Best Sales Channels for 2025: 15 Ways to Sell Online

Most new businesses start with a single sales channel. But as your business grows, exploring new sales avenues can unlock massive potential—and it’s often easier than you think.

In 2025, the most successful brands use multiple sales channels to meet customers where they already shop. From marketplaces and retail stores to mobile apps and livestreams, each new channel boosts visibility, sales and long-term resiliency, as you become less dependent on a single channel or market.

In this guide, explore the 15 best sales channels for 2025—and how you can leverage them for your ecommerce business.

What is a sales channel? 

A sales channel is a pathway businesses use to reach customers and sell their products. Examples include online marketplaces, retail stores, social media accounts, and your own ecommerce website. 

Each sales channel can help you access different customer audiences, so most businesses adopt a multichannel selling strategy.

“We’re starting to build out additional digital channels," says BK Beauty co-founder Paul Jauregui. "And at the end of the day, we’re reaching our customers where they want to find us."

Direct sales channels

A direct sales channel is when your business sells products straight to consumers, without intermediaries. A direct sales channel strategy would include your ecommerce website or a branded retail store. For example, Apple sells its products through its own brick-and-mortar stores and website.

Indirect sales channels

Indirect sales channels rely on third parties, like distributors and retailers, to sell products to consumers. Olipop, for instance, sells its healthy soda pop through Whole Foods. Indirect sales channels can also include marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.

Distribution channels

Distribution channels are how products move from the manufacturer to the consumer. Many companies use third-parties like dropshipping, print on demand, or 3PLs to manage fulfillment and keep costs low.

Why are sales channels important?

Your sales channels determine how effectively you reach your target customers. Different platforms attract different audiences—wholesalers looking for B2B electronics won’t shop in the same places as consumers looking for beauty subscription boxes.

Each sales channel also affects your profit margins and customer experience. Marketplaces, for instance, have large audiences but charge additional fees when you sell a product through them. Your ecommerce website, on the other hand, gives you complete control over the customer experience, but the onus is on you to drive traffic there. 

How to choose the best sales channels for your business

Criteria for sales channel selection

Every platform has its own pros and cons. Here’s how to decide the right sales channels for your business:

• Customer preferences: Survey existing customers and analyze each platform’s demographics to find where your target audience shops. If you’re targeting Gen Z, that might be social commerce platforms like TikTok. If you’re selling to businesses, wholesale marketplaces like Faire may be a better fit. 
• Industry or product category: Certain products perform best on specific platforms. For example, handmade goods could sell well on Etsy, which has a huge audience for crafts. 
• Control: If you want full control over the customer experience, how your products are displayed, and the customer data you can collect, opt for a direct channel (such as your online store or retail location). 
• Fees: Some sales channels charge listing or transaction fees. If you’re selling a low margin product or investing heavily in platform ads, check that you’re left with enough profit after paying commission. 

Budget and resource considerations

Each sales channel has its own set of upfront and ongoing costs:

• Online stores require website hosting, a custom domain, and ecommerce tools.
• Marketplaces charge listing fees, transaction fees, and sales commissions.
• Retail stores have rent, staffing, and extra insurance costs.
• B2B sales channels sell products in bulk, which leads to lower profit margins overall.

Consider these expenses as part of your business plan. Businesses selling luxury goods might have more wiggle room to absorb marketplace commissions. A bootstrapped startup might prioritize owned channels with fewer costs to retain more profit while growing. 

