There's no doubt about it, the rise of eCommerce is going from strength to strength and with so much money being spent online, eCommerce is a sector that businesses and retailers can't ignore, especially in a post-coronavirus world.
With online sales now accounting for 14.1% of all retail sales worldwide, and Statista predicting this figure will reach 22% by 2023, the internet is home to so many spaces competing for sales, from Instagram to Facebook, as well as marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, that multi-channel selling can be an overwhelming undertaking.
In a word: yes. It's clear that online sales have been on the rise for years, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only hastened this trajectory: web traffic data shows that visitors to eCommerce websites grew to almost 22 billion in June of 2020 compared to just over 16 billion a year earlier.
What's more, it's clear that the best way to improve your sales is to cast your net where your customers are. Multi-channel selling, or selling across various channels, is the best way to improve sales and customer satisfaction.
Businesses who have a multi-channel presence see a 9.5% average annual growth rate and customers who shop across multiple channels are worth 30% more in lifetime value.
Of course, this strategy brings its own problems of scalability and efficiency.
When calculating the real costs of selling multi-channel, it's important to consider not just the direct financial costs of setting up and running online and in-store, but also the indirect costs incurred when managing multiple sales channels.
One of the biggest costs of multi-channel selling is time, updating multiple different systems or platforms takes time, which means it costs money and diverts staff attention from other more important tasks.
If the costs of multi-channel selling seem too high, it can be tempting to try and bring costs down to improve profitability. But how can this be achieved without sacrificing the quality of your product or service? It's a no-brainer that reducing the value for money you offer your customers isn't going to improve profits.
There's no reason why multi-channel selling has to be so complicated. Most of the time spent entering products, updating inventory and managing sales across the various platforms can be saved by operating from a single central hub which connects all the dots. Sold something in-store? There’s no need to update your online shop , it's already done.
Imagine the time - and by extension, the money - you'd save. Reduce staff overheads or, better yet, add more value to your products by allocating more time to customer service or other important tasks, and either way, you'll improve your profits and, no doubt, boost employee satisfaction by cutting out the most repetitive of tasks.
If there's one thing most business owners should know it's this, investing in the right technology today pays off tomorrow.
At ShopTill-e, our aim is to make your multi-channel selling as simple as possible. The all-in-one retail system allows you to combine your physical store, your online store, and your online marketplace sales into one cost-effective package.