Successful Multi-Channel eCommerce Management: Tips to Make it Happen

Successful multi-channel eCommerce businesses owe much of their success to their ability and desire to diversity, to expand reach, increase sales and broaden their customer base. A full 73% of retailers have seen a significant increase in sales after switching to a multi-channel strategy. Creating the type of experience customers love requires a great deal of pre-planning– and here are a few tips to make it happen for your business. 

 

What is Multi-Channel eCommerce?

First, it’s important to know exactly what you are getting into. Multi-channel eCommerce is when an online store sells their products on a range of marketplaces and forums, rather than the traditional method of making the product available in only one place. Many brands love this strategy as it increases brand exposure and allows them to reach new markets and customers easily and quickly. With so many eCommerce sites out there, choosing your platforms might be easy, but there are several essential strategies you must make habits to ensure your multi-channel eCommerce efforts are a success.

 

  1. Choosing your eCommerce Channel

Not every eCommerce channel is right for every business. If you are investing time, effort and money into selling on the wrong channels, you are wasting that investment. If you sell hand-made or unique and personalized products, you might want to make use of a channel like Etsy. For general use products like clothing or technology, many vendors go with platforms like Amazon, known for its easy set-up, billing and ease of use for customers of all ages and digital skill levels. 

 

  1. Inventory Order Management Tools

Selling on many different channels and platforms can complicate your inventory tracking if you aren’t careful. Many businesses are choosing to deploy multi-channel inventory management software like ChannelAdvisor, Linnworks, or OrderWise to integrate with delivery providers, connect with accounting systems, and track shopping carts and purchases on multiple channels simultaneously, keeping you aware of any inventory issues, before they become a problem.

 

  1. Optimizing Product Descriptions

Customers make a decision about your product in just seconds, largely based on how it’s displayed and what text is visible on the first screen. Make sure your product descriptions are simple and easy to read, and convey your message clearly. Formatting your product descriptions on each platform means making sure all your vital text is visible, and all important information about the product is easy to find and read. To help optimize content on multiple platforms, many enterprises are using open-source, paid software like A+ content, to ensure their brand image and voice is consistent on all platforms.

  

  1. Company Structure

Incorporating a successful multi-platform eCommerce approach means putting the right staff in the right positions to make it happen. Many enterprises find that their company structure needs a bit of an update when they choose to go this route, to ensure that someone is responsible for updates, data, statistics, and market research. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all elements of this complex process can be handled by one or two employees or managers. Consider creating an entire team, to focus on optimizing your eCommerce multi-channel management process and day-to-day operations, or distribute the workload to a group of more tech-savvy employees, until you have the budget to expand the entire team.

 

  1. Shipping

Shipping is one of the most error-fraught areas of eCommerce, and also one of the most important. It is your last chance to make a great impression on the customer, and losing their order because your multi-channel eCommerce platforms were mismanaged is not a great excuse. Businesses are seeing a lot of success by providing great tools like the USPS Shipping Calculator, where customers can see shipping costs before they even order.

 

There are over 203 million online buyers in the USA in 2021, a number to make us all sit up and take notice. There is simply no excuse for not taking advantage of the many trusted and successful eCommerce channels out there for your retail goods. Don’t limit yourself and your enterprise by relying on a single swatch of customers on a single site. Multi-channel is the future of eCommerce, and now is the time to embrace its many possibilities!