The 15 most important sales channels

Sales channel	Best for	Costs	Skills required	Time investment
Online store	Maintaining ultimate control over your brand, products, and prices	Ecommerce platform, website design, and payment processing	Marketing, customer service, website design	Medium
Social commerce	Selling trending products or monetizing a social audience	Platform fees, advertising, and content creation	Content creation, audience building, and community management	Medium
Marketplaces	Reaching high-intent shoppers	Listing costs, transaction fees, and fulfillment service cost	SEO, product photography, and reputation management	Medium
Retail	Building connections with customers in-person	Rent, insurance, staffing, and point-of-sale (POS) software	Store design, local marketing, customer service, and staff management	High
Wholesale	Selling products to other businesses in bulk	Lower margins and B2B ecommerce platform	Relationship building and supply chain management	High
Resellers	Expanding reach without selling products yourself	Profit sharing or wholesale discounts	Relationship building and supply chain management	Medium
White label	Businesses who don’t want to manufacture their own products	Order fulfillment	Quality control, marketing, and design	Low
Mobile apps	Capturing mobile shoppers	App development and platform fees	Marketing and user experience design	Medium
B2B	Selling to other businesses	Lower profit margins, custom packaging, and bulk shipping	Relationship building, negotiation, and supply chain management	High
Partnerships	Leveraging another brand, creator, or influencer’s existing audience	Commission or sponsored content fees	Relationship building, marketing, and negotiation	High
Affiliate programs	Retailers with an existing customer base who can act as brand ambassadors	Affiliate commission	Relationship building, marketing attribution, and social media marketing	Medium
Email marketing	Targeting customers who’ve already shared data with you	Email platform	Copywriting, data analysis, and strategic thinking	Medium
Live streaming	Entrepreneurs with a fun personality or demonstrable product	Livestreaming tools and equipment (camera, microphone, etc.)	Presenting, marketing, and community moderation	Medium
Voice commerce	Converting on-the-fence shoppers who have questions prior to purchasing	Chatbot software and customer service reps	Great customer service skills	Low
AI commerce	Businesses with customers already familiar with AI for shopping	AI tools	AI search, product discovery, AI prompting, and technical skills	Low

1. Online store (direct to consumer)

An online store is the first sales channel many new entrepreneurs create—and for good reason.

When you design your own store, you get to decide how products are displayed. This direct-to-consumer (DTC) model gives you complete access to customer data and lets you keep 100% of the profits—unlike third-party platforms that charge fees or limit brand control. 

That direct relationship can be beneficial for your brand. Research shows that DTC ecommerce is growing across locations and industries, with customers spending more than $226 billion directly with brands this year. 

Pros:

• Low startup costs. Build a store for free with Shopify’s free trial
• Use your online store as a sales channel hub
• Access customer data to improve acquisition and retention
• No third-party branding or product rules
• Keep all the profits from your sales

“We’re prioritizing DTC because it actually puts capital back into our bank accounts faster,” says Michelle Razavi, co-founder of Elavi, in a Shopify Masters interview. “It’s a fast conversion cycle. It allows us to gather data to remarket, and to and understand our consumer at a much deeper level than we would in a retail channel.”

Cons:

• Requires marketing to drive traffic
• Order management and fulfillment are your responsibility (Shopify can help)

💡 Scroll down to find out how to set up sales channels from your Shopify store.

2. Social commerce 

Social commerce turns content-driven platforms into shopping destinations. This includes social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest—and increasingly, streaming sites like Spotify.

In 2025, an estimated 17% of all online sales will take place through a social network. These social platforms are powerful online sales channels because buyers already spend time there. Users see products in a familiar context; adding a Buy button becomes a natural next step.

For example, Instagram allows you to tag products in posts and Stories, letting users tap to see more product details and check out instantly. On Spotify, artists can list album preorders, vinyl records, and merch directly on their profiles, giving fans an easy way to buy. 

Pros:

• Social commerce apps help you track performance and optimize your posts
• Collaborate with other brands and influencers to cross-sell and cross-promote
• Templates available for ads and post creation

Cons:

• Continuous content creation is required to stay visible
• Success depends on unpredictable social media algorithms

💡 You can sell on Facebook and Instagram from your Shopify store.

3. Traditional marketplaces 

Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Google Shopping are examples of traditional marketplaces. These channels feature a wide range of product offerings and often are where customers start their product search—searching by product type, not brand.

