When you started selling your products online, did you consider the impact it would have on your existing sales channels and on the customers who buy through them? If not, you’re not alone. Grant Thornton’s “Strategic Source and Sell: Channel diversity survey” found that executives in manufacturing, distribution and retail industries often anger customers in existing channels when they start selling online.
One in five businesses indicates that channel conflict (i.e., sales and prices in one channel conflicting with those in another) is a major or moderate issue for them. But the reward of adding online sales seems to outweigh the risk: The average profit before interest and taxes for businesses with no online sales was 13.3%, compared to 14.9% for those selling through their own or third-party sites, and 17.7% for those selling via both their own and others’ websites. In other words, online sales can make your business more profitable.