point, and omnichannel is its consequence.
In the articles of the site the term appears with two close senses: the consumer who starts online and the company that arranges processes and offer starting from digital. In a market saturated with stimuli the Digital First consumer seeks certainty, and digital is the place where a company can offer it first.
An example
A hardware store chain publishes the availability of products shop by shop, so that it is visible on a phone. The customer searches for the item online, checks that it is in stock and comes to collect it: the purchase closes in the shop, but the journey began in digital and the shop was designed starting from that data.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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