The mistake of the first multi-channel retailers was that they paid much more attention to the front end - the channels themselves - than the back-end - the production and logistics chain

With the development of online trading and the emergence of new technologies, the concept of multichannel sales is becoming increasingly relevant. But if you have a store and start selling goods online, and you also have groups on social networks and email advertising, this is not multichannel yet. Multichannel is a convenient user transition from one channel to another, a unified logistics and delivery system, integration of the store, website, social networks, etc.

A good example is Marks & Spencer, Britain's largest department store. In 2008, the company launched a large-scale program to improve its online service. Although the main emphasis was placed on simplifying the site navigation system and the process of selecting and purchasing goods, an important part of the changes was the organization of offline support for the Internet sales channel. Customer feedback has been improved, and customers have the opportunity to check the availability of goods in stock in real time. The goal was achieved: research showed a sharp increase in customer satisfaction with the shopping process in the Marks & Spencer online store.

How to become a successful multichannel retailer? Below are a number of tips to help you with this.

Find out if you're ready

Assess the readiness of your network—and the readiness of your partners! — to adding new channels. You need to pay attention to how this affects inventory management and logistics, determine how large an assortment you can offer so that it is always available, and find out whether your partners are ready for this. Until you have managed to integrate existing channels, do not add new ones. If you're not prepared, adding new sales channels can get you into more trouble.

It is better to act in stages: launch a pilot in a limited area while the rest of the business operates as before. Only from the experience of this pilot can you understand how profitable the new channel is and how you will develop further. Perhaps your logistics partners will not want to work with you in the new mode and will have to look for new ones, or you will need to implement accounting systems, which may take at least a year. So the transition to multichannel needs to be carried out gradually.

Improve the entire chain

The mistake of the first multichannel retailers was that they paid much more attention to the front-end - the channels themselves - than the back-end - the production and logistics chain. In 1999, the online division of the largest North American toy retailer, Toys R Us, in an attempt to attract customers, launched a powerful advertisement promising gift delivery before Christmas to anyone who placed an order by December 10th. Incorrect forecasting of demand for this service, as well as errors in the calculations of operational managers who incorrectly assessed the ability to complete orders in warehouses in conditions of peak growth in demand over a short period, led to the fact that, despite the availability of ordered goods in warehouses and the fact that Warehouse workers worked seven days a week, and Toys R Us failed to deliver on time for many thousands of orders. Unable to recover from the negative consequences, Toys R Us subsequently transferred all back-end functions for processing and delivering orders to Amazon.com.

In order for people to want to buy a product from you and not be disappointed, but come back again, you need to work a lot on the back-end. What is back-end? This is a warehouse and distribution center, procurement and purchasing service, this is the delivery of goods (courier services) and your suppliers. Now they must all participate in sales together. If previously the channels were separate, and each of them had its own organizational structures, manager, procurement, delivery, logistics, then this is no longer the case in multichannel sales. Whether your client enters a supermarket or an online store, they essentially end up in one “room.” Studying the assortment, receiving advice from a consultant, the payment process, purchasing goods and returning them should be equally simple and convenient everywhere.

The Toys R Us “supply chain disaster” forced hundreds of companies that sold products online to evaluate whether their logistics and order processing capabilities matched the needs of the online channel. If you don't follow their example, you may attract so many sales through the Internet that you will not be able to “digest” them.

Update your information

Research shows that the most important thing for buyers is the ability to find out for sure how much of the product they are interested in is actually in the store or warehouse (depending on where they want to buy it) at a given time. If you write, for example, that this smartphone model is in stock - on sale - this is not yet multichannel. But if you say that you have 21 items in stock in one store, 2 in another, 10 in a third at this very minute, and after refreshing the page, you see new numbers (if the product was ordered by someone), this multichannel sales. You can always tell how much and what kind of product is in each store. To achieve this, accounting systems and automation technologies are being introduced, and, of course, serious organizational changes cannot be achieved.

Try to be the best at something

If the price of goods can be a competitive advantage, then only for a short period. There must be something else that keeps your customers coming back to you, a specific shopping experience that includes many aspects. Consumers associate one store with good delivery (free, at any time, not at certain hours), the other with the convenience of comparing the products offered (you went to an online clothing store, where you can examine any product three-dimensionally, try it on yourself, etc. .d., that is, the inconvenience of buying online is leveled out). The third store is a simple returns system. If you want to become omnichannel, you need to decide what's most important to consumers and move in that direction. The most successful companies have come to associate their brands with certain quality characteristics: Argos has convenient delivery, and Marks & Spencer always has any product on sale.

Set the right price

The Internet has always been attractive because it has a wider range and is cheaper. This is not to say that this trend has disappeared today, but this is no longer the most important thing. It is important that buyers understand why a product has a particular price. First, you must decide how much your product costs, taking into account all the processes that it goes through, that is, from the moment it was purchased, entered the warehouse, was transported to the store, put on the shelf, then - what price each operation adds to it . You should also know what costs can be reduced to reduce the price of the product. Then you can create an offer that is beneficial for the buyer. In general, it is not necessary that the price on the Internet be cheaper: some companies offer different assortments online and offline or trade under different brands.

Don't be afraid of change

You shouldn’t be afraid to invest in multichannel, the main thing is to understand that this is not a matter of one day and, perhaps, not even one year. You can't be sure that your sales will increase by a certain percentage; maybe you will only maintain your position at the same level. But even this today will be more than enough to justify the costs.

Remember, both large companies that sell everything and retailers that specialize in certain products can be equally successful in multichannel sales. If you have assessed the risks and are ready for changes, go ahead!

6 tips to make your business multichannel