It’s no secret a humming sales channel does a lot for your brand. From suggesting your products to building meaningful relationships with repeat buyers. Your physical retail sales channel inevitably has the power to dictate how well your company does as 90% of sales activity occurs offline.
Showing appreciation to your channel, is not just a courtesy, but a carefully curated marketing tactic. Because the more you do for them, the more they’ll do for you. Online sales are great, but not what feeds your employees and definitely not what allows your company to expand and take risks. To appease your channel and increase mindshare on the retail floor a cross-channel sales approach is required to stand out. Here are 3 key reasons why you want to consider an online to offline strategy:
Boost Conversions Online & Offline
If given the option, over 60% of consumers preferred method of shopping is still physical retail. Consumers use the Internet to help guide which store or products but often shop across channels to get what they want. This can be webrooming (researching online and buying in a store) or showrooming (research in store and buy online). By combining online and physical retail with a click to brick approach your company can maximize conversions wherever the consumer starts their search.
This form of localized commerce provides the top online promotional drivers such as free shipping, free local returns/exchanges, and in some cases same day pickup or delivery that brings value and conversions to your online storefront.
With respect to offline sales dealers and the sales associates within their stores gravitate towards products they know sell well to maximize their sales potential. They often don’t know what they are missing, so show them by sending online sales and get buy in from a team that still heavily influences consumer purchases.
Build Dealer Loyalty
Introducing a cross-channel fulfillment program is a great way to not only boost online conversions by giving consumers more choice as to how their order will be fulfilled but has even more upside with respect to dealer loyalty to further influence where the bulk of your sales come from. Think about it, will you be able to sell more than a dealer in their respective trade area? If you do, congratulations as this is very rare but 99% will fall into the ‘no’ camp. If you could protect and or grow your listings with someone who can significantly move more volume than you ever could on your own, wouldn’t you?
Dealer loyalty is all that matters to ensure your products have a prime location in store and can lead to repeatable revenues your company can rely on year after year. This sort of predictability in your business is vital to be able to take risks to grow. Getting a dealer to know more about you and your company’s brand story is a great way to spread the message authentically to the end consumer as people on the showroom floor still are near the #1 influencer in consumers decisions, especially amongst millennials.
Demonstrate Leadership & Use Data to Drive Incremental Revenue
Selling the same way as your peers is going to bring about the same results. Your company innovates on its products but when was the last time you innovated how you sell? By combining channels your team can be viewed as an innovator in your industry and gain considerable credibility from customers and partners to move everyone in the same direction together. Imagine with a clicks to bricks program, inside sales and reps can start to sell with sales data versus a gut feel, dealers can learn what products they should be selling or stocking to be more successful with your brand, and you get more insight into your entire sales channel to make more informed strategy. Your entire organization can be viewed as industry leaders by demonstrating demand for your products.
By integrating online and physical retail not only are you enhancing your consumer experience but also streamlining your process of retrieving data. The results derived from an omni-channel program can set your business apart from the pack to earn more floor space and mind share at retail where your products can get discovered by new and more consumers in a low cost way leading to a boost in conversions, revenue, and dealer loyalty.
