Statistics show that 73% of consumers shop on more than one channel. Furthermore, 30% higher lifetime customer values are attributed to consumers that shop across multiple channels.
A multi-channel sales approach can provide multiple benefits, including expanding your customer pool, diversifying your products, and giving you access to customer insights.
Let’s have a look at five marketing tips to streamline your multi-channel sales.
1. Adjusting prices to each channel
When using multiple sales channels, you should avoid implementing a rigid price structure. For each channel, you should take into consideration costs, customer behaviour, and the intensity of the competition.
For instance, if you are new to online marketplaces like Amazon and you still haven’t built a strong reputation in that channel, you may initially set a lower price than the one you have set in physical stores located in a regional area where your brand is particularly known and beloved.
Another example is using different price structures for certain products when sold to end consumers through a retail shop compared to a B2B sales channel because individual business clients may order the products in larger volumes when you bring the price down a bit.
2. Optimizing inventory management
Opting for multiple sales channels requires proper inventory management too. An organized inventory is essential for a successful multi-channel strategy, enabling you to maintain accurate product availability and prices across all of your channels.
For example, let’s say there are 30 black Nike t-shirts in stock. If five have been sold on Amazon, four have been sold on eBay, and four have been sold through your small physical retail store, then it’s crucial for you to update your inventory throughout all channels to the new availability of 18 t-shirts.
By doing so, you will prevent annoying situations that may damage your reputation as a seller, like having to cancel an order due to a lack of availability. Using inventory management software can help you prevent these types of scenarios.
3. Distributing personalized content through individual sales channels
When using multiple sales channels, you should also take steps to tailor your content to each channel. This means using messages and monetization tactics that can maximize results in those specific channels.
For each channel, use the tools that are effective in adding value to the customer’s journey and helping your audience better connect with your products or services. Examples range from creating video content specifically for YouTube to optimizing your website’s SEO to drive more organic traffic to using email marketing tactics to drive more sales from your customers.
Simultaneously, you should keep in mind your overall marketing and brand object to coordinate and synchronize campaigns across multiple channels.
4. Optimizing marketing campaigns based on analytics insights
Analytics tools can help businesses track the performance of each campaign across different channels. This allows them to make real-time adjustments to make sure that their efforts are reaching the right audiences and conveying the right messages.
Analytics can also be used by companies to compare their performance in each marketing channel and identify those that deliver the best results. This will allow them to focus their efforts and investments on those channels that are driving the most ROI.
5. Leveraging automation
Using the right automation tools can help businesses reduce the amount of manual work needed to manage different sales channels.
Automation can also increase the coordination between different channels and streamline various operations such as inventory management, product updates, and customer service.
Automation simplifies the process of amassing data from several sales channels, which can give invaluable insights into consumer preferences and behaviour. This information can be used to streamline marketing campaigns and product offerings, with the ultimate goal of maximizing prospective earnings.
Moreover, automation also helps in facilitating back-end activities like inventory management and order fulfillment, allowing businesses to trace their products through multiple channels with ease.