Selling on traditional marketplaces comes with a large, high-intent customer base without needing to build your own traffic. But the tradeoff is that you give up control of customer service, customer data, and fulfillment, and face strong price competition. 

Pros:

• Put your products in front of a large existing customer base
• Use established distributors and marketing channels

Cons:

• Marketplace commissions and listing fees reduce margins
• Strict terms and conditions for brand and product promotion
• Fierce competition, including from international sellers with lower prices

4. Retail 

The retail sales channel includes both permanent storefronts and pop-up shops, like short-term rentals in a mall, booths at craft fairs, or stalls at local markets. 

In-person retail remains a powerful part of a modern commerce strategy. Consumers will spend an estimated $5.42 trillion at physical stores this year. These channels provide the opportunity to build relationships with your customers and get live feedback. 

Pros:

• Direct-to-customer sales
• Face-to-face contact with customers
• Opportunity to host interactive experiences 
• A physical presence can increase brand credibility 

“When we were doing pop-ups and in-person events, we realized we were making sales for all the month after because we would meet people in person,” says Myriam Belzile-Maguire, founder of Maguire Shoes, in a Shopify Masters interview.

“People try the product. So we felt like having a retail presence made sense in our business, especially when people want to try shoes for the first time, at least once. And then once they know they like the brand and they like their quality, then they feel more comfortable buying online.”

Cons:

• Potential need for employees
• Expensive brick-and-mortar overheads (rent, insurance, etc.)
• Foot traffic is limited to your physical location 

5. Wholesale 

Wholesale involves selling your products in bulk to other businesses, who then resell them to consumers. Some brands focus solely on wholesale, while others use it as one arm of a broader omnichannel sales strategy. This sales channel can be lucrative if you have the profit margins to fulfill large orders. 

Wholesale orders account for 29% of all ecommerce sales. Many buyers also place B2B orders at trade shows, events, and conferences, making it a valuable channel for reaching high-volume customers. 

Pros:

• Move large volumes of inventory at once
• Retail partners handle marketing and sales for your products

Cons:

• Capital inventory funding required
• It can be expensive to store inventory that doesn’t sell
• No interaction with end consumers 

6. Resellers

Resellers are businesses or individuals that buy existing products—often in bulk—and sell them at a higher price, sometimes after adding value. That value can come from affiliation with an established retailer, repackaging it, or even improving the product itself. 

Pros:

• Low startup costs and overhead
• Upselling opportunities

Cons:

• Profit margins can vary depending on sourcing and resale pricing
• Fluctuating price and availability depending on the items you’re reselling
• Must comply with the original manufacturer’s reselling terms

7. White label

White-label products are manufactured by one company and rebranded by another for resale. They’re often generic products that can be customized with your brand’s logo or name. 

For example, the reusable bags that grocery stores sell at checkout counters are usually white label products. Trader Joe’s doesn’t manufacture its bags themselves; it buys them pre-made and adds branding.

Pros:

• Products are pre-validated and market-tested
• Reduced cost of production 
• Ability to jump on trends

Cons:

• Lots of competition
• Profit margin depend on supplier pricing for pre-printed items

💡 Learn more about the benefits of white-label businesses.

8. Mobile apps

Commerce is increasingly mobile. Almost 80% of all traffic to ecommerce websites now comes from a smartphone, contributing to a mobile commerce industry valued at $2.5 trillion.

As a result, brands are investing in dedicated mobile apps. These apps offer features like filterable catalogs, gamified experiences, coupons, and special deals to encourage repeat purchases. 

Pros:

• Users spend longer on apps than on websites
• Deliver special offers through push notifications 

Cons:

• Apps can be expensive to build
• Apps require constant updating as technology advances

9. B2B sales channels

Business-to-business (B2B) sales happen when one business sells products or services to another. Orders are often larger and priced at a lower cost per unit. While this can increase revenue, it also makes fulfilling these orders more complex.

