eBay announced the UK as its fastest growing territory, outpacing even their two largest marketplaces – US and Germany. The number of Britons using the UK eBay site has seen double digit growth year on year, at 15%.
Not only is this a really positive sign of retail growth in the UK but it also proves the value for companies using eBay as a sales channel to help them on the road to growth and profits.
At Brightpearl we definitely believe eBay is a great sales channel for retailers and we’ve made it even easier for our customers to tap into this channel following our recent eBay announcement, but we also believe that a multichannel retail strategy is the key for retail success. Recent research suggests that multichannel retailers – i.e. those selling via more than one distribution channel – marketplaces, webstore, in-store, mobile – can generate up to four times the sales per customer compared to companies that rely on only one channel – why is this?
It’s being driven by both retailers and consumers.
Retailers are looking to spread risk and increase exposure to as many potential buyers as possible through adopting multiple channels. High street retailers are looking to get online to make up for lost sales on the high street. Online retailers are looking to maximise touch points through not just marketplaces or a webstore but by having both.
Consumers are shopping in different ways, they are always so quick to adopt different methods to buy and communicate – taking advantage of the benefits of the different sales channels e.g. the transparency of price and reviews offered through marketplaces vs the ability to touch, feel and assess quality by seeing the physical product vs the ease of purchasing something through a mobile device. If you have brand continuity and touch points across every sales channel you are more likely to see the customer purchase, wherever it is they choose to buy.
By adopting a multichannel strategy Retailers create a win-win situation. Consumers get more choice about where they can make purchases and Retailers are more likely to increase sales through maximising customer touch points.
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