You operate purely in e‑commerce and your company’s growth is already well established. To go further, why not diversify your sales channels? To do this, you’ll need to develop a multichannel strategy. Here are some key success factors to help you roll it out effectively.
Redesign your overall strategy
To grow your company’s sales, it’s essential to be properly prepared (points of sale, marketplaces, distributors, etc.).
Start by taking a step back from your current strategy. You won’t necessarily target the same customers or make the same offers depending on the distribution method, so set new objectives for each channel.
Adjust your internal organization
Once your strategy is in place, take another look at your internal organization. It’s essential to remove barriers between different distribution channels: your teams must also work in multichannel mode.
To streamline processes, the issue of data accessibility is becoming a priority. It’s therefore important to consider the implementation of new management tools. In fact, your e‑commerce site becomes one distribution channel among others, and is no longer the centre of your company’s information system.
Anticipate your business growth
By increasing the number of points of sale and boosting your presence on marketplaces, you will logically grow your sales. Your company must be able to absorb this future growth in both production and customer service.
To do this, you need flexible tools to manage your operations and connect them across all distribution channels.
Put customer relations at the heart of your strategy
It’s essential to understand consumer expectations and put them at the heart of your strategy. Create a consistent multi-channel customer experience: customers like to have options, take time to think, and look for information on the Internet before finalizing their purchase.
The core of this approach is to create complementarity between the different sales channels. They will not all have the same objective:
- the online shop will remain your preferred sales channel;
- the physical stores will showcase your presence in the local market and help you build a close relationship with end customers;
- the marketplaces will allow you to expand your customer base and increase your visibility on the Web.
Choose the best tools
You’re currently using Magento or Prestashop and it’s perfectly suited to managing your online store. However, as part of a multi-channel sales strategy, the e-commerce platform cannot act as a full information system or ensure consistency between your various distribution channels, logistics, after-sales service, etc.
The best solution is to implement an ERP system and connect it to your e-commerce platform. The ERP will allow you to automate logistics, manage inventory, and update product catalogues....
Information will be updated in real time, while avoiding multiple data re-entries and the risk of errors between the e-commerce platform and the ERP.
This will make communication and information sharing easier between the different teams. To choose the right solution, feel free to read our article on this topic (E-commerce players: how to choose your ERP?).
Are you already running an e-commerce platform like Prestashop or Magento? We can connect PrestaShop or Magento to your ERP/CRM with an Odoo connector.
Work with the best partners
A project of this scale needs solid support. To choose the partner who will integrate your ERP software and connect it to your e-commerce platform, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- the integrator’s experience: before you begin, check their references;
- the profile of their customers: work with partners who support companies that are similar in size to yours;
- the relationship between the integrator and the ERP publisher: are they a preferred partner?
- support: will you be on your own once integration is complete, or will you benefit from a long-term partnership?
