Multi-Channel Retailing: Grasping Opportunities for Business Growth
If you’re anywhere between a toddler and an octogenarian, there’s a huge chance that you’ve been on the internet to shop. In the past year alone, 2.14 billion people were expected to shop online (Statista, 2022), so it’s no surprise that various online retailing channels have sprung up to take advantage of the millions of online sellers who want to take part in the online market.
Now, if you’re just starting out on your business, it can get confusing which channel to use to sell online. Do you try your hand on social media or would it be better to create accounts on marketplaces like Amazon and Lazada? Are you going to make your store available only on PC or will you try doing mobile commerce as well? Maybe it’s better if you had your own website after all?
All these questions can easily overwhelm anyone.
But really, why choose just one when the most advantage you can give your business is by making it available in multiple channels.
Shocking, isn’t it? Unlike in the past when online shopping was still in its infancy, people have become more and more exposed to different online retail channels. They’re no longer sticking to just one app, website, or even gadget when they’re looking for the best deals for the products they want. If a person shops online, it’s more than likely that they’ll access two or more shopping apps or go-to websites saved on their gadgets. This gives them better chances of finding what they need and provides them the opportunity to easily compare prices found on different channels to get the best deals.
So for an online seller or retailer, being present within online marketplaces and shopping apps, having their own website, and being accessible in various gadgets come with advantages.
Let’s go through each one.
Advantages of multi-channel retailing
1. You gain extended reach and opportunities
Each retail channel has a different set of audience. For example, while online marketplaces like Amazon, Shopee, and Lazada are preferred by the masses, more brand-conscious individuals may opt to shop on the ecommerce websites of their favorite brands. While Facebook Shops has a more general audience, Instagram Shops is the go-to of the younger generation who gets to browse aesthetic photos as they shop. By utilizing more than one retail channel, a business is able to reach a wider range of audiences and gain more opportunities for sales.
2. You increase your brand presence and build your brand image
Limiting your brand by only selling on one retail channel limits its audience. Through multi-channel retailing, your brand gains more presence, improving the chances of being discovered and gaining mental space in potential customers’ minds. This means that whether or not people buy from you when they first see your brand, they already know that you exist. That makes you a potential provider should they need anything you offer in the future. Having more avenues to showcase your goods and services also helps you build your brand image or customer perception in the long run by virtue of exposure.
3. You expand your customer base
As you improve your reach, you also gain more customers. This is an opportunity to show off your goods and services. If it leads to great customer satisfaction, then you increase the number of customers who will regularly buy from your brand, thus expanding your customer base.
4. You do not become heavily dependent on a single service provider
Using only one retail channel makes your business dependent on its services. If the retail channel experiences some issues, or God forbid, shuts down, then your business will be greatly affected. Even just a day of faulty or halted operations can cause great losses especially if you’re just starting out. It can discourage curious customers who just discovered your brand and turn away sales that could make or break your quota. This can be avoided by having multiple retail channels for your business.
5. Your business becomes more competitive
There are thousands, if not millions of brands available online today, resulting in harsher competition. As such, you need to have a competitive advantage that you can get through multi-channel retailing. All its perks mentioned above give you that extra step ahead. With multi-channel retailing, you can extend reach, build your brand, increase your customer base, and empower your business operations, all of which lead to growth.
Have we convinced you yet?
If yes, well, let’s talk about the various online channels you can take advantage of to grow your online business.
Types of online retail channels
There are many sales or retail channels available online. Each differs from the other depending on the platform used, the device through which it can be accessed, the retail method used, the market they can reach, and the owner of the platform.
Let’s look into each one more closely, shall we?
Online marketplace
The online marketplace is one of the most popular retail channels available on the internet for sellers and customers alike. True to its name, it provides a marketplace or mall-like environment online wherein 3rd-party sellers are easily able to make an account, upload products, and use the platform to display their goods and services to its users. The wide range of brands, products, and services available on an online marketplace attracts a huge number of potential customers who are able to easily browse through products of different brands and compare prices without having to shift through different platforms. Given its extremely wide reach, joining an online marketplace is very profitable for online sellers.
Since the online marketplace is made specifically for online selling, it is also able to offer specialized ecommerce tools and solutions that make selling online easier for a lot of ecommerce entrepreneurs, old and new. Examples of online marketplaces include Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, eBay, and Alibaba, with Amazon rising to the top as the most visited online marketplace worldwide with an average of 5.2 billion visits in April 2021 alone (Statista, 2022).
