How to Grow Your Shopify Online Store with Multichannel Selling
Here’s a quick fact: about 73% of retail consumers use multiple channels to shop for products.
So, if you’re depending solely on your Shopify site, you’ll be missing out on a lot of customers and revenue.
Moreover, consumers have evolved; they use several channels to shop before making a purchase, so you need to use multiple sales channels to reach them.
In this guide, you will learn about the types of Shopify sales channels, factors to consider before picking a channel, and how you can grow your Shopify online store with multichannel selling.
What is Multichannel Selling?
Multichannel selling is the use of different channels to market your goods and services to your consumers. For example, you can market your products on Amazon, Facebook, mobile app, and pop-up shops.
Multichannel marketing allows you to meet your customers right where they are, whether it’s on social media, Google, or brick-and-mortar stores. This is why it’s one of the most effective ways of growing your Shopify store.
Types of Sales Channels on Shopify
Shopify provides different sales channels for merchants, here they are:
Online Store: This is the pivot or central hub of your Shopify store. You should focus on growing and optimizing your store before branching out to other sales channels.
Shop App: Shopify has a dedicated shop app that you can use to sell your products. Most smartphone users are more likely to purchase with their mobile phones so using the Shopify shop app or third-party app will significantly increase your sales.
Social Media Platforms: Social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TiTok can also be used to sell your products. You can choose to post and sell your products directly from the shop tab using the Linkpop feature or direct users to your Shopify website. Plus, you can run ads to reach more users who may be interested in your products.
Buy Button: This allows you to sell directly on your website or blog with a buy button that links to your Shopify checkout. It works for popular website builders like WordPress and Squarespace.
Shopify Marketplace Connect App: The majority of shoppers use marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Alibaba to research and compare products. So you can leverage the huge audience of this platform to scale your Shopify store and increase your customer base.
Google Shopping and YouTube: You can’t directly sell your products on Google, but you can use it to reach your target audience because people use Google Shopping to compare products and pricing across different platforms. Similarly, they watch product reviews on YouTube before deciding to make a purchase.
Faire Wholesale Marketplace: Faire is an online B2B marketplace used for selling your products in bulk to retailers and brands. It’s a Shopify-owned platform that connects Shopify store owners to independent retailers. Once you link up your Shopify account with faire, your inventory and orders will automatically reflect as you make sales.
Shopify Collective: This sales channel allows you to collaborate with other Shopify store owners by selling their products and they will return the favor by selling your products too. You don’t need to manage an inventory; instead, import the products that are similar to yours and start selling.
Shopify POS: You can connect your Shopify store to your point of sale(POS) in your temporary shop or brick-and-mortar store to match your inventory online and offline. The Shopify algorithm will help to hide products that are not in stock so you won’t get mixed up with overselling challenges.
Shopify Inbox: Shopify inbox allows you to chat and close your customers in your online store. It offers a chance to make a good first impression and rule out any objections your prospects or customers may have about your products.
Why is Multichannel Selling Important for Business Growth?
Multichannel selling can be a gold mine for Shopify store owners for a couple of reasons. Let’s take a look at them.
Wider Reach
By selling to a broader audience you can reach more people and increase your chances of converting them than hoping that your prospects will find your site. Consumers require several touchpoints or interactions with a brand before coming to a purchase decision.
So spreading your resources wide in different channels like social media, online marketplaces like eBay, and pop-up shops will help them to learn about your brand and products.
More Profits
It’s a well-known fact that putting your business in multiple sales channels will increase your sales volume and profits. As consumers are purchasing from you on Amazon they are also doing the same in your Shopify site.
If you are selling an evergreen product, then you’re guaranteed a steady supply of income every month, provided you have a strong marketing plan.
Enhanced Customer Convenience
Convenience is when your customers can shop when, how, and where they prefer. Multichannel marketing will help you to meet your customers and prospects anywhere on the internet and even offline. Offering multiple channels can lead to improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.
Improved Brand Recognition
The more sales channels you add to your Shopify site the more people will learn about your brand.
It will help to build your brand credibility and trust because you’re marketing on the major channels in which your target audience spends time the most. It’s only a matter of time before they purchase from your business.
Multiple Streams of Income
With multichannel marketing, you don’t have to rely on your Shopify store or website to earn profits. You get to combine different channels to sell your products. Besides, depending on a single marketing channel can be risky because of technical issues or market fluctuations.
