Multichannel for Christmas

As everyone reading this blog post is aware, the holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) is not far away. Especially if you have an e-store. It is a well known fact that Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving in the USA; 25th November) is traditionally known as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

• 77% of respondents in a Kantar Media Survey (September 2011) stated that free shipping was something they looked for when buying online during the holiday season.
• 85% of consumers are buying online so brands and retailers must have a true cross channel presence in order to increase sales (Retail TouchPoints, Summer 2011).
• Christmas 2010 was one of the most successful ever for online retail. In December there were 2.1 billion UK visits to online retail websites, accounting for 11% of all online traffic. (Experian Hitwise, Jan 2011)
• Online retail spending for the entire November to December 2010 holiday season in the US reached $32.6 bn, a 12% increase on 2009. (comScore, January 2011).

The above statistics gives you an overall view of how well online retail is doing around the world during the holiday period. Online sales have grown each year since 2000 on average by 20% (Internet Retailer).

As mentioned in previous blog posts, most consumers are now shopping online and on comparison shopping engines in order to find the best deals and the best prices. As a merchant placing your products on multi-channels assists in increasing your sales, getting your brand recognized and promoting all your products. Multichannel eCommerce is a huge plus to all e-stores as it means you aren’t placing too much focus or emphasis on one particular channel.

If your like me and leave your Christmas Shopping until the last minute, shopping online is the way forward. It means you can access online stores from anywhere, and you can even purchase all your last minute Christmas presents via your mobile phone whilst you are on the go. Spreading your products across the vast network of channels available on the World Wide Web increases your chances of brand exposure and consumers clicking (or pressing if your on a phone) the “Buy Now” button.

Interested in our Multichannel Platform? Click hear to read more: http://www.sosign.com/products.en.html or contact us directly: http://www.sosign.com/contact.en.html.

What is Multichannel eCommerce and how can it help you?

Multichannel eCommerce describes the selling of your products through various online channels. Major online companies such as Amazon, eBay, Bing, Buy.com, TheFind and Google Product Ads let you, as a merchant, upload your product inventory onto their website to sell your products and assist in increasing your sales and revenue.

Multichannel eCommerce helps retailers and merchants place their products across the internet without placing too much emphasis and focus on one particular channel. There are a variety of channels available to advertise your products and get brand recognition and these channels aren’t just limited to marketplaces and shopping engines.

Direct traffic to your website is a good way to promote sales, but you can also consider paid searches; such as buying traffic from search engines such as Google or Bing and paying them on a PPC basis. You can also advertise your products on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter which have over 750 million active users engaging in this form of media on a daily basis.

Placing your products on as many online channels as possible means that you are increasing the opportunity of consumers purchasing one or many of your products through the various online channels you have distributed your products on. The bonus of setting up on all these eCommerce channels means that even as a small-business or retailer you are able to compete with all the major players in the business.

Promoting your products on many different channels may seem like a daunting task but once you have a product feed and inventory list for one specific channel, with a few modifications and depending on the channel you are advertising on, you can use the same information for each. Easy.

Increase your sales, improve your revenue and get your brand known by trying two or more of the above channels. Read our previous blog posts on Marketplaces and Shopping Engines for basic information on pricing and registration.

Top 3 Shopping Engines in the US for Apparel and Accessories.

As we explained in our last blog post, Shopping engines are a great way for consumers to compare merchandise prices without having to conduct extensive searches. They are simple to join, don’t have astronomical pricing structures and introduce you to a vaster, greater consumer base.

This blog post will give you the details of the Top 3 US Shopping Engines in Apparel and Accessories.

Unsurprisingly, Google Product Search ranks number one in the US for not only Houseware products but also for Apparel and Accessories. Google Product Ads charges it’s merchants absolutely nothing to advertise with them and being one of the biggest search engines in the world drives the most traffic and revenue through their site.

So who ranks second?

Amazon Products Ads rate second in the US for Apparel and Accessory Products. Amazon gets an average of 615 million customers each year, with an equal amount of both male and female visitors. Amazon’s CPC rates vary according to category, but varying CPC rates are not a problem within apparel. Clothing tends to have lower CPC rates as most comparison shopping engines realize that consumers tend to be more of the ‘click and browse’ type when it comes to buying clothing and fashion. All Amazon CPC rates vary from $0.10 to $1.40 per click, but they are currently advertising a promotional offer where Amazon actually give you an extra $75 towards your clicks after someone clicks on your product for the first time. Not bad huh?

The only downside to registering with Amazon Product Ads is that you are required to give a Business name, contact information, a valid US credit card, and a US billing address and phone number. It’s perfect for those in the US who want to sell their apparel on a different channel but may be a bit more difficult for those living outside the US.

Amazon have currently stopped accepting merchants who sell apparel... but do not fret! They are still accepting merchants for Shoes, Health & Beauty and Jewelry. We’ll keep you updated for when this category re-opens.

Last but not Least, is Bing. The Microsoft owned Search Engine. Bing, like Google charge their merchants absolutely nothing to sign up with them; No registration fees, membership fees or hidden costs. They accept merchants from all over the world and although they ask you to provide credit card details on registration... it is for verification purposes only and your credit card will never be charged.

Bing have currently stopped accepting merchants, but you’ll be glad to hear that this is only temporary. They are currently working on their website optimization... which is amazing news for all you merchants who will be signing up with them in the near future!

So don’t feel down-heartened on the fact that both Amazon and Bing have temporarily slowed or stopped on the signing of Apparel merchants... it only goes to show that once these categories re-open, business will be booming and consumer traffic will be flooding to your website!