With These 5 Tips, You Successfully Implement Multichannel E-Commerce

You already know that online trading is indispensable for your business. It makes sense not only to rely on your own online shop, but to broaden your base and offer your products on various platforms.

In order to achieve the best results for your company from this, it is important to establish a multichannel strategy, because maintaining and distributing over different platforms can bring some challenges, but also opportunities.

We'll tell you what multichannel sales in e-commerce is and why you should pursue such a strategy for your online sales. Eventually, we will give you the best tips for successfully implementing a multi-channel sales and you will find out which softwares can support you.

What is multichannel sales in e-commerce?

,Multichannel sales refers to the sales of your goods and services across multiple channels,. In addition to stationary trade, numerous platforms on the internet are also included in these channels, such as your online shop, distribution platforms like Amazon and Ebay, social commerce or sales via television or telephone. By offering on multiple channels, you increase your sales and your turnover, as you reach a multitude of customers.

A multichannel strategy in your e-commerce, however, should not be confused with cross-channel or omni-channel sales. Both types of sales are based on multichannel sales, but they still differ from it and from each other. In cross-channel sales, you reduce barriers between multiple channels for your customers. You achieve this, for example, by allowing these customers to order goods in your online shop and then pick them up at your local store. After their purchase, your customers then receive an email with a thank you discount and the request to leave you a positive review or to advertise friends for further discounts. In omni-channel sales, the implementation is somewhat more complex, as it links seamlessly multiple channels that your customers use. They can, for example, put their products into the shopping cart via a tablet which is available in your store, and pick them up easily at the checkout counter. Afterwards, the buyers are encouraged to share their shopping experience or the just bought products in social media. As you can see, the use of various sales channels is always about their efficient networking, in order to achieve the best possible result for buyers and sellers.

That's why you should rely on a multichannel strategy in e-commerce

Using different sales and marketing channels usually brings an immediate increase in revenue for your company at simultaneously low to zero costs. This is due to the fact that you reach a much larger mass of people who belong to your target group, and draw their attention to your products and services. These people have different possibilities to get information about your offer and to get in contact with you, which has a positive effect on customer satisfaction.

In addition, with a multichannel strategy you reduce the risk of losing customers, for example because they live too far away to visit your store or know nothing about your products (because they are not on social media platforms). If you present your offer on different channels at the same time you also have permanent availability as a major competitive advantage. The large internet presence also contributes to an improved brand perception and the establishment of your company in the market.

If you centrally control all channels where you are present, then your sales and marketing work will also become significantly more efficient and you can dedicate yourselves to other important tasks. Another plus point of the multichannel strategy is that you get insights into which channel works best for you, without losing the potential of the other channels. Over time you will find out on which sales channel you achieve the highest customer satisfaction and the highest turnover, and can then make informed decisions about the long-term development of your multichannel sales network.

5 tips for more success in multichannel e-commerce

Setting up and serving content across different channels may sound simple at first. Still, you should follow the tips below to maximize your success in multichannel e-commerce.

Tip 1: Standardize your processes

The more sales channels you use, the higher your administrative effort can become. Therefore, it makes sense to standardize your processes so that you don't need ten different tools to manage different platforms, all of which operate differently. Keep the degree of deviation from learned processes as small as possible. Otherwise, you will have to constantly rethink when you switch from one platform to the next.

Tip 2: Keep an overview

When many things demand your attention, it can happen that you lose the overview. Therefore, manage your sales channels in a central ERP software,. In this software, you keep track of incoming orders, outstanding payments, the topicality of your data and much more.

Tip 3: Use automations

You don't have to manually do every task yourself. Many ERP software solutions offer various automations that save you time and money. because in the meantime you can do something else. A central inventory or database for product descriptions and images, for example, minimizes your administrative effort, as all used platforms can access it. Shipping automations can also be interesting for you if you have a high order volume but little personnel resources. Hereby, you store your products at a service provider, who sends them to your customers upon receipt of the corresponding orders.

Tip 4: Use KPIs

You can measure the success of your sales platforms using KPIs and optimize them. Regularly evaluate and analyze the performance of your channels. By comparing the values, you identify your revenue drivers and can focus on them.

Tip 5: Pay attention to a consistent brand appearance

So your customers can get a reliable impression of your brand, a cross-channel appearance is particularly important,. Even if the channels are different, the information you provide and the values that make up your company, as well as your corporate design, remain the same. This does not mean you should not make small adjustments depending on the platform – in some cases, the platform operators even specify this – but the overall appearance of your brand should not change too drastically from channel to channel.

These softwares support you in multichannel e-commerce

Now you know what multichannel sales is and why you should use it for your company. What's missing? Right, the right software. On OMR Reviews you will find a variety of ERP software, to which we have added feedback from real users. So you find the tool that best suits you and your needs. These include, for example:

Billbee

orgaMAX Buchhaltung

MOCO

weclapp

Xentral ERP

In the following section we present the ERP Software Billbee in detail and you will find out how you can use it for your multichannel e-commerce.

The import of order data works automatically, so Billbee is your central order processing without having to jump between different systems. Information, such as the order status, is automatically transferred to your sales systems. You can create shipping labels, no matter which shop or marketplace an order has come in. You do not need to abandon the booking of additional services in the shipping area to represent, for example, bulky goods or age-limited sales. A central item administration in Billbee gives you the advantage of being able to use the stock synchronization for common shop systems and marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, Shopify and eBay). The stock synchronization keeps your stocks on the various channels up-to-date, so that you can effectively avoid over-selling. Also, the management and sale of digital and downloadable items are available to you. With the help of the bill of materials function in Billbee, you can also manage product bundles in your shops. The automation area of Billbee helps you to save time in your daily tasks in multichannel. From automatic data export to your tax office in DATEV format, over the automatic generation and dispatch of order documents (e.g., invoices) to the linking of several automation rules to align entire workflows with each other: the automation rules you set up individually tailored to your business. Billbee also reliably processes the shipping of your products and sends shipping notifications to your customers.

In Billbee you can create and send order documents.

Order overview in the Billbee App.

A glance at the dashboard of Billbee.

The automation area of Billbee helps to save time in your daily multichannel tasks.

You can test the ERP system for 30 days free of charge. In doing so, you can access all interfaces from day one without compromise. After the trial period, you have transparent insight into your fees as costs are only based on the volume of processed orders (created or imported orders and refunds/cancellations/credits). If you don't have any orders for a month, you only pay the basic fee of €1. When setting up and optimizing your Billbee accounts, you benefit from detailed documentation (hilfe.billbee.io), video tutorials, a free Masterclass, as well as a team of Billbee experts who will assist you in case of questions.

Many distribution paths lead to success

The times when you reached your entire target group through a local store or through your online shop are long gone. Nowadays, you maximize your success and your turnover when you use different distribution platforms. Doing so, you also increase customer satisfaction and your brand awareness. With this, more channels do not necessarily mean more effort, because with a powerful ERP software you get the advantages of different distribution channels at the same administrative expense as sales over a single channel.