Multichannel Retail: The Customer's Journey

The majority of online sellers start with a single sales channel, such as a website or marketplace. Buyers, on the other hand, have various touchpoints for purchase, necessitating the expansion of both offline and online stores.

Modern consumers have modern expectations, which retailers all over the world understand well.  95% of marketers agree that multichannel marketing is critical for effective targeting. Yet, Only 73% of respondents claim to have a multichannel strategy in place.

Multichannel retailing refers to the practice of selling goods through multiple channels.

Understanding what multichannel retailing is and how it affects the customer journey is the first step in developing a successful multichannel retail strategy. Moving beyond your website to new channels such as marketplaces, social media and comparison shopping engines is essential for growing your retail business in today's environment. There has never been a better opportunity to take advantage of multichannel retailing, with shoppers buying in more locations than ever before.

Customers Are Everywhere

As shoppers have so many options, both online and offline, their favourite offline retail establishments have become increasingly diversified. Multichannel retailers who follow a successful diversification plan will increase customer loyalty and retention while expanding their reach and sales prospects.

The Different Sales Channels

Consumers have evolved into multichannel shoppers, and companies must understand each channel type to assess its relevance, as some are better suited to different stages of the customer journey.

Your Website

Retailers need eCommerce websites because they allow them to modify and personalize the shopping experience. You can produce educational content to answer user questions and attract new visitors with a personalized website. Email marketing can also be used for lead nurturing and brand advocacy. The longer you wait to participate, the more sales you will miss out on.

Building a mobile-friendly, intuitive website and application is crucial in today's environment, allowing businesses to reach a wider audience and capitalize on millions of people's browsing habits.

Social media

People can discover new products and stores by using social media sites. In the last year, two out of every three global customers purchased social media. Even if you're a branded merchandise reseller or distributor, you'll want to use social media to engage and establish relationships with your customers.

Users can tag things for purchase on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, a trend that is already paying off, while they can use TikTok and Twitter to advertise and interact with prospective buyers.

Marketplaces

Buyers who are in the consideration and decision stages of a purchase and already have a brand or product in mind would benefit most from online eCommerce retailers.

These marketplaces can create a centralized, yet simple, buying experience by selling to consumers through third-party sellers. Reach millions of new customers and sell to them while processing and fulfilling orders from a single inventory.

Shopping Engines

The two most important elements in purchase decisions are price and convenience.

Customers' searches and how easily they find what they want are both influenced by search engines. Comparison shopping engines, such as Google Shopping, recognize this and provide shoppers with quick and accessible pricing information.

As a seller, you may use sponsored advertising to bid on traffic, leveraging the built-in convenience that buyers have learned to expect.

Physical Retail Stores

Many buyers still choose to shop in stores rather than online. When developing business models, companies mustn't overlook their oldest and most dependable channel.

Organizations can make the most of their products by combining offline and online channels, offering buyers more options when making purchasing decisions.

Advantages of Multichannel Retailing

Multichannel retailing allows you to reach your customers no matter where they are in the buying process or what device they use. You are not just limited to your current audience either.  More individuals will be able to use your solution if there are more avenues available.

You open yourself up to new chances while offering your customers even more flexibility by giving them other venues to shop.

Ability to Target Consumers at Different Stages of the Purchase Journey

Most buyers who see your goods for the first time are not ready to buy unless they are in a hurry, as many like to browse, read reviews, and compare prices. Consumers can wait.

Understanding the customer’s journey and implementing a multichannel strategy can help you stand out from the crowd.

Consumers may learn about your product through social media at the beginning of the funnel, such as through an Instagram influencer or a Pinterest image they liked. New visitors to your shop can also be attracted through affiliate marketing and instructive content that addresses user questions. Other customers may not be seeking a specific product, but rather seeking content that will help them solve a problem. Targeted SEO methods on your website, blog, or even product descriptions can help undecided buyers make a purchase.

Buyers who are ready to make the purchase will most likely go straight to marketplaces or comparison shopping engines. More than half of purchasers prefer Amazon when looking for a product. Through peer ratings, these sites provide traffic and a trust element.