Social media
Social media platforms are where people are. They go on it to connect with loved ones, share interests, get updated on news, and do some work. What better place to make a presence and do some selling? In recent years, many social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have provided ecommerce features for online sellers including the ability to create business pages, upload products, post prices, and process checkouts. Products posted on social media are easily shared to customers’ networks, expanding business reach, boosting engagement, and increasing sales. Examples include the Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Shops, and Instagram Shops.
Mobile marketplace
A mobile marketplace is a retail channel that is available on mobile gadgets like smartphones and tablets. It is often made available through an app, whether as an individual entity or as a part of a wide array of services. M-commerce or selling through mobile makes the shopping experience convenient for customers as they can easily travel with their smartphones and tablets and buy items online anywhere and anytime they want as long as they have internet access. Its accessibility considerably decreases purchase hesitation. In 2021, around 72.9% of all retail ecommerce was expected to be generated through m-commerce (Statista, 2022). And with mobile traffic (excluding tablets) accounting for more than half of global website traffic at 54.4 %, (Statista, 2022), selling on mobile marketplaces gives online sellers the chance to sell to millions of potential customers and exponentially increases the probability of conversion. Examples include PayMaya Mall and GLife.
Live selling platform
A live selling platform offers sellers the chance to present and sell their products and services to online audiences in real-time. There are platforms specifically made for live selling, yet more often than not, they are made as an additional feature on larger online marketplace or social media platforms. It is gaining traction on Youtube, Facebook, Shopee, Lazada, and other big names in the ecommerce industry. Live selling encourages quick transactions and is very easy to do even for small business owners. Big brands may also use this retail channel as an entertaining part of events and promotions.
Messaging channel
Gone were the times when messaging channels, whether chat or email, were used solely for the purpose of contacting loved ones. Now, having an email list for promotions and offers is a big part of marketing, and chat capabilities have come to include processing checkouts. Messaging channels are often used for a more targeted selling strategy with individuals singled out due to identified interests. Some of the most popular messaging channels are Messenger, Viber, and Gmail.
Ecommerce website
An ecommerce website is a standalone website owned by an online business owner. Unlike in an online marketplace, a brand featured in an ecommerce website does not have to compete with thousands of others. Moreover, the business owner is able to have full control over branding, marketing, and promotions, leading to a more solid and consistent brand image. And while it may get less traffic, whatever traffic it gets is captured market, which could lead to better conversion rates. Issues with traffic can also be overcome by doing multi-channel marketing and interlinking with affiliate accounts. For example, you can share your links on your Facebook and Instagram pages to bring more potential customers to your ecommerce website.
Handling the challenge of multi-channel retailing
We’ve talked about all the reasons why multi-channel retailing is great for business, but it’s not without challenge. When you sell online through multiple retail channels, management can become an issue since you’ll have to upload products on multiple platforms and track inventory, orders/transactions, and even customers. If you’re a small to medium business enterprise, multi-channel retailing can be more challenging since it will require more budget to hire people to manage each channel.
Let Cafe24 handle your troubles.
If you create an ecommerce website on our platform, you gain access to our apps and solutions that make managing multiple channels for online selling easy and affordable.
Through our Market Plus feature, you can sync and sell products on your website to popular online marketplaces such as Amazon, Shopee, and Lazada. This removes the need for multiple uploads and lets you manage and track inventory, orders/transactions, and customer information hassle-free through the admin dashboard found on your Cafe24 account.
*Note: Available online marketplaces may vary per country or region.
Our Facebook Channel app lets you connect your Facebook and Instagram Shops with your ecommerce website. Product uploads and information are synced and managed through the Cafe24 admin dashboard. This way, you can handle your social media channels together with your ecommerce website without breaking a sweat.
If you want your products shown on Google pages, then the Google Channel app is your best bet. It lets you connect your ecommerce website to your existing Google Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts so that information is synced and your uploaded products are marketed not only on your website but also in Google, one of the most influential players in the industry.
Cafe24 Plus App
Creating a mobile app for your ecommerce website may seem hard and complicated, but not with the Cafe24 Plus App. With Cafe24 Plus App, you won’t need to be a tech whiz to create a mobile app since we’ll do it for you for free. Just make a request through the Cafe24 admin dashboard and provide the necessary information. You’ll have your app available on Google Play Store and Apple Play Store in just a few days!
Multi-channel retailing is the way forward if you wish for your brand to grow into a successful business. Cafe24 makes it possible with its advanced ecommerce solutions made available to every entrepreneur.
Grasp the best opportunities today. Cafe24 registration and hosting are free!
