Multichannel selling is a term used to describe the business approach of marketing products through various platforms where the company is present.
In other words, with multichannel selling instead of depending solely on the fate of a physical store or e-commerce site, the company seeks to explore in an integrated way different solutions that enable it to connect with its target audience.
But which are the types of sales channels? And how do you leverage them consistently and consciously to ferry your business to successful results?
A multichannel selling strategy involves a multitude of channels. These channels are primarly divided into two categories: physical spaces and digital platforms.
Physical sales channels are the most conventional multichannel sales platform for companies seeking to interact with customers in person. For example, these channels include:
Outlet stores: selling products through physical stores is the most common approach in offline sales.
Temporary stores: companies often use pop-up shops or temporary physical spaces to engage customers offline for special events.
Multi-brand stores: big retailers engaged in multichannel sales may collaborate with smaller ones to extend sales opportunities.
Fairs and markets: markets, fairs, and sales platforms created specifically for events are attractive to artisanal businesses and smaller brands seeking to connect with a specific audience.
The use of digital channels is among the most widely employed sales strategies. Indeed, in today's digital landscape, online platforms offer exceptional opportunities to increase brand visibility and improve sales among a wide and geographically dispersed audience.
The most common digital sales channels include:
E-commerce websites: a dedicated e-commerce website is often the primary means to connect with potential customers.
Online marketplaces: similar to e-commerce stores, online marketplaces display products from multiple brands within a single platform.
Marketplaces and mobile apps: a substantial portion of today's consumers are choosing to shop directly through their smartphones.
Social media marketplaces have emerged as an ever more favored medium for companies to reach their target audiences.
What are the main benefits of multichannel selling?
The most significant benefit of adopting multichannel selling is interacting with your customers across multiple platforms rather than on a single solution.
However, we wanted to explore the most significant benefits more broadly, addressing them point by point.
Users are not digitally static today. They are involved and engaged across multiple devices, platforms and apps, each with a specific purpose and/or preference for their consumption behaviors.
Consider that the average digital consumer owns 3.64 connected devices, meaning advertising distribution on a single channel covers only a small portion of daily digital interactions. Additionally, over 50% of all internet usage occurs on mobile devices. These statistics, along with those of physical stores and offline channels, demonstrate the increasingly diverse range of marketing channels.
By diversifying marketing and sales channels, it's possible to achieve better engagement and conversion rates from consumers: 72% of them prefer to interact with brands and companies through multichannel strategies.
Gaining a competitive advantage
To outperform competitors, companies must keep up with the most contemporary trends. Brands that use multiple sales channels are better positioned to defend their positioning compared to mono-channel or disjointed multichannel brands.
Keeping track of how consumers interact with your sales channels will provide a very useful information database for improving your service.
The better you understand your consumers' characteristics and habits, the more you can lay the groundwork for a positive brand experience and a lasting brand-consumer relationship.
Although it may seem simple to be present on various channels, multichannel selling strategy is anything but an easy task. It requires careful strategic planning and meticulous implementation.
Strategies should focus on how to reach the maximum number of customers across various channels and how to do so with the highest effectiveness rate. Some strategies for multichannel selling include:
Provide a good customer experience: customers should have the same brand experience regardless of the sales channel they choose.
Manage the inventory effectively:stock management is critical to avoid overselling or lack of stock.
Monitor and analyze data: customer data can offer valuable insights into how to optimize multichannel selling strategy.
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) represents a tool that can significantly streamline multichannel sales. It can help configure products or services, determine appropriate pricing, and provide accurate quotes to customers.
CPQ can be particularly useful in a multichannel environment, where customers can interact with the company through various channels. It can ensure that product information and prices are consistent, improving the customer experience and increasing conversion chances.
Multichannel selling isn't an easy task. With the right strategy and tools, it can lead to a significant increase in sales and business growth.
Multichannel selling is a strategy that can led to a significant increase in sales. It offers the opportunity to reach a wider audience and compete effectively with other retailers. However, it requires careful strategic planning, effective inventory management, and adopting tools like CPQ can significantly simplify this process and ensure that product information and prices are consistent across all channels: with the right approach, multichannel sales can be a powerful growth engine for your business.
Multichannel selling refers to the practice of offering products or services to customers through multiple sales channels, both physical (such as stores) and digital (such as e-commerce, social media, etc.), to increase reach and improve the shopping experience.
Benefits include increased product visibility, access to a larger customer base, greater flexibility for the customer in the buying process, and potentially increased sales and customer loyalty.
An effective strategy requires understanding your target audience, selecting the most appropriate channels, integrating systems for uniform inventory and data management, and constantly analyzing performance to optimize your actions.
