If you didn’t know better, you might think your customers were trying to outsmart you.

They’re hopscotching across every channel you offer. They research online, and buy in a store. They spot an item in your catalog, and order via your call center. They download coupons from your Facebook fan page to a mobile device. They buy online, but pick up in a store—and then phone your call center with a service inquiry.

The multichannel phenomenon is here to stay. Discriminating consumers increasingly expect a seamless cross-channel experience—through your call center, online storefront, marketing emails, brick-and-mortar stores, social media, catalog sales, social media presence, and more.

For merchants, it’s a big challenge—and a big opportunity. So what can you do? First, realize what you can’t do. You can’t go from channel dysfunction to multichannel mastery overnight. But you can get moving on quick-hit initiatives that can pay big rewards.

Making Your Channels Work Together

For instance, a new study by Lightspeed Research found that consumers worldwide are 58 percent more likely to buy an item in-store after receiving a marketing email. Tightly aligning email marketing with in-store sales, and offering e-coupons redeemable in stores, is a virtually surefire way to generate cha-ching.

On the flip side, offering in-store postcards that incent shoppers to provide their email addresses gives a way to reach new prospects. Your ecommerce store needs to be robust and inviting and geared to drive not just for online sales, but to drive in-store purchasing. Consider that Forrester Research predicts that 53 percent of all U.S. retail sales will be influenced by online research by 2014.

A simple search for “multichannel marketing”” is bound to generate lots of ideas that can suit the particulars of your business. More importantly, it’s critical to put multichannel commerce prominently on your company’s radar screen and develop a strategic plan to make the most of your opportunities over the years to come. That means getting executive sponsorship, and a dirty 11-letter word—integration.

Ultimately, the best multichannel customer engagements demand integration of data that customers leave scattered across your channels, from call center to online store. Only by aggregating that data stored in disparate applications can you generate a true picture of customer behavior and preferences and tailor your outreach accordingly. You can equip call center agent with insights for cross-sell and up-sell.

Though companies in virtually every industry continue to strive towards the proverbial “single customer view,” most have a ways to go. In the U.S. retail sector, 92 percent of respondents to an Aberdeen Group survey report they do not integrate customer data from all their marketing channels. Some 77 percent of so-called “laggard” companies don’t have a multichannel database marketing solution in place.

Why? For one thing, data integration is not a slam-dunk. It can take months, depending on complexity. For another, new channels have emerged so rapidly that companies are challenged to keep up. Social media and mobile commerce are still relatively new, and determining how to leverage them can mean trial and error.

Social Supermarket Shopping

Trial, error and some ingenuity is paying off for a chain of 100-plus supermarkets called K-V-A-T Food Stores. The Virginia-based company is transitioning from traditional weekly circulars towards more mobile and social media marketing aimed at a younger generation. As related in the Aberdeen Group report, K-V-A-T is building on proven customer loyalty programs with such initiatives as mobile device alerts on availability of locally grown fresh produce. And it’s monitoring mentions of its brand on social media, while using that channel to cultivate shoppers and promote its homegrown image.

“Customers have so many choices for where to shop, so we have to remain active to the pulse of what customers are saying,” K-V-A-T Marketing Director Ron Bonacci said in the Aberdeen report. The results: Sales are up, both in terms of item count and basket size.

Whether you sell cucumbers or kayaks, the time is now to start hopscotching faster than your multichannel customers.