Last updated - July 8, 2021
Since customers get more and more demanding, giving them a chance to access your online store via multiple channels has become a necessity. Not just for keeping the sales up but for your online business to stay competitive and relevant.
A few facts about multichannel marketing
The integration of multichannel marketing has shown rapid growth over the past 4-5 years. According to Invespcro:
- 73% of marketers have a developed multichannel strategy in place
- in 2015, only 44% of marketers integrated multichannel strategy, and in 2017 the number increased to 52%
- Multichannel shoppers spend 3 times more money than single-channel shoppers
- 50% of marketers say they usually or always hit their financial targets after integrating multichannel marketing
- Among many purposes of integrating multiple channels into their marketing strategy, 32% of marketers want to stay in line with marketing trends, 30% are interested in ROI from multichannel campaigns, and 13% want to get ahead of the competitors
For those, who use WooCommerce as an e-commerce platform, the integration of multichannel marketing bring plenty of benefits:
- Catering to the preferences of your target audience. Different customers are receptive to different channels of communication, and many of them have their preferred platform to shop from. Integrating multiple channels for your WooCommerce business will help you not miss potential customers by targeting them on other platforms.
- Independent channels. Unlike omnichannel marketing, multichannel marketing implicates that every channel is independent and has its own strategy and goals. Thus, you can customize every channel in your multichannel marketing strategy to fit your needs.
- Variety of mediums. The integration of multichannel marketing will have your WooCommerce business appear via different mediums, thus making it more noticeable.
Integrating multichannel marketing usually means connecting your business to 3 or 4 different channels. WooCommerce has a variety of plugins for multichannel marketing that can act like independent channels.
Let’s take a look at the most high-rated WooCommerce extensions and how you can benefit from them to expand your multichannel world.
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Amazon and eBay Integration
Amazon and eBay are by far the most active online retail platforms. According to NChannel, Amazon has 310 million active customers and sells over 353 million products.
As for eBay, since the launch of Amazon, the number of its users dropped a bit. However, it is still one of the most active platforms for e-commerce businesses with 180 million active customers:
Image credit: Statista
Sellers that use WooCommerce for hosting their online business can connect their shops to Amazon and eBay. Thus, you create two extra channels for selling your merchandise.
What benefits do you get from integrating this extension?
- This extension supports all Amazon and eBay marketplaces around the world. So, in terms of multichannel marketing, you get the chance to not only expand your online presence but also to reach more customers around the globe.
- You can set up separate payment rules as well as different titles and descriptions. Joco Cups, a company that uses WooCommerce to run their online shop, use Amazon and eBay for selling their merch as well, with different descriptions of their products:
- Real-time sync option. When your products go out of stock on your website, this data is integrated with your Amazon and eBay channels as well, notifying the customers that the product is currently unavailable. With Joco, for instance, their blue coffee cup is currently out of stock, which automatically integrates with Amazon and eBay.
It is also worth mentioning that you get a notification about an incoming order from each of these platforms separately. This way you can track the statistics of how each channel is performing and adjust your marketing strategy for each of them separately.
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Connecting to Social Media
Social media can also act as independent channels for selling your products. Connected to your WooCommerce-based website, they can act as supplementary channels to transfer and fulfill orders.
For instance, WooCommerce-based shop Henry J. Socks actively uses Facebook and Instagram to sell their products, sock subscriptions for several months, with regular offers and discounts that are available not only on social media channels but on their main website as well:
Among other benefits, like brand exposure and a more versatile marketing strategy, connecting your WooCommerce to different social media channels brings you the biggest number of loyal customers. “According to our recent market research, 75% of online retailers who use WooCommerce report that 68% of their orders come from social media channels”, says Catherine Ferrel, a researcher at Flatfy.
Social media has definitely become a major driving force in marketing. Targeting a bigger audience through different social media channels, using different content marketing techniques, is important for keeping sales up.
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Conquering Google via Google Ads and Google Product Feed
Did you know that the majority of people use Google for product research?
It is commonly believed that Amazon is a No.1 tool for searching for products online. However, according to Search Engine Land, 85% of people claim they use Google as a primary online tool to search for information about the planned purchase:
Image credit: Search Engine Land
All WooCommerce-based online businesses can expand their multichannel world by targeting more people through Google.
WooCommerce offers its users Google Ads and Google Product Feed extensions to manage how their products appear in Google search results. Both extensions are managed through your WooCommerce website and don’t require and additional tools to run Google Ads campaigns.
When using Google Ads and Google Product Feed as extensions for your WooCommerce-based store, the end result looks like this (using the example of the above-mentioned Joco Cup store):
When it comes to multichannel marketing, these extensions are responsible for keeping track of your product listings to help your Google Ad campaign remain up-to-date. Google Product Feed extension also provides the Review feature, showing the ratings given by your shoppers.
The Bottom Line
Multichannel marketing can bring plenty of benefits to online retailers, and WooCommerce extensions make multichannel marketing easy to integrate. With the three above-mentioned WooCommerce extensions, you can already make your online presence stronger, targeting the right audience and boosting your sales.