Pros:

• Companies have more purchasing power than consumers
• Strong client relationships can lead to repeat orders
• Sales agents can leverage their networks and expertise to find clients and close deals

Cons:

• Companies have longer decision cycles and approval processes
• Possible higher costs to create products or services for businesses

Camping retailer DARCHE is one brand using Shopify to generate sales through an owned B2B storefront. It allows buyers to create company profiles, view custom product catalogs, and access personalized wholesale price lists through its self-serve B2B ecommerce website.

“Shopify has completely changed the way we do business,” says DARCHE’s digital marketing coordinator, Finn Christensen. “Previously, our B2B orders were mainly processed manually. Retailers would email or call to place orders, and our customer service team would assist them.” 

“Now, retailers feel comfortable placing orders online via the Shopify B2B function. This provides them with an easier, more seamless sales experience, and helps build trust with our brand. We’re now a more modern business.”

B2B marketplaces

B2B marketplaces connect sellers with wholesale buyers, offering a centralized platform for product discovery negotiation, and fulfilling B2B orders. Popular examples include Faire, Amazon Business, and Alibaba. 

Pros:

• Access vast range of wholesale buyers
• Great for expanding into international markets 
• Some B2B marketplaces offer fulfillment services at an additional cost (e.g., Amazon Business)

Cons: 

• Marketplaces take a cut of all B2B sales
• Platforms have strict terms and conditions sellers must adhere to 
• Limited access to customer data makes it difficult to build and maintain relationships

Enterprise partnerships 

Enterprise partnerships are long-term agreements between your business and another company. They either resell your product, include it in their own offering, or distribute it to their own customer base. 

For example, a skin care brand might partner with a hotel chain to supply amenities in its hotel rooms. They could also collaborate with a subscription company to include free samples of bestselling products in the box.

Pros:

• Reach an existing customer base 
• Opportunity for long-term and recurring revenue
• High volume sales via bulk purchases 

Cons:

• Lower cost per unit means lower profit margins
• Limited control over how your products are displayed, sold, or marketed
• Relying too heavily on an enterprise partner can expose your business to risk

“Once you have a partnership, it’s important to just keep that partnership,” says Jacob Winter, founder of Mush Studios, on a Shopify Masters episode. “Just keep that partnership as long as you can show your excitement and show your investment with the product. They’re typically a lot of work because you have to do something that’s very exclusive, but that’s the most exciting part.”

10. Partnerships

A sales channel partnership involves working with a third party—such as a brand, content creator, or influencer—to promote and sell your products as an extension of your team. 

For example, when a company partners with social media influencers to promote their products through influencer marketing, that is a sales channel partnership. The influencer gets a discount on those products or a commission of all the sales their posts generate, while the company benefits from the influencer’s reach and audience trust.

Pros:

• Leverages built-in consumer trust with the partner’s audience 
• Reach new customers
• Save on marketing campaign costs

Cons:

• Partners can misrepresent you
• You won’t get as much customer data as direct sales
• Partner commissions or discounts may reduce margins

11. Affiliate programs

An affiliate program rewards creators, influencers, or customers for driving sales. It’s a cost effective way to scale because you’ll only pay an affiliate’s commission when someone purchases through their referral. 

Pros: 

• Very scalable with tools
• Low risk and cost effective—only pay when the affiliate makes a sale
• Build trust and credibility when creators and influencers recommend your products (versus relying on branded content alone) 

Cons: 

• Risk of affiliate fraud and compliance issues
• It can be difficult to attribute sales to affiliates without the proper software
• Limited control over how affiliates represent your brand unless you vet and monitor affiliate activity 

Ramen brand immi, for example, has a robust affiliate program. The team uses its affiliate program to recruit new influencers, send free samples of its products, and track the sales each creator generates. It has since fulfilled more than 4,400 orders and generated over $200,000 in revenue through this sales channel.

