While many brands were slow to drink the omni-channel Kool-Aid, failing to recognize a fundamental shift in consumer behavior that began over a decade ago, most are now throwing gobs of money at various cross-channel marketing and “seamless integration” initiatives. Breathless pronouncements fill industry presentations and press releases. CEO’s throw around terms like “channel agnostic” and “the blur” as casually as they talk about the most recent quarter’s earnings per share. Many have even created new positions with “omni-channel” featured prominently in the titles.

As someone who has been beating the one brand, many channels drum for a long, long time, I’m hardly one to criticize the thrust of these efforts. Yet as many brands invest people, technology and dollars in search of a cohesive blended channel, frictionless commerce strategy, one very critical consideration must be kept front and center. I call it omni-channel’s migration dilemma.

The growth of online commerce and digital marketing impacts different brand’s marginal economics differently. We know for sure that building out e-commerce, mobile and other digital capabilities is expensive. Investing in consumer friendly technology like order online and pickup in store requires costly technology and process redesign work. If all that happens is that companies spend a bunch of money to merely spread the same amount of revenue over their traditional and digital sales channels, profits gets worse not better.

The story is even more depressing if a company sells lower priced items. In most cases, the marginal profitability of selling an item online is lower than selling it in a physical store. Every sale that migrates from a brick and mortar location to e-commerce not only lowers the productivity of the store that lost the sale, but it erodes total company profitability. This can actually be the start of a cycle of store closings and assortment narrowing that is almost certain to end badly.

Some companies clearly understand this phenomenon and have either gone slowly into digital commerce and cross-channel integration or have basically sat on the sidelines. H&M and Primark are some examples. While this may have short-term financial benefits, long-term it’s hard to imagine how these brands can ignore a fundamental and profound shift in consumer dynamics.

The implications of all this are two-fold.

First, most retailers must think of enabling their omni-channel strategy as necessary, but not sufficient. And rather than blindly embracing all things omni-channel, they need to have a deep understanding of their core customer segments priorities and their relative competitive position against those needs. Armed with this information–and rooted in an understanding of the underlying economic drivers–a phased, multi-year and well-reasoned roadmap can be implemented.

Second, and by far most importantly, if a brand lacks a compelling value proposition that generates above average, incrementally profitable future growth, moving into the omni-channel future will only portend lower returns on investment and, potentially, a trip to the retail graveyard. The dynamics of an omni-channel world can be a source of competitive advantage, but only if the underlying brand promise and delivery is relevant and remarkable. Far too many brands are treating omni-channel capabilities as a panacea, when in fact it may ultimately be poison. Unless you’re Amazon (and let’s remember Amazon has never earned a profit) you can’t and shouldn’t avoid being thrust into a blended channel world. But how you do it matters a great deal and you can’t use au courant new tools and technologies to mask problems with your core business model.

The future of omni-channel will not be evenly distributed. Those brands with strong value propositions and compelling economics will use leadership in customer-centricity and frictionless commerce to extend their competitive positions, create strong brand advocates and generate extraordinary financial returns. Those brands that already suffer from a lack of customer connection and relevance will only see their weaknesses made more obvious by the sea changes that are sweeping the industry. Investing in omni-channel may allow them to continue to tread water for a bit, but eventually they will go under. Brands that are stuck in the vast, undifferentiated middle need to pick a lane and get busy. Without breaking out from the pack, investment in omni-channel may allow them to hold serve, but they will never win the game.

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