Well, that depends. Brick and mortar businesses could potentially see a mix of in-store and online customers. Some businesses operate exclusively from a physical storefront, while other businesses may have both a physical storefront and a digital shop. Perhaps your business takes orders over the phone while simultaneously managing customer inquiries. Even if you do all your business from your physical storefront, many of your potential customers will search online before visiting your place of business, either to get a better idea of your offerings or check on competitive opportunities. Managing customer interactions across these different channels is referred to as “omnichannel selling”.
Omnichannel selling can simply be described as the process of selling your goods or services across multiple channels, i.e. a mobile device, physical storefront, desktop computer, or telephone.
Omnichannel selling strategies seek to provide consumers with a consistent and continuous experience across all channels, even as a consumer may utilize more than one channel for a single purchase.
Omnichannel selling is more than just different places a consumer can place an order. A true omnichannel selling strategy manages the relationship from discovery through education, all the way through to purchase and after-purchase support, turning a customer into a highly valuable reference.
Google, Facebook and Instagram hs. These social media platforms have provided an enormous opportunity to promote your business andave been the heavyweights in the marketing space for businesses and brands to maintain engagement and build trust with consumers for almost a decade. Youtube is the number two search engine behind Google, Pinterest tops 400 million users in 2020, Snapchat revenue jumps 66% as the user base hits 280M (April 2021), and Tik Tok is rapidly approaching a billion users. The incredible growth in social media provides so much opportunity for businesses of all sizes to engage narrow or global audience products.
Marketplaces hold a massive opportunity for many small businesses. A marketplace’s business objective is to bring all the potential customers to their marketplace. Ebay (187 million users), Etsy (81.9 Million), Amazon (197 Million users), and Walmart, which boasts over 50,000 sellers. Many of the newer shopping cart applications such as Shopify, Bigcommerce, or Woocommece provide the option to sync your products with one or more of the marketplaces, offering the potential to significantly increase your reach.
Social Media selling is the opposite of marketplaces - you take the product to where the customer already is, making the ability to purchase part of the social media experience. Facebook, Instagram, and Google have had shops for a few years, with Pinterest announcing their in shopping capability within the last couple of years, and most recently Tik Tok testing in app ecommerce.
Everywhere that makes sense for YOUR business. You should definitely sell on your website, possibly one or more marketplaces, and on any of the social media platforms where your potential customers are. You can use trial and error to find the best combination for your business.
Some of the major ecommerce solutions such as Shopify and BigCommerce have integrations with the major marketplaces and social media platforms, providing you a much easier way to sell your products in multiple places while keeping your inventory managed.
Sales aren’t the only key metrics to look at when analyzing a sales channel’s performance – in fact, there are several KPI’s to keep an eye on. Advertising ROI, conversion rate, and reviews are key to understanding the total ROI of a marketplace. Digital ads provide an interesting twist to the equation – as you can run a Google or Facebook ad where you direct the prospects to your in-app store, your website or to a 3rdp party marketplace. Your website has no seller fees, but you might get higher conversion rates or repeat customers utilizing the in-app store or a marketplace where customers already have their payment and shipping details stored. As is true with most marketing, there is no one formula that works for all types of businesses. This is a systematic approach with A/B testing and continuously tuning over time.
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