Curious about going multi-channel? You’re not alone. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) selling on your own website helps you craft your buyer journey, own the customer relationship, and retain your loyal fans. On the other hand, marketplaces have excellent customer acquisition benefits, with each marketplace bringing their own set of loyal consumers.
The answer to leveraging all of these benefits lies in multi-channel selling. However, going global using a multi-channel approach can be daunting when it comes to logistics.
In this article, we’ll share why multi-channel selling is so critical and reveal some challenges you may face along the way. We’ll also get into the mechanics of a profitable fulfillment strategy for a multi-channel brand and share some top tips on how you can execute one for your global business successfully.
Why selling multi-channel has never been more important
With so many eCommerce strategies at your disposal, it’s tempting to stay on the fence about whether going multi-channel is necessary. But make no mistake, multi-channel selling is fast becoming a must in our unpredictable and ultra-competitive global market.
Let’s explore some reasons why it pays to take on the multi-channel selling challenge.
Diversify revenue to reduce risk
From warehouse floods and postal strikes to suppressed listings and suspended seller accounts, anything can happen in eCommerce. And, with global supply chain issues still gripping industries that stock physical goods, problems are more a case of “when” than “if”.
So, it’s critical you fortify your eCommerce businesses with multi-channel eCommerce. You’ll have peace of mind knowing sales are still coming in.
Stay top of mind to beat the competition
You only need to scroll the search engines for a short time to know eCommerce is growing increasingly competitive. Selling on multiple channels helps you stand out from the crowd by increasing how much your target customer encounters your brand and products.
From here, you can build trust and strong relationships with them, so when it comes time to buy your target customers, choose your brand over your competition.
Protect your brand experience
multi-channel selling gives the impression of your business being “everywhere,” helping you build a strong brand presence and notoriety. Building a solid reputation is vital for eCommerce success and selling on different channels is a fantastic way to go about it.
In case you need some evidence to support your multi-channel selling proposal, consumers trust marketplaces—65% are open to buying from brands they don’t know on a marketplace. Many shoppers also prefer marketplaces, with the top reasons being better pricing, product selection, and shopping selection.
Strengthen your business’ core
Going multi-channel isn’t just great for business growth; when done correctly, the additional cash, customers, and brand strength can strengthen your business from the inside out.
For example, you can uplevel your…
- Cash flow – By having multiple revenue streams that can sustain your business even if one of them is temporarily cut off
- Valuation – By growing your brand recognition and reach
- Internal process – By implementing inventory and order management best practices required to sell across channels
The complexities of selling multi-channel
Multi-channel selling offers a fantastic opportunity to level up your store and meet your wildest growth goals. But selling on multiple channels isn’t without challenges. To get prepared, let’s uncover some issues you could face:
Unifying global fulfillment
Fragmented supply chains and different fulfillment requirements for shipping goods internationally, and it won’t be long before you have a brewing storm. These issues can make it difficult to send and track orders in your business, which can lead to delays, lost packages, and costly shipments.
For example, in some countries, it’s illegal to send some flammable items via post like solvents, alcohol, and perfumes abroad. So, without the right forwarding options, you could end up with seized shipments.
Managing order management across sales channels
From dispatch to returns, your shipping process is an extension of your brand. So, it’s imperative your fulfillment processes reflect your brand’s standards.
But when you have multiple channels, each with different rules and requirements it can be challenging to process orders efficiently and cost-effectively. This can lead to a poor customer experience and negative brand perception.
Building a supply chain that can handle high sales velocity
The more orders that come through your online doors, the more pressure your supply chain experiences. Without the right tools, support, and strategy, it’s easy to slip up on your order fulfillment, with painful knock-on effects like customer complaints, lost sales, and expensive rushed stock orders.
How to set up an effective fulfillment strategy for multi-channel selling
With winning products, a solid customer base, and a growing brand under your belt, you’ve got all the basics needed for a successful multi-channel selling journey.