12. Email marketing

Email marketing lets you reach customers directly in their inbox. It includes newsletters, cart recovery emails, and transactional emails (such as order confirmations)—all of which can be personalized using the data you’ve already collected on your subscriber. 

Email marketing is most effective when combined with a direct-to-customer channel, such as your ecommerce website or brick-and-mortar store. 

Cosmetics brand Sculpted by Aimee, for example, uses Shopify POS to capture email addresses of in-store shoppers. It runs email marketing campaigns to retarget shoppers after they exit the store, and found these omnichannel customers have a three- to four-times higher lifetime value than those who shop online only. 

Pros: 

• Owned audience with no dependency on algorithms or platform rules 
• Option to segment your list and target subscribers based on behavior 
• Ability to automate email campaigns

Cons: 

• Some customers are protective over their data, including their email address
• Competition to stand out in a customer’s inbox is fierce during peak shopping seasons, such as Black Friday Cyber Monday

13. Livestream shopping

With live commerce, retailers showcase and sell products during a livestream videobroadcast. Customers can ask questions, interact with your brand, and make purchases without leaving the stream. It’s a fast-growing business: an estimated 60.6 million people (roughly 25% of all digital buyers) will participate in live shopping events by 2028.

You can host livestreams on dedicated platforms such as Bambuser and Livescale. Most social commerce platforms—including TikTok and Instagram—also have their own live streaming functionality, where you can tag products from your social storefront in the stream to drive instant conversions. 

Pros: 

• Answer customer questions in real-time 
• Strengthen relationships and loyalty with your audience
• Great for showcasing how your product works 

Cons: 

• Requires a strong host or personality to keep viewers engaged
• Time-sensitive format requires promotion and scheduling in advance

14. Conversational commerce

Conversational commerce refers to selling through live chat features on your website, chatbots, messaging apps, or direct messages on social media. Unlike video streaming in live commerce, conversational commerce happens one on one—making it useful for answering last-minute questions, recommending products, or following up after a sale.

Shoppers spend an estimated $290 billion every year through this type of sales channel. Most customers rely on them when they’re further along in the ecommerce funnel: Some 70% of Shopify Inbox conversations are with customers making a purchasing decision. 

Pros: 

• Answer questions from on-the-fence shoppers 
• Lots of opportunity to personalize the customer experience 
• Great for post-purchase engagement—you could upsell, cross-sell, or ask for feedback inside the chat

Cons: 

• Customers expect fast responses 
• Can become very labor intensive without automation 

💡Tip: Solve these challenges by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into your live chat. Shopify Magic can suggest answers to FAQs, offer personalized recommendations, and process orders with no sales rep intervention required. 

15. AI commerce

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools are transforming how people shop. Instead of browsing traditional websites, customers are using AI search engines and voice assistants to research products and get personalized recommendations. Shoppers are using them to make purchase decisions—and in some cases, completing an order without leaving the AI ecommerce app. That includes:

• AI chatbots such as ChatGPT 
• AI shopping assistants like Amazon Rufus
• Voice assistants like Apple Siri or Google Assistant 
• AI search engines like Perplexity 

According to Adobe, over half of US consumers plan to use GenAI tools to shop online this year. Shoppers already using these tools rely on them to find and compare products, conduct research, and discover deals.

Pros: 

• Very scalable—no human intervention required
• Highly personalized as AI can tailor recommendations based on customer data 

Cons: 

• Technical expertise required 
• Not all consumers trust the information given by AI
• AI tools require large amounts of data to give accurate recommendations 

Examples of brands using multiple sales channels

Each sales channel provides valuable ways to reach customers. But if you only use a single channel, your business’s growth is limited.

By adopting a multichannel sales strategy you can diversify your revenue streams and distribute your resources to whichever channel is performing the best. Here are some examples of how Shopify brands use multiple sales channels to build more resilient businesses.

The Poster List: Ecommerce, retail, wholesale

Adam Luedicke, owner and founder of Long Beach poster store The Poster List, uses wholesale, in-person shows, and online sales as the main three channels for his business. 

