The ability to sell online, sell in-store, sell on Internet marketplaces
Multichannel retailing is the ability to promote and sell products across a variety of channels such as sell in-store, sell via an online shop, sell on Internet marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, as well as social media etc.
Multichannel retailing allows a merchant to reach out to a wider base of prospective customers by offering customers a choice of ways to purchase their products which in turn helps to maximise revenue and loyalty, by giving customers convenience and a choice of where to buy.
Consumers want a seamless shopping experience
Consumers no longer browse for products using one sales channel, they have the freedom to shop anywhere, so it’s important for retail businesses to provide a shopping journey that meets their customers’ expectations.
Retail businesses who have been able to create a seamless shopping experience for their customer, that integrates the different shopping channels, have gained significant customer loyalty by answering their customers’ needs and ensuring customers keep coming back.
For example according to a recent study multichannel shoppers shop more often and will spend over 3 times more than a single channel shopper.
Multi-channel retailing provides a competitive advantage
Also the relationship between in-store shopping and online shopping has become more interconnected, with research finding that consumers will often carry out research via the online shop first, before going in-store to make their purchase, meaning it's more important than ever to have a seamless approach for customers to buy and in turn retailers will reap the benefit.
Integrating back-end operations with front-end customer experiences
However, if you have different systems for different sales channels it can be a very complex and challenging minefield when running your retail business.
Trying to deliver a seamless experience to each customer whilst getting the back-end operations to talk to one another can be increasingly difficult for the retailer.
One idea could be to use a multi-channel retail system as this has proven to be a great way for retailers to get on top of both in-store and online sales.
Managing stock across all platforms
If you are using different systems, overselling can occur as sales can happen anywhere - through the ecommerce shop, internet marketplaces, in the retail shop - at anytime, with online shops open 24/7. An oversell can lead to unhappy customers who will more than likely go elsewhere when they find their chosen product is no longer available.
This shows the importance of having a centralised and fully integrated inventory across all channels. Being able to manage stock easily and see what's selling where and when and know when to replenish stock in a timely manner.
Consistency is key
If you are utilising multiple sales channels it's important to ensure the message across all your sales channels is the same and has the same look and feel so that it is clearly relatable.
If not a user may be confused by what they see, affecting the confidence they have in you the merchant, which can mean a lost sale.
Keeping your brand consistent and making product promotions the same across multiple sales channels, will help build loyalty and using one system will make it easier to manage and save you time whilst doing so, again providing this seamless journey for your customers.
Benefits of a multi-channel retailing system
A multi-channel retailing system will take away the headache of running multiple systems and makes it easy to sell on multiple channels ie in a retail shop, ecommerce website, internet marketplaces, social media, Google, pop-ups etc by streamling processes and improving the bottom line.
Using a multi-channel retail system can help a retailer with :-
Inventory management - avoid overselling and get real-time performance data with live stock levels syncing across your chosen sales channels.
Order management - with everything being managed from a central area, you can view, track and process sales quickly, keeping your customers happy.
Click and collect - customers are able to view and buy 24/7 online and then come in and pick up at a time that suits, as well as saving on any shipping costs.
Product management - adding and listing products in multiple places takes time, but with a multi-channel retail system you only need to add your products, descriptions, images etc once, this saves on duplication and of course will reduce any errors being made.
Brand consistency and customer trust - it takes time to manage and grow a consistent brand everywhere, but by using one system the same brand message is portrayed in every place, meaning your customers will recognise you no matter where you are selling.
Reporting - using one system means all your data is in one place, meaning you can stay knowledgeable about what's selling well and what's not across all your sales channels.
How can ShopTill-e help you with your multi-channel retailing?
We have built ShopTill-e from the ground up with busy retailers in mind and have made it intuitive and super-efficient for you and your staff to use. The multi-channel retail system provides everything a retailer needs to run, manage and grow their in-store and online sales.
ShopTill-e will...
Reduce your costs - you automatically get access to all the great features, with no costly add-ons or complicated plans - everything's included.
Save you valuable time - it takes away the headache of running multiple systems, everything's in one system and provides a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
Grow - the point of sale system and ecommerce platform can work independently or together for multi-channel selling. You can start with the point of sale first or ecommerce first and just add as needed, at any time.
It will also allow you to reach new markets and help you expand with the multi-webshop and multi-outlet options.
We have made ShopTill-e fully-featured but have deliberately kept plan fees low, as we want to support independent retailers and understand in uncertain times it's important to control costs even more than usual.
Feel free to try ShopTill-e free for 14 days or book your personalised demo with one of our retail and ecommerce experts.
“ShopTill-e is a great choice for anyone in retail, it’s been incredibly effective in helping the business be able to visualise its performance in real time and be able to coordinate online and in-store sales more effectively.”
If you're not quite ready for the full multichannel retailing world you can start with just one sales channel such as the online shop or the ePOS till system and when you're ready to grow you can switch to the all-in-one multichannel plan as and when you want to.
