Retail Management Module 3: Multichannel Retail

Activity Not only do consumers have the same expectations of accessibility and consistency for retailers, but they may have elevated expectations around service regardless of whether it’s online or offline. Specifically, they may also expect that retailers will accept orders online, complementing and copying in-store service while adding delivery.

What are some factors that manufacturers and retailers must manage with their retails channels going forward?<br>

Describing Retailers and Channels Parts of the product distribution channel:
Logistics: assembly, warehousing, and transportation
Facilitation: channel coordination, marketing, promotion, financing, and post-purchase service and maintenance
Transaction buying and selling

What are the four marketing channels?
Why is it important to understand the activities and actors of each channel?<br>

Practice Questions 1 and 2 What are the four marketing channels?

Why is it important to understand the activities and actors of each channel?<br>

Understanding Single Channel, Multi-Channel, and Omni-Channel Retailing Single channel: Refers to a producer or retailer’s effort to reach customers through only one distribution option, regardless of whether it’s online, face-to-face selling or traditional retail.

Multi-channel: Refers to a producers or retailer’s effort to combine and blend different distribution channels to accommodate where and how consumers shop, ensuring that the producers and retailers will be present when the purchase decision is made.

Omni-channel: Marketing that is an expansion of the multi-channel concept by incorporating all the communication and interactions between customer, brand, and retailer, regardless of whether it’s at a point of purchase or not.<br>

Practice Questions 3 and 4 Think about your own shopping behavior.
How do you prefer to shop?

Why would a retailer choose to engage in anything but multi-channel?<br>

Non-Store Retail Channels<br>

Learning Outcomes: Non-Store Retail Channels 3.2 Describe a wide variety of non-store retail channels

3.2.1 Match a retailer description with its non-store channel type

3.2.2 Compare and contrast the benefits of store, catalog, and internet channels<br>

Retailers and Non-store Channel Types Non-store retailing is the selling of goods and services outside the confines of a retail store, off the premises of fixed retail locations
May be divided into two categories
direct selling
distance selling<br>

Practice Question 5 What does direct and distance selling look like?<br>

Comparison of Store, Catalog, and Internet Channels Store
Higher costs because of things like rent, utilities, inventory, and staffing

Catalog
When they are effective they are high-involvement marketing materials
As e-commerce has grown, catalog sales have eroded
Costs of catalog: creation, photography, copy, design

Internet Channels
Costs are still present: transaction processing, electronic fund transfer, inventory management<br>

Electronic Retailing<br>

Learning Outcomes: Electronic Retailing 3.3 Discuss the rise of electronic retailing through the internet
3.3.1 Define the role of the web to retailers
3.3.2 List some advantages and disadvantages of electronic retailing
3.3.3 Compare and contrast the benefits of mobile and internet channels
3.3.4 Explain how mobile apps can increase customer interaction<br>

Practice Questions 6 and 7 The overarching benefit of “e-tailing” is that it extends the reach of retailers to more consumers

What else does e-tail do?<br>

Electronic Retailing:Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages:
Consumers can be reached out of immediate market area
Retailer is more convenient
Maximizes retailers ability to fulfill orders
Provides a lot of information for the retailer
Disadvantages:
Maintaining e-commerce infrastructure is very expensive
E-tailing does not provide the same social or emotional experience as in-store shopping does for the consumer
Shoppers are responsible for the return of incorrect purchases
Data breaches are always something to be wary of!<br>

Mobile Apps and Customer Interaction Apps vs. Internet Channels:
Apps have design constraints
Designed with an interface to support specific activity and functionality
Can be meaningful transaction tools
Average order value is greater on apps than traditional e-commerce
Conversion rates on apps are twice that of mobile websites<br>

Mobile Apps and Customer Interaction (cont.) Apps have better engagement because they’re specifically designed for the needs of a mobile user to facilitate transactions
Leverage mapping technology
Tie-in social media
Store payment methods<br>

Challenges of Multichannel Retailers<br>

Learning Outcomes: Challenges in Multichannel Retailers 3.4 Recognize the challenges faced by multichannel retailers and how retailers must adapt
3.4.1 Identify the factors that need to be adjusted depending on the channel
3.4.2 Describe what a customer would consider a seamless experience across channels
3.4.3 Summarize the data that could be collected to support the multichannel shopping experience of the future<br>

Multichannel Factors to Consider Factors to consider:
Pricing
Promotion
Analytics
Technology
How could these factorsplay a part in planning a trip to Disney World?<br>

Customer Impressions and the Seamless Experience Questions to ask to test exactly how seamless your experience is:
Are there specific activities that require transition from one channel to another?
Is the experience optimized for the specific channel interface?
Are there systematic roadblocks, which prevent shoppers from completing transactions or discourage them from using the tools in the future?<br>

Practice Questions 8 and 9 How to multi-channel retailers track data to meaure the effectiveness of their shopping experience?

How can data support the multi-channel shopping experience?<br>

Quick Review What are the three types of retail channels?
Single Channel
Multi-Channel
Omni-Channel

How are retail channels similar? How are they different?

What are advantages and disadvantages of the internet for retailers?

What are some multi-channel factors to consider?<br>