Multi-Channel Marketing: The Key to Retail Success

There is an awful lot of buzz around Multi-Channel Marketing these day’s, the amount of information available is truly overwhelming. As you begin to sift through the information you will quickly see, and begin dreaming of, the opportunities that lie just around the corner, especially for retailers.
To say that the retail game is undergoing a revolution is not news to retailers, or anyone connected to the industry. The writing has been on the wall for sometime now, the issue has been keeping up with the pace of the changes. The one constant that has been seen is that it pays to stay just ahead of this changing curve.
According to Wikipedia, “multi-channel marketing is marketing using many different channels to reach a customer. Multi-channel marketing allows the retail merchant to reach its prospective or current customer in a channel of his/her liking.”
By today’s standards those channels include but are not limited to, web presence complete with online store and/or e-catalog, social media participation (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, ect.), mobile adoption (m-commerce) including the use of location based services such as FourSquare, direct email and text campaigns, loyalty programs and the traditional avenue of physical locations. This is not an exhaustive list, and it is far from a timeless list.
Playing the multi-channel game does not require retailers to participate in all of these channels, but it does demand retailers to clearly know who their customers are and what channels they are participating in. The reality is that in today’s market retailers must go to where their customers are, if they don’t their customers will transition to the retailers that do.
Over the next few months CRS will focus in on some of the highlights of multi-channel marketing in the context of the retail industry. We will address topics such as Web Presence and Optimization, Social Media, M-Commerce and the use of location based services, and customer loyalty programs.
The breakthrough of Multi-Channel Marketing embodies the shift to customer relationships and insists on the personalized experiences consumers crave. This is an exciting time in the retail industry with so many opportunities tied up in the changing roles of consumers and merchants.
Canadian Retail Solutions Inc. (CRS) specializes in Inventory Control and Point of Sale Systems for retailers across Canada. Our business philosophy reflects an unwavering dedication to quality, integrity and personalized client support in all we do.
Our Solutions. Your Success.