Better Customer Insights
The data obtained from marketing your products on different channels can be used to inform your marketing strategy.
Though different channels have different audiences and demographics, consumer behaviors will help you to know how best to reach them. You can even use it to create new customer personas and segments to target on your Shopify site.
How to know if you’re Eligible for a Sales Channel?
You can check if you’re eligible for a sales channel through your Shopify admin. If it’s unavailable then you can click on “You can’t add this channel” to learn why you aren’t eligible.
Each sales channel has different requirements, terms, and conditions, so you might need to check it before using a channel. Once a sales channel has been added you can monitor the performance from your Shopify admin dashboard.
Factors to Consider Before Choosing a Sales Channel
Here are some factors to consider before choosing a sales channel.
Target Audience: Who is your target audience? Which platform do they use to compare products? Where do they spend time the most? Answering questions like this will give you cues on which channel will be a good fit for your products.
Nature of your Product: If you’re selling beauty and skin care products, then social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TiTok will do fine. Whereas electric gadgets will sell better marketplaces like eBay and Alibaba.
Marketing Budget: Each channel comes with its expenses in terms of fees and logistics. For instance, Amazon bites off a chunk of your profit for warehousing and delivering your goods.
Level of Competition: If a sales channel is flooded with established competitors, you might find it difficult to stand out. Unless you’re willing to allocate more budget for running ads or marketing your store.
Best Practices for Multichannel Selling on Shopify
Adding new sales channels means that you’ll have to invest more time and resources, and these strategies will help you to grow on each of your sales channels.
Use a Unified Inventory Software
You need a unified inventory software to effectively manage your sales channels. So you won’t run into overselling or underselling roadblocks.
Shopify has an in-built inventory system to manage your stock across your channels but investing in a Shopify inventory integration like SKUPlugs will give you even more customizable features.
Maintain a Consistent Brand Identity
To grow brand awareness and credibility, you have to maintain consistent brand colors, messaging, pricing, and deliverables in all your sales channels.
This will increase customer loyalty and improve your brand perception. Platforms like Google Shopping will not list your products if you have varying product information on your sales channels.
Deliver Excellent Customer Service
You have to always be available to answer your customer inquiries and resolve issues promptly. This might mean employing more customer service staff to handle customer queries on different platforms.
Even if you don’t have full control of your customer experience in third-party channels you can do your best to deliver when needed.
Optimize your Pricing Strategy
To get more customers you might consider running discount promotions in specific channels to boost sales. However, your product pricing may vary on different platforms because of service charges and competitor pricing. So you might slightly alter your product pricing on different channels.
Optimize Product Content
Different platforms have different product requirements, which are not limited to high-quality images, descriptions, and features.
You need to study each channel, whether social media platforms like Instagram or marketplaces like Alibaba, to find content that will suit your audience. Some platforms, like Amazon, may require you to use certain keywords and phrases to gain more visibility.
Improve your Order Fulfillment
If you’re selling physical products you may need to deliver the product directly to your customers or have them come and pick it up. In either case, your order fulfillment needs to be accurate and timely to improve customer trust.
You can also collaborate with a third-party shipping carrier to fulfill your orders. This also depends on the sales channel you are using.
Connect with your Customers via Email
There are far too many distractions and competitors in different sales channels so you need to divert your traffic from different sources to your sales funnel to enable you to send personalized marketing emails.
These emails can go out during festive holiday periods or regular days to remind a customer about an abandoned cart or new deals based on their purchase history and preferences.
Analyze your Data
Cold hard data and statistics don’t lie; they will help you to know when a sales channel is booming or declining. Shopify provides data analytics on each sales channel dashboard so you can monitor its traffic and sales. Analyzing this data will help you to know the marketing strategies that work for your business.
Best Way to Grow Your Shopify Online Store
One of the best ways you can leverage multichannel selling is by using Shopify integrations like SKUPlugs. It will help you to sync your inventory across multiple channels including your physical shops.
Plus, it can provide you with an ERP Shopify integration to manage and process your orders. You can also sync unlimited orders from your site to your POS using its POS Shopify integration. Additionally, SKUPlugs can integrate with Shopify, and the inventory of your products in your favorite marketplaces.