Ecommerce is not a trend but it is the need of the hour and due to its significance, every big and small business has started selling its products and services online.
Do you have your online store? Are you selling on a single platform or expanding business using multiple channels?
Many people start their online business with a single store on anyone platform and reach a specific segment of the audience. This approach can give you a start but to a limited area and your business will grow slowly. But if your dream is to soar your Ecommerce business to higher and that too in less time, then choose multi-channel selling.
When you start your Ecommerce store, you leave no stone unturned to make your business successful. Then why not put efforts in the right direction and on the right platforms? Multi-channel selling aids in increasing the visibility of your store and incorporating a plethora of benefits with your online business.
If you are still selling your products on a single platform and bewildered about multi-channel selling, read this article to know, how multi-channel selling can be a turning point for your Ecommerce business!
Multi-channel selling is a hassle-free exercise!
Multi-channel selling is the process to sell your products or services on more than one platform simultaneously. It allows you to outreach a bigger and more genuine customer base that helps in your business growth exponentially.
Your main goal is to give a boost to your Ecommerce business. But apparently, you won’t be able to generate higher profits by selling from your own website or a single platform. To scale your online business, multi-channel selling is not only a brilliant idea but is easier as well. Easier, because there are many tools available that help you scale your business without putting much effort, and they make third-party integration a breeze. You may avail Magento Development services to build a multi-channel ecommerce store.
The different channels where you can sell are:
- Your own website
- Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc.
- Mobile marketplaces
- Social media platforms, etc.
These all channels make your brand discernible to their unique audience. Every business can take advantage of these channels to sell its products.
It is a booster for your Ecommerce business!
- Multi-channel selling enhances the conversion rate
When you start selling via many avenues, you get exposure to different regions and distinct customers. You attract and meet more customers on daily basis, which increases your brand visibility and overall sales. Furthermore, you can persuade the visitors by displaying customized products and other essential items and upselling them. This persuasive approach eventually increases your conversion rate.
- It expands your reach
Using a multi-channel system, you expand your market presence and reach a broader and bigger audience segment. It helps you to increase your mass-market distribution. Irrespective of your business size, you can directly reach prospective customers with the help of these channels. For example, you are a newbie and started selling on Amazon. Then Amazon provides you the opportunity to sell your products or services to plenty of distinct people who might not have visited your website because of brand unawareness.
- It grows customer loyalty
Multi-channel platforms provide your customers not only the ease of shopping but also a safe and seamless environment for every transaction. They have customer support mediums like social media, live chats, phones, and emails, which assist customers promptly if they have any issues. It improves the customer experience and hence customer loyalty. A happy customer increases your sales and procurement and also helps you generate a positive brand image by giving positive and helpful reviews.
- Reduces the risk
You vanish the risk of low sales of your Ecommerce store by using multi-channel strategy. When you sell via a single platform, your biggest concern is to earn profits because that is the sole place of your earnings. Whereas, in multi-channel you have more than one place from where you sell and earn. If an avenue loses momentum for any given reason, you have another outlet to focus on. So, multi-channel selling is a beneficial deal for you.
- Provides you with some insightful data
When you sell via multiple avenues, you get data of different customers. That data helps you to understand your actual target audience. Data like their (customers) shopping history, demography, time zone, the device they are using for shopping, their interests, etc. are critical insights that help you to decide the marketing and sales strategy to boost the conversion rate.
- It gives you inventory transparency
The multi-channel platform provides you with inventory management software, which helps you to centralize the data of all your avenues. It implies you can check and monitor the inventory of all the products across the channels. You can also check the inventory in real-time and discover which product is running fast from the shelf and which is a less moving product in all the channels across your whole inventory.
- Saves overstocking
Every year many Ecommerce stores face overstocking issues. This happens because of improper planning and procurement of products due to poor forecasting. When you analyze multi-channel inventory management and use the data to stock the products, then you vanish the chances of overstocking. The inventory data gives you accurate performance and sales information and saves you from stocking extra products.
- It integrates communication and analytics
Multi-channel selling not only provides you different streams of information through multiple channels of communication but also enables you to understand the needs of customers by furnishing useful analytics. You can use this communication and analytics to satisfy the customer’s needs more efficiently. A happy and satisfied customer implies a boost in conversion rate and you get increased ROI.
- Streamlines your Ecommerce business
With multi-channel selling, you can manage your inventory, track all your orders, and add new products – all from one dashboard. You ought not to hop back and forth to handle the different channels. For instance, if you sell some product on Etsy, it gets reflected in your centralized data, and the inventory level automatically adjusts, so that you won’t over-sell through some other channel. So, it is a proper streamlined process that only boosts your Ecommerce business.
A conscious effort is needed!
Multi-channel selling is a boon for an Ecommerce business, without a doubt. Yet you need to take careful steps to avoid a lapse. The right strategies and right software jointly help your Ecommerce venture triumph. You should organize and coordinate all the channels in a way that they will perform to give you more and more benefits.
Though multi-channel inventory management assists in managing the inventory efficiently, still you need to be careful and vigilant to avoid any logistic and operational issues. So, keep an eye on the inventory data.
Many marketplaces are running successfully. However, not all can be suitable for your business. So, choose the marketplaces and other channels according to the product niche you have.
Another important factor to consider is, maintaining brand consistency across all the channels. Products packaging, prices, etc. should be consistent on all the channels to avoid any confusion among consumers.
Grow your Ecommerce business like never before!
Whether you sell your products from a brick-and-mortar store or sell from an online channel, the idea behind all the effort is to grow your business. Selling via online mediums always gives additional benefits as we discussed above. When you sell your products or services using multi-channel selling, you reach a wider segment and improve the revenue of your business.
There are myriad tools available (as mentioned above) for multi-channel sellers that help you list your products on marketplaces (Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Pinterest, etc.), manage your inventory, and process orders from all the channels. Thus, expanding your Ecommerce business to different channels is hassle-free with the help of these tools. For example, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, OpenCart, etc. are examples of multi-channel selling platforms.
These tools provide you with a single hub for all the sales channels and also integrate your business with Google Shopping, and other marketplaces. It connects all your inventory to marketplaces, social media, and point of sale solutions. You can manage sales across all the channels with automatic sync of these channels. Also, you can evade the cumbersome manual data entry work and avoid errors.
In the US, Ecommerce accounts for a major share of the overall B2B and B2C market, and experts expect online sales to continue rising. So, if you want to be a part of this increasing data and soar your online business higher and higher then choose a multi-channel selling mode!
