Linn Academy 2021 On-Demand: Multichannel selling strategies and how to keep control of your brand.

Catch up with this Linn Academy Virtual session on-demand here.

Scaling your business across multiple selling channels is key to driving growth, reaching new audiences and increasing sales but it means strict control. In this session BigCommerce and American Eagle discuss how to scale up your business across multiple retail platforms.

Discover:

• How to improve convenience for your customers
• Optimizing your customer experience
• Changes you can make to improve the business
• How to manage multiple platforms
• The importance of infrastructure
• Ensuring inventory management across platforms
• Key future trends
  

Your brand and selling across multiple sales channels.

Selling across multiple channels needs careful management if retailers and sellers are to keep control of their brand. In this session Iris Schiefer, Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager EMEA at Big Commerce, and Tim Ahlenius, VP of Strategy at AmericanEagle.com, shared some tips on what to do.

Schiefer said there were many short-term fixes adopted during the pandemic that retailers can still look at that can make a huge difference to conversion rates. There was a particular focus on product discoverability, she said. “It’s about meeting your customers where they are.”

Sellers need to look at servicing existing customers first, the pair said. “My recommendation would be to focus on improving the store experience and minimizing those blockers to conversion before driving new traffic,” said Schiefer.

Within this customer service has also been key, and Ahlenius highlighted the importance of retailers investing in this. “Empowering your customer service team to deliver a great customer experience is one of the big shifts we saw in the last 12 to 18 months,” he said.

When considering what channels to sell on the duo said retailers should not just enter channels for the sake of it. Schiefer said that BigCommerce had seen the growth of dual B2B and B2C strategies. “We have a lot of clients that have developed this hybrid. We hear ‘am I going to damage the relationships with my retail partners if I go direct?’ or ‘will I get caught up in this dog eats dog if I go via marketplaces’.”

She advised sellers to ensure their B2B, D2C and marketplaces offerings are somewhat differentiated to help reduce pricing conflicts.

Ahlenius said retailers need to look at different platforms and if they fit their business. “You do have to do a little bit of analysis for what is right for you,” he said. Inventory management is a priority with these models, he said.

Looking to the future, the pair highlighted opportunities around social commerce and the customer experience as areas for retailers to concentrate in 2022.