insights! episode #50: diversifying sales - why D2C is just one building block

Great to have you back for a new episode of insights! My name is Joubin Rahimi, and today we're covering five reasons why you should be present across various sales channels. This episode isn't just for someone who sells via a marketplace, has created their own product, sells it as a single brand and started out with Amazon. Or sells a lot via Amazon. It's also for companies that have so far sold through ordinary B2B channels. Really, it's for anyone who thinks, from time to time, that they need yet another customer approach pattern. So why is it so important to sell across various sales channels?

It's all about the customer experience. And based on the Google Omnichannel Study from 2022, that's one of the highest-rated points for customers in B2B and B2C. That you have various ways of involving them, of course with different nuances. Whereas B2C is focused on the individual purchase, B2B is very much geared towards a repeatable, automated purchase, in order to automate things and not always have to worry about them. Regardless of that, though, choosing a sales channel isn't about choosing one sales channel, but about playing across many sales channels. And today, five reasons why.

Point 1: acquiring new customers. Let's say you're on the marketplace Amazon. Works great, almost the entire population is on Amazon and searches there. It's true that certainly 60, 70, 80% of Germans of purchasing age move around there too. But do they also move there specifically for the topic, for the product, for the service you offer? And what's the customer journey like? Does it start on Amazon? Does it start elsewhere and lead to Amazon? Certainly not. Or is it even offline? Also a topic – not for nothing does Cyberport open stores too. Why do they do that? Certainly to win new customers as well. And so opening up new channels really is about winning new customers, new customer target groups, maybe also a group that's more profitable for you? One of the findings from the Google study. But if we now say okay, we have the expansion. The new customers are great.

The second thing is also extension of reach. Because if I do marketing only online, only digital, only in quotation marks, I've obviously got a certain reach. But we all move across all channels, whether digital or physical. Extension of reach comes naturally when I'm present on different channels. That pays into your brand awareness, your brand, and thus back into the revenue you can generate across different channels. And if you already have different channels, you spread your risk — important. So many entrepreneurs have told me they got banned from Amazon. From one moment to the next. For reasons that made no sense. And the consequence is, if you're for example pushing 10 million a month through Amazon and they get a small suspicion of counterfeiting for some minor reason. Other issues, someone reports you, no idea. Account's blocked. One week, two weeks, think about it, 5 million gone within two weeks. That's why diversification across different channels is a really, really important point for protecting your business, and also for protecting all the employees in a company that you're responsible for. Increasing availability is an important point. If I have my products in different warehouses, in different places, in different corners, I'm more present there and it's more likely to be bought. Even more so in crisis situations. Short anecdote: one of our clients, a shoe retailer, shipped items from the central warehouse before Corona. There was an omnichannel function, so with an online order there was pick up in store or reserve online and pick up in store. It worked. With Corona it was rebuilt to order online and it gets shipped from the shop. Suddenly they had a much bigger warehouse, many, many warehouses, and could keep serving customers who were also buying somewhat less. Especially shoes during Corona times. But something happened and it also had a positive effect on the workforce, because instead of an employee on the shop floor having nothing to do, employees on the shop floor still had purpose and something to do. Huge plus point for the emotional side of the business. But availability also means that purchases then happen accordingly, especially with need-driven purchases. And you don't get the non-buyers. And my point here: have you ever thought about what percentage, how many euros it amounts to, that he couldn't serve the customers who wanted to buy. What was the number?

Point five. If you sell through various sales channels, then the whole thing is naturally bundled with new partners as well. These partners operate on these sales channels. Use the expertise of these partners. They're on board with you. They move forward with you. And that also takes you a bit further towards greater visibility, more growth, and often also higher profit. Even if these partners charge money, and quite a significant percentage at that, and I know it hurts, it's still something that opens up new opportunities and will certainly generate a good, sustainable business for you as well.

All this isn't possible though, if you don't have team. And that's sixth point. Not a reason, but that's what you must do. You need team. You need dedicated team, thinking about entire customer journey, considering how can I weave whole thing together, across channels. That won't just happen. You also need right people, who then think about customer, about customer journey. And probably it's also case that these people tick culturally different than person you've had in company so far. That's why not few companies found own digital units, CX units, own spin-offs, to first attract this person, grow companies big and then at some point unite again, to then put that spirit, that in small petri dish became significantly bigger, valuable contribution, back into company, to then perform next stage of company with that spirit.

I hope you enjoyed taking away these five reasons and that we gave you some food for thought. We'll link the studies below again. We look forward to comments and exchange. Because that's what really sets us apart from AI, from ChatGPT and co. We can venture a genuine discourse. Let's discuss and learn from it.