In today’s world, if you’re not selling online, you’re missing out on significant business opportunities. Smart businesses recognise this and are expanding their sales channels. Many are branching out beyond retail stores by adding direct-to-consumer (D2C) stores, selling on Amazon, and even partnering with other stores and websites.

But how do you manage these multiple channels effectively without losing sales? Let’s dive into the challenge and explore how you can create a winning multichannel strategy for your e-commerce brand.

The Challenge:

One common issue businesses face is the risk of cannibalising their sales across different channels. This doesn’t just impact traditional retail stores; it's a concern for online-first brands too. For example, many companies sell through both their own website and marketplaces like Amazon.

The challenge becomes how to use these channels to serve different customer preferences without shifting sales from one channel to another, which can make it seem like you’ve lost revenue. Another concern is tracking marketing spend. A customer might see an ad, visit your D2C store, but then decide to purchase on Amazon. This can make it hard to measure the real customer acquisition cost.

My Perspective:

From my experience working with both retail and online brands, the companies that succeed are those that look at this challenge from the customer’s perspective. When businesses prioritize the customer experience and use data insights to understand shopper behaviour, they can create a tailored strategy for each channel.

For example, in one of my corporate roles, I managed the e-commerce channels for a brand, and we found that tailoring the offer for each channel helped grow the brand. By understanding how customers shop, we were able to avoid cannibalisation and create a seamless experience, from building awareness to driving conversions.

Similarly, in my work for a luxury brand, we conducted a CRM analysis to see how customers interacted across channels. We discovered that many customers shopped in multiple channels, so we made the experience uniform. This helped increase the number of VIP customers and maximised lifetime value across all channels.

Channel-Specific Tips for Success:

Below, I’ve outlined tips for how you can make the most of each sales channel. By focusing on the strengths of each channel, you can enhance your multichannel strategy and improve the overall customer experience.

‍

Conclusion:

By applying these tips and building a strategy tailored to each channel, you can provide an exceptional multichannel experience for your customers. This approach won’t cannibalize your sales—instead, it will help you grow by reaching and serving more customers effectively.

If you need advice or support in setting up your multichannel strategies, feel free to reach out! I’m happy to help.

‍