Marketing
Multichannel Selling Will Make You More Money
If you’re an online entrepreneur, chances are you’re selling either on your own website or one of the major eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Etsy or eBay, but if you aren’t selling on more than one of them, chances are you’re missing out.
Although there is a lot to be said for having your own company website, and although you absolutely should not skip this step if you want to build up a brand and establish yourself as a professional company, you are likely to get more traffic and make more sales if you utilize as many of the appropriate platforms that are available to you as possible. Not convinced that you need to add your goods to more channels? Check out these excellent reasons why you should:
Increasing Sales
It doesn’t matter how good your company website is search engine optimized or how well your Etsy store is doing; you will only ever get a certain amount of traffic from them.
Whereas, if you were to read this Amazon FBA guide or this guide to selling on eBay, and implement what you’ve learned, you would benefit from a much bigger market. Each of those websites and they aren’t eh only ones you could start selling on, get millions of visitors each day, and that means potentially much more money for you if you do it well.
Reducing Risks
Another good thing about selling your products on numerous platforms is that you can reduce your risks. It’s straightforward for a small business to go under when they don’t get enough traffic to their website, or customers are wary about buying from them, for example, but when you sell on multiple platforms, you reduce the risk.
Sure, your business might go under, as might any number of other platforms you sell on, but it’s improbable they all will, which could keep your business safe!
Increase Your Authority
Consumers trust the likes of Amazon and eBay to deliver, which means that they generally have no qualms about buying from them. So, if your company is present on these big platforms, you can increase your authority exponentially.
Increase Your Own Traffic
Having a presence on other eCommerce platforms allows you to build strong links to your company’s own website that will be taken more seriously than links from more inferior websites.
Not only that, but when you sell on a platform like Etsy or eBay, you can include a business card for your own company in the packages you send out, thus increasing awareness of your brand.
Less Work
Some platforms, like Amazon, will fulfil your orders on your behalf, which means that you do not have to do any of the packings and sending yourself, nor do you have to pay for the space to store your stock. Obviously, you have to pay a fee for this, but if you’re a small operation without considerable means to rent space and employ staff, it can be an easy and effective way of getting started.
Better Economies of Scale
Because of many of the factors mentioned above, it is a lot easier to sell many more products each day when you take the multichannel approach. That means that you can benefit from bigger economies of scale, reducing your stock price and increasing your profits – something that every entrepreneur wants to do.
Better Targeting
If, for example, you’re selling hand-knitted baby clothing, then selling on Etsy will ensure that you reach the market you’re targeting more efficiently. In addition, people who shop on Etsy are looking for high-quality handmade products, and they are willing to pay more from them, so you could do very well by branching out there. This is just one example of how multichannel selling can improve your audience targeting and make you more money.
More Fixed Costs
When you sell via Amazon or eBay, for example, then you will be able to fix your costs more tightly than if you didn’t because you’ll know exactly how much they are charging for their services. On the other hand, when you sell only via your own website, you never know when you’re going to have to upgrade this or redo that, and that can make it more difficult to run your company and make money when you’re starting out, in particular.
So, as you can see, for small businesses looking to make more money, the multichannel approach can be very beneficial for many reasons above and beyond the simple sales increase!