You may have the best product in the world, but selling it on a single channel is a bad strategy to reach most of your target consumers. Online sellers should think about the target market and consider all available channels they can potentially use to reach consumers before settling for a single channel as a sole sales outlet. The exposure of your product to potential customers increases when you sell through multiple sales channel(s) as it leads to more opportunities for sales. Generally, online shoppers tend not to be loyal and will check out different channels to score the best deal, so your company must be present on those other sites as well.
Different Types Of Sales Channels
There are many innovative ways to sell products across sales channels, but some of the most common types include:
A. Brick And Mortar
Traditional retail has always taken place in a physical store location operated by the business. The bricks-and-mortar model allows businesses to offer products or services in person, connect with customers face-to-face, and create an experience worth remembering that probably cannot be replicated online. However, brick-and-mortar stores are no longer the main distribution channel for organizations. Nowadays, it is rare to find companies that exclusively operate brick and mortar without assistance from online channels.
B. Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) eCommerce
The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s popularized a new form of retail, clicks, and mortar. It allowed businesses to sell both in-store as well as online without utilizing third-party retailers or wholesalers. The D2C model ran through a company’s website or mobile app that allows for direct customer service at any time, during their shopping experience with you.
Check out the top 7 D2C customer retention ideas to drive more sales.
C. Social Media Channels
Social media gain enormous popularity in the previous decade, and now it’s a standard practice for most companies to use social channels like Facebook or Instagram. These platforms allow retailers to promote their products directly with consumers by displaying ads and even facilitating the sale of goods without ever leaving the app.
D. Telephone Orders
A telephone order is one in which a customer calls and places an over the phone. Telephone orders were prevalent throughout the 1980s when paid programming dominated late-night television as people would call to place product orders, like on infomercials for things they wanted but couldn’t find at stores or other ads that encouraged viewers to call toll free numbers if they saw something interesting. Telephone orders may seem old school, but it’s still alive and well in modern multichannel retail.
E. Catalogues
Mail-order catalogs allow businesses to reach both rural and urban customers. Consumers can flip through pages, find something they want, & request it by sending payment plus selection back in the mail.
F. Online Marketplace
Online marketplaces have been a staple for modern consumers. Serving the experience of centralized shopping while still catering to their needs. The selection available is unprecedented and has led many people to abandon other forms of online shopping entirely in favor of these central hubs. eCommerce has witnessed the highest growth since the advent of Covid-19 as more people have turned to online shopping.
What is Multi-Channel Selling?
Multichannel selling is a beneficial strategy for businesses to keep up with the changing times. It’s been well-known that customers don’t stick exclusively to just one channel. They prefer having different buying options, which business owners can offer by using multi-channel marketing strategies in order not only to be successful but also stay relevant.
Benefits Of Multichannel Selling
Multichannel selling is a new way for businesses to connect with their customers. Some of the significant benefits of multichannel selling are:
A. Customer Flexibility:
Modern consumers are tech-savvy and value shopping experiences that are quick, convenient, and personalized. Consumers want more options with their purchases without compromising on the experience they would have in your store. Multichannel retail provides a seamless way for customers to shop from anywhere at any time.
B. Wider Audience:
The right multichannel retailing strategy can help you reach a new audience of buyers. It also works to increase your brand awareness, and this, in turn, attracts more diverse audiences that would be harder to find on one channel alone.
C. Customer Data:
Third-party retailers and online marketplaces help you reach more customers, understand their buying habits, and purchase decisions. These sales channels often provide sellers with detailed reports to assess customer behavior on websites.
D. SocialProof:
Social proof is not a new concept. It’s been around for centuries in many forms, such as word-of-mouth recommendations and reviews on Amazon or Yelp. The power of social influence has always been an important part of society – people are more apt to trust their peers than advertisements.
Check out our ZapERP SocialProof App to Get your users to engage more with your website and increase growth.
Challenges Of Multi-Channel Selling
There are also certain drawbacks to implementing a multi-channel sales strategy. A few of the notable ones:
A. Managing multiple sales channels:
With multi-channel management software, you don’t have to deal with the hassle of logging into different sales channels and listing your products. With one login for all multi-channel features, processing orders has never been easier!
B. Inventory management:
When you expand your business, good inventory management is key to happy customers and healthy cash flow. Poor inventory management leads to out-of-stock items and overselling, which can lead a company down the path of bankruptcy or destruction by reviews.
C. Brand consistency:
Brand consistency is all the more important with multiple sales channels. Have an inconsistent brand, and you risk damaging your reputation and making it harder to gain customer trust; whereas a strong and consistent branding identity allows customers to quickly identify you – which helps build customer loyalty! Pay attention to logos, color schemes, messaging, images, etc.
D. Customer experience:
A customer’s purchase experience is one of the most important factors, for every selling experience across all channels and to meet up to your consumers’ expectations every single time, is indeed a daunting task
E. Reporting:
Reporting can be tedious and complicated but it is essential for a successful multichannel selling strategy. But collating data from each sales channel takes time, so set aside some of your weeks to update reports or invest in software that will automatically process this information for you- telling you what sells well at which location.
Multichannel Management Software
Multichannel retail management software is an essential tool for e-commerce businesses looking to provide a seamless customer experience. This multichannel software can help to automate the receiving and processing of orders. They give your business a 360-degree view of its operations to optimize inventory. Ordering and help in making future decisions are also possible. All while providing customers with consistency across all channels so that they are encouraged to become trusted clients.
To provide you with a world-class experience we have developed  ZapERP inventory management for multi-channel selling. With our web app, you can manage inventory across multiple channels, warehouses, batches, and in multiple currencies. ZapERP helps to improve purchase efficiency with easily configurable minimum quantity levels for each of your products. The features ZapERP offers you for your inventory & sales are as follows:
- Multichannel Product Selling
- Purchase Management
- Sales Management
- B2B Order Management
- Warehouse Management
- Inventory Management
- POS (Point of Sale) for your Multichannel Selling.
- Multichannel Orders Shipping
- Multichannel Returns & Refunds
- Detailed Reports on Business
We are determined to provide you with the seamless experience of E-Commerce. Help us to take your business to new heights. Book a demo at ZapERP now.
Start using ZapInventory today
