Reaching potential customers who are likely to buy your products on multiple channels has become important gradually. According to studies about multichannel ecommerce, making sales to customers takes an average of 8 different touchpoints. Reaching these 8 touchpoints would be difficult if you only use an offline store as the only selling channel. Multichannel sales indeed, on the other hand, is an effective way to utilize new customer segments.
What is multichannel sales?
Selling on multichannel means selling products or services through multiple channels simultaneously. Physical stores, online marketplaces, online retailers, and online shops are the most common selling channel examples. With multichannel selling, you allow customers to interact with one of these channels and choose to make purchases through their preferred method. This strategy should offer a seamless and consistent experience across different channels so it gives more control to the customer and increases the potential of how they engage with your brand.
Multichannel vs. omnichannel: What is the difference?
Omnichannel is a type of multichannel sales strategy that allows customers to interact with a business across sales channels without needing to start their shopping journey from scratch.
With omnichannel marketing, customers are given the ability to order online and then pick up items in-store for example.
Why multichannel sales is important?
Adopting a multichannel sales strategy not only contributes to increasing the revenue potential, it also expands where the company's reach and accessibility to customers and strengthens brand presence. Furthermore, adapt your business to multichannel sales strategies, enable your business to shift market dynamics, tap into new customer segments and address emerging trends trends instantly.
In the following section, we will be sharing the advantages of a multichannel sales strategy.
What sales channels are involved in multichannel selling?
There are many types of sales channels including physical and online spaces that businesses use to reach target audiences.
Physical spaces
Markets, pop-up stores, owned retail spaces and multi-brand retail spaces are four types of physical spaces involved in multichannel selling.
Markets and pop-up stores
Selling directly to customers through sales channels like pop-up stores, craft fairs, street festivals, and trade events, leverages your sales strategy even if your business has no permanent retail location.
Point-of-sale systems (POS) synchronize physical orders with your online sales and work on mobile devices or come with wireless hardware that is best for use in temporary locations.
Retail spaces
Some brands prefer to sell in their own brick-and-mortar stores, in which they sell directly to their customers (owned retail spaces) whereas others prefer to sell to third-party distributors who do business in multi-brand brick-and-mortar stores (multi-brand retail stores).
Online spaces
Today's business retail spaces are places where the purchase takes place online.
Your own website
An ecommerce platform is one of the most fundamental online sales platforms where customers can make purchases. Driving customers to the online store and making sales are the most common small business marketing strategies.
Online marketplaces
An online marketplace is a place where sellers and buyers are directly linked. Some of the marketplaces like Amazon offer product listings, warehouses and shipping your products to consumers in return for a share of the profit whereas some others offer only being a seller platform.
Comparison portals
Comparison portals collect product listings from multiple retailers and allow customers to click through to a seller's site to make a purchase. Google Shopping, akakce, cimri are some of the many examples of comparison sites which source prices and deals for products around the web and notify customers.
Mobile marketplaces
This sales channel includes branded apps published on Google Play Store or App Store by the merchants, as well as niche marketplaces like Teknosa and Wish.
Social media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have shopping features to allow you to promote products, amplify brands, and sell in-app tools.
Benefits of multichannel sales
There are many advantages of selling on multichannel even though it might be a challenge for your business at first.
Increased visibility and accessibility to customers
Customers have mostly preferences about which channel they prefer to make purchases. Utilizing multiple channel sales caters to customer sales channel preferences steps a business further. This means that businesses can meet customers' needs with a seamless shopping experience regardless of where a customer prefers to shop, whether it is in-store, online shop, or mobile apps. This also helps businesses to capture sales that may have otherwise been lost if they were limited to a single sales channel.
Improved brand exposure and credibility
A multichannel strategy enables opportunities for firms to contact customers to gain more sales than that obtained in a single-channel strategy. Having more than one sales channels allow businesses to reach one of the 8 consumer touchpoints before making a purchase decision, at least. Being active and engaging in several stages of the customer journey enables you to build brand awareness, increase customer engagement and create a consistent brand experience across multiple touchpoints.
Diversification of revenue streams
Adopting a multichannel sales strategy extends how businesses reach customer touchpoints and always makes them stand where the consumer is. Implementing a multichannel strategy increases the revenue market penetration. Business can expand their market reach, attract more customers and diversify their revenue streams by reaching a broader brand awareness and building strong customer relationships.
Besides these advantages, businesses can reduce the risk of financial trouble with multiple sales channels, in case one of the sales channels breaks down.
Streamlined customer satisfaction
In addition to all these advantages, multichannel sales also contribute to improve customer satisfaction and trust. Higher customer satisfaction requires businesses to offer a more convenient and personalized shopping experience to provide customers with options to shop through multiple channels.
Studies have shown that customers who engage with a business through multiple channels are more likely to spend more than customers who use only one channel, which makes them the most valuable segment for a business to target.
How bizimuhit helps your business on multichannel
Wix, a leading website builder, offers a robust multichannel selling feature that allows you to sell your products across various platforms simultaneously. With Wix, you can seamlessly integrate your online store with marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This expands your reach and enables you to tap into diverse customer segments.
By leveraging Wix's multichannel selling, you can expose your products to a larger audience. Marketplaces and social media platforms have millions of active users, allowing you to attract potential customers who may not have discovered your standalone online store.
Relying solely on your website for sales can limit your business's growth potential. With Wix multichannel selling, you can diversify your revenue streams by tapping into established marketplaces. This reduces your dependency on a single platform and helps you mitigate risks associated with changes in algorithms or search engine rankings.
Managing inventory and orders across multiple channels can be overwhelming. However, Wix simplifies this process by centralizing inventory and automatically syncing it across all integrated channels. This ensures accurate stock levels and prevents overselling or underselling. Additionally, orders from different platforms can be easily managed from a single dashboard, saving you time and effort.
Expanding your presence on various platforms allows you to build brand exposure and credibility. By consistently showcasing your products across multiple channels, you reinforce your brand identity and increase customer trust. This, in turn, can lead to higher conversion rates and repeat business.
Conclusion
Wix multichannel selling empowers e-commerce businesses to expand their reach, increase revenue, and streamline operations. By leveraging the power of multiple platforms and optimizing your product listings for SEO, you can enhance your online visibility and attract a larger customer base. Take advantage of Wix multichannel selling today and unlock the full potential of your e-commerce venture.
Remember, success in multichannel selling requires consistent monitoring, optimization, and adaptation. Stay abreast of the latest trends, analyze your performance data, and make data-driven decisions to improve your multichannel strategy continuously.