When you begin an ecommerce venture, the first thing to do is to create a consistent online presence. In the vast majority of cases, this takes the form of an ecommerce website, with the initial goal being to drive traffic to that site through advertising on social media and other internet locations. At the beginning, nobody is going to even hear about your brand unless they see an ad, and they are not going to buy anything unless they actually make it to your website.
But here’s the thing: this is hard for new ecommerce brands. Your brand is not well known at all, and your marketing resources are naturally limited. It’s also highly likely that there simply won’t be much traffic directed to your website for some time. This is the hump all small ecommerce ventures need to get over before they start seeing real success.
This is the reason why even small ecommerce ventures consider, at first, the multi-channel marketing strategy. Quite simply, this means selling your products through multiple channels. And many ecommerce companies continue this even after growth.
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What is Multi-Channel Ecommerce?
But what, in more detail, actually is a multi-channel ecommerce strategy? On the face of it, it is simply selling your products through multiple channels. However, what are these other channels? For small ecommerce ventures, it means the big ecommerce companies. Ecommerce fulfillment service Shipping and Handling of Texas (also an Amazon Fulfill by Merchant service), say that before adequate traffic can be drawn to the site itself, it’s wise to sell produce on sites such as Amazon and eBay, which offer a massive customer base right from the get-go. This is the small business version of the multi-channel strategy.
Nevertheless, even for medium-sized ecommerce companies with a decent amount of traffic on their private sites, it’s still best to simply have more places online where customers can be reached. This can, however, become something of a double edged sword. You may reach millions of potential customers on these sites, but you’re far from the only one in that position. This means it can be difficult to stand out. Nonetheless, there are always a range of benefits to any multi-channel ecommerce strategy.
Benefits of Multi-channel Ecommerce
So, if you are running a small ecommerce company and you are looking to reach more customers right from the start, multi-channel ecommerce is wise to engage in. Here follows some benefits of the strategy:
Increased Brand Visibility
More audiences mean more people at least seeing your brand. It can be hard to stand out, but a good branding can be one of the best ways to stand out. Moreover, even in the absence of sales, you can be sure that more people are at least seeing your brand, which could lead to future sales.
Better Data and Analytics
You reach more people through a multi-channel marketing strategy, but they will be of pretty diverse kinds. By being present on various sites, your brand will draw interest beyond your target market. If you have the tools in place to analyze this, then you could even discover new target markets.
Better Customer Targeting
You can make some assumptions about your customers based on your products. You can also make some assumptions about them based on where they are buying your products. By targeting customers differently across each of your channels, you can encourage brand loyalty from more diverse groups of customers.
A multi-channel marketing strategy is unique in that it can lift small businesses out of obscurity, and then develop to serve the needs of that same company once it grows.