Leveraging Marketplaces & Search Engines

Amazon, Shopee, Lazada, and even Google are all vying for a piece of the eCommerce pie. If one company dominates the other, multichannel sellers will have greater freedom and flexibility. These internet behemoths are all attempting to tailor shopping experiences for customers, assisting them in finding the right product at the right moment. Multichannel retailing allows you to harness technology, allowing your products to be found, from marketplace algorithms to better search results.

Another important factor is trust, which marketplaces and comparison shopping engines exploit to their maximum potential. Apart from fake reviews, most customers visit these websites because of their reputation and the availability of product ratings and peer reviews. 65% of shoppers indicated they were comfortable buying from marketplace third-party vendors they had never heard of before.

As a result, we can observe how online marketplaces and search engines have benefited from trust and reviews. Instead of building favourable word of mouth for a single product, users can make judgments in minutes that would have taken weeks before by permitting peer reviews and comparison shopping.

More Revenue

Some brick-and-mortar stores have resisted the switch to an online store due to concerns about costs and fees. However, according to research from Stitch Labs, any possible fees would likely pay for themselves as retailers who sell on two platforms generate 190% more money than those who only sell on one.

Disadvantages of Multichannel Retailing

While multichannel retailers have several opportunities, they also face risks and challenges. Sellers who are too eager to execute on this may overextend themselves.

To support multichannel development, brands must first do research, execute a cost-benefit analysis, and build the infrastructure.

Selling on the Wrong Channels

While diversification is important for reaching a wider audience, launching on a channel that isn't relevant can be harmful as you risk marketing to the wrong neighbourhood, audience, or sector.

You should make sure you're targeting the proper market before selling on these platforms. Otherwise, y You'd be wasting resources and manpower. Aside from the listing fees, your staff will have to cope with constantly changing categories, regulations and policies, and backend platforms. Not to mention that writing, publishing, optimizing, and repricing listings for each of these avenues takes time.

Managing Several Channels

Once you start selling on two or more platforms, you may face issues.

If you don't have good processes and foundations in place, listing on channels, maintaining inventory, processing orders, and providing customer service can all take a toll on your company. Scaling your staff or adopting automated solutions are two options for addressing this. You risk developing a backlog of orders, jobs, and refunds if you don't do one or the other, which could harm your brand.

OMNA helps you manage multiple sales channels, centrally from your Shopify dashboard. The platform enables you to list products to all platforms, ensuring accuracy and preventing errors. Furthermore, OMNA imports orders from Shopee and Lazada into Shopify, enabling you to fulfil them conveniently. OMNA assists you by streamlining your multichannel operations across your website and marketplaces.

Understanding Multichannel Inventory Management

If you only sell through one or two channels, inventory management is simple. When you scale the platforms you sell on, however, inventory tracking and forecasting become extremely tough.

When orders come in from a variety of places, real-time inventory syncing is required to ensure good fulfilment performance.

You've probably looked into additional suppliers to expand your product line. Fulfilment solutions like Amazon FBA can also help you develop faster. The problem is figuring out how to build an infrastructure that can handle this growth while still making a profit. Overselling, understocking, and backorders are all potential outcomes of stock management via spreadsheets and obsolete tracking systems, all of which result in a poor customer experience. Overstocking and stacking up dead inventory, on the other hand, will stifle your cash flow and drastically limit your opportunities.

This is where OMNA comes in. With the real-time inventory sync feature, your stock levels will be current at all times. When you sell a unit on any channel, the accurate levels will be updated across all the other channels as well. This ensures a positive customer experience and precise inventory data for decision-making. With OMNA, inventory management is as easy as it can be!

Conclusion

Different stages of the customer’s journey are targeted via social media, comparison shopping engines, marketplaces, and your website. You may maximize your reach and broaden the breadth of your company's capabilities by having a presence on each of these retail channels. If you do it right, your customers will stay loyal.

Multichannel retailing is an essential strategy for success in today's connected world, but it comes with its own set of problems and opportunities. It is part of the seller’s journey to meet the customers where they are.