Next, you’ll need to refine your fulfillment strategy to support multi-channel selling to ensure you get positive and sustainable results. Let’s dig into the steps you should take:
Work with reliable suppliers
Your supplier relationships can make or break your fulfillment strategy. So, it’s crucial you partner with suppliers that can keep your stock sufficiently stocked no matter the season. To ensure your supplier fits the bill, audit their performance regularly and trial new providers to create a strong backup pool. 4 areas to evaluate your suppliers on are:
- Speed
- Accuracy
- Communication
- Cost
Excellent communication is critical to success in your supplier relationships. Keep suppliers updated on changes in market and customer needs that will alter products. Also, take note of key holidays in your suppliers’ territories and create a plan to get stock on ships before in time to avoid disruptions.
Use the right listing tool for distributed order management
As your multi-channel store grows, it’ll become more challenging to keep all your listings updated and stock availability. So, lean on multi-channel listing tools to keep your store data synced to real-time inventory, tracking goods in your supply chain, and audit listings for compliance.
These tools should also sync with your fulfillment partners to give you complete supply chain visibility.
Find a trusted fulfillment partner
A reliable fulfillment solutions provider will be one of the greatest allies on your multi-channel selling journey. They can help you scale faster without increasing your workload and costs. But it’s important you take time to find the best provider for your growth stage and goals.
Some key characteristics to look for in your fulfillment provider include:
- Experience in multi-channel selling
- Ability to scale service levels up and down according to your brand’s seasons while maintaining high standards
- Fair and transparent pricing
- On-hand customer support
- Use of AI-backed supply chain management solutions to spot threats and opportunities in your multi-channel store.
- A well-diversified warehouse and carrier set up
- Low error rates
- A fulfillment business with disaster recovery and risk mitigation plans
Refine your returns process
With all the different sales avenues under your store’s belt, streamlining your returns process is essential for efficient, cost-effective, and reduced waste in your fulfillment and returns.
Assess your product portfolio, taking note of each product or category’s different requirements, such as fragile, temperature-sensitive, and heavy items.
Once you have this information, work to create a returns process for each type of product with your fulfillment provider.
Also, remember a well-optimized returns process gives your multi-channel store the chance to shine. So, if you’re looking to take your returns process up a notch, take inspiration from brands like Amazon and Lazada, who offer early refunds once customers return goods to the courier, have multiple drop-off options, and offer free returns to speed up the process.
Tip: To know what to optimize in your multi-channel fulfillment and returns strategy, stay on the pulse of your customers’ needs. Assess trends, run polls and surveys, and incentivize reviews, then implement your findings.
Wrapping up — The blueprint for managing fulfillment for multiple eCommerce stores
Transitioning from a single eCommerce channel to a multi-channel business can be an intimidating move. But with the right strategy, fulfillment service, and “can do” attitude, you can overcome the challenges.
So, put your customer’s wants and needs at the forefront when deciding how to navigate your fulfillment strategy and be ready to pivot in line with market and consumer trends. Work with your fulfillment service to keep quality high and costs low. Soon, you’ll have a thriving multi-channel eCommerce business that knocks your eCommerce goals out of the water.
About the Author
Rachel Go is the marketing director of MyFBAPrep, the leading eCommerce warehouse network for Amazon aggregators, enterprise-level brands and top Amazon sellers. Operating a global network of more than 50 warehouses and six-million-square-feet of operating warehouse space, MyFBAPrep offers a full suite of ecommerce 3PL services including Amazon wholesale and private label, direct-to-consumer (DTC) fulfillment, and B2B retail. Powered by its SaaS technology platform Preptopia™, sellers get access to unified billing, analytics, business intelligence reporting tools and real-time inventory views across multiple warehouses in the network. The company provides FBA Prep automation, modern robotics item picking, and a dedicated account management team. Based in Coral Springs, Florida, MyFBAPrep moves over $1 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and processes over 10-million units annually.
