One of the core strategies we at ChannelAdvisor continuously advocate – naturally – is going multi-channel. Diversifying your online sales channels not only protects you from having all your proverbial eggs (revenue) in one basket (channel), it helps you grow your business by exposing you to a broader audience of potential buyers.

But how much does going multi-channel help, really? To quantify the benefits, we studied same-store sales across our customer based in 2006 and 2007 to see what the growth characteristics looked like as a function of channel strategy.

We broke things down into three basic categories:

1. Customers who were single-channel (e.g., eBay-only) in 2006 who stayed single-channel in 2007. We’ll call this the S/S group.
2. Customers who were single-channel (e.g., eBay-only) in 2006, who went multi-channel (for example, added Amazon.com, a storefront, or Shopping Channels) in 2007. We’ll call this the S/M group.
3. Customers who were multi-channel in 2006 and remained so in 2007. We’ll call this the M/M group.

What we found was interesting, and surprised even us! Here were our findings:

The S/S group (those who stayed single-channel) grew their sales at an average rate of 11% year over year. While this growth isn’t bad on an absolute basis, it reflects the fact that many of our eBay sellers are “capped out” by eBay’s overall slowing growth rate and, ultimately, losing overall e-commerce share to sellers on other marketplaces that are growing more rapidly (like Amazon.com).
The average growth rate for M/M customers (those who went multi-channel more than a year ago) was 42% higher than the S/S group.
Most surprisingly, the median growth rate for S/M customers (who went multi-channel sometime in 2007) was 220% higher than the average growth rate of the S/S group, and 160% higher than that of the M/M group. Needless to say, customers who made the jump from single-channel to multi-channel in 2007 are probably looking back and wondering why they didn’t do so sooner!

What does this mean for you? I hope it quantifies what we’ve been saying all along – that going multi-channel has a significant benefit to your top-line while simultaneously decreasing your risk that the changing dynamics of any one channel will adversely affect your business.

So, if you haven’t actively considered going multi-channel yet, we strongly recommend you make 2008 the year you do so! The benefits are real.

Share This

Whew - 2008! I hope everyone had a great trip into the new year and recovered from a wild holiday shopping season. 2007 was a big year for many of our customers that mastered (automated) existing online eCommerce channels and expanded into new ones (add’l CSEs, paid search campaigns, new marketplaces). It was also a good year for ChannelAdvisor with cool new products (big shout out to the kick-*** ShoppingAdvisor team) and joining forces with Marketworks.

We’ve anticipated your “Enough dwelling on the past already” and painstakingly created a list of New Year’s Resolutions that should be on your list if you’re ready to turn the dial on your business to 11 in 2008 (I’ll never get tired of Spinal Tap references). (more…)

Share This

There are good customers, great customers and then there are over-achievers — customers that help you evolve by constantly pushing your boundaries not only technologically but also the products and services you offer (”help me, help you”).

Blue Bay Electronics, founded by Daren Thompson and Doug Lincicome, is one such online retailer that has grown rapidly by automating their eBay business and quickly adopting (and mastering) additional online channels. Of course it also helps that Doug is technically savvy, very driven, persistent and rarely ever sleeps. I know he has his ChannelAdvisor “joined-at-the-hip account manager” John Hendricks on speed dial (and vice versa) to always explore new opportunities.

Blue Bay is featured in this month’s Web Wholesaler with a great article on how they got their start and what they’re focusing on today to continue to grow the company.

Congratulations Darren and Doug from ChannelAdvisor, very cool to see you guys getting recognized.

Share This

Even though I would consider ChannelAdvisor somewhat of a webinar expert, I am still surprised at times about how some topics can really strike a cord with online retailers (unfortunately my proposed series on tragic German literature figures of the 12th century has been postponed indefinitely).

Our July Amazon webinar (click here to download a recorded version) is a case in point. At the conclusion of the webinar as well as the next few days following it, Tim Mirick from Amazon, our in-house Amazon expert Jonathon Davis and I fielded many questions from merchants on the overall opportunity, the Amazon Webstore and Fulfillment By Amazon products, and strategies for really hitting it out of the park.

In response to the many inquiries I am going to start an Amazon De-Mystery Machine series of posts reviewing the most common seller questions (aligned somewhat with the sales life cycle). Note that while I will tragically skip my Holiday 2007 Amazon wishlist I will also not review if and when it makes sense to look at Amazon as part of a multi-channel portfolio - there are not many online retailers that can afford NOT to market their products to the 75+ million convenience shoppers that turn to Amazon for their online shopping needs.

Last, but not least, I need audience participation so please send me any and all Amazon-related questions that you have and I will try to reply directly or through a blog post. Without further a due, let’s kick this off: (more…)

Share This

Well, we’ve just about (but not quite!) recovered from the first ChannelAdvisor Insite event of 2007 which took place yesterday in central London.

Over 30 UK online retailers joined ChannelAdvisor and Google (who were Platinum Sponsors) for an information-packed day of presentations, discussions and workshops about the current opportunities for online retailers in the UK.

The day started with a look at recent UK eCommerce Trends followed by an introduction to the fundamentals drivers of success on marketplaces (such as eBay and Amazon Merchants@), shopping comparison websites and paid search campaigns.

After lunch the group then split into two ’streams’ to dive into some more advanced strategies for optimising each of these channels in preparation for the rapidly-approaching Q4 busy season. Attendees also got the opportunity to hear first-hand from Aidan O’Curry and Richard Keelty from Google Europe about how Google Checkout and Google Product Search can drive more sales and reduce costs for online retailers.

A big thanks to our sponsors: Google (Platinum), PayPal (Gold), Cybersource (Gold) and FOEB (Silver) without whom the Insite series of events wouldn’t be able to happen. We look forward to the next events up in Manchester on the 5th September, and then on to Glasgow, Birmingham and finally Dublin.

If you were at the event yesterday - thanks for coming - we’d love to hear your comments!

Share This