Since starting the business in 2006, Adam found that some channels boom while others dip, often in response to unpredictable external factors like interest rate hikes and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Starting out, shows were definitely the majority of where the money was coming from, and then, 2010 through 2015, it flipped and it became more wholesale,” says Adam. “In 2017, the apparel space got soft at retail, and so we started doing shows again.”

By building out multiple channels, The Poster List was able to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. Meeting customers on the channels that best fit your brand helps you build a more resilient business.

Abracadana: Marketplaces and ecommerce

Mary Helt is co-founder and owner of Abracadana, a store that sells screen-printed bandanas through an ecommerce website and marketplaces like Etsy.

“It’s good to have a couple of venues for selling,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like one is pulling me—like Etsy is pulling me away from Shopify. Or if I’m working on updating Shopify, I’m not paying attention to Etsy. And I think that’s OK. You can cycle it. But try a couple of channels to see what works. You can’t have all of your eggs in one basket, that’s for sure.” 

Tony’s Chocolonely: B2B, DTC, and resellers

Dutch confectionary brand Tony’s Chocolonely has one core mission: to sell ethically made chocolate bars that taste great. It relies on several sales channels—including its DTC ecommerce website, B2B partnerships, and authorized resellers—to make this possible. 

Previously, managing orders across multiple sales channels was difficult. “We were spending more on maintenance and bug fixing than on new features for customers,” says platform lead Chiel Versteeg.

After switching to Shopify’s unified commerce platform, Tony’s Chocolonely streamlined operations across its DTC, B2B, and reseller channels in six markets—eliminating technical complexities and manual processes. The result? Double-digit revenue growth across four key markets. 

How to implement your multichannel sales strategy

Your sales channels should work together and support your core product line. For example, you might do the bulk of your business on your ecommerce website but then run flash sales on excess inventory via Instagram Stories.

Here are five tips to manage your sales channel strategy across different platforms:

1. Prioritize your channels based on profitability

What do you want to achieve by expanding into another sales channel? This dictates your choice and implementation plan. For instance, if your goal is to increase market share, you might want to consider sales channels with built-in audiences rather than building from scratch. 

Effective multichannel selling is about pinpointing the right channels for your business. To do this, think about:

• Where your target market spends their time
• Which channels will have the lowest running costs
• Where your competitors are active 

For example, selling your products on a traditional marketplace like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay might be the best next step for your ecommerce business.

Once a sales channel becomes reliably profitable, you can then prioritize other channels accordingly, repeating what works and reallocating resources from those that underperform.

💡 Read the Shopify guides for tips on how to sell on Amazon and how to sell on eBay.

2. Create a different strategy for each sales channel

Each sales channel you add to your business will require a different strategy for success. For example, you’d take a different approach to sending customers to your online store than you would creating foot traffic in a brick-and-mortar retail shop.

Furthermore, you’ll need to tweak your product descriptions and marketing messaging on different sites. Your Shopify site might highlight fast shipping, while Amazon shoppers already expect it, so focus on value or differentiation instead.

3. Manage inventory and fulfillment

More sales channels often lead to more orders. That means your inventory management and order fulfillment processes need to accommodate that increase.

Make sure you can keep up with demand on all of those orders. If not, consider hiring an assistant or outsourcing parts of the fulfillment process.

💡Tip: Shopify unifies your sales channels into one commerce platform. Inventory, order, and customer data flows back to one dashboard. This lets you maintain consistency, fulfill orders efficiently, and track customer behavior—no matter where you sell. 

4. Ensure quality customer service across sales channels

As your customer base grows, so will support requests. Consider hiring customer service reps or checking out some of the omnichannel customer service apps in the Shopify App Store. Popular options include:

• Gorgias
• Tidio
• Re:amaze

Adding live chat to your Shopify website can be a manageable way to deal with customer service questions and complaints as you start to scale your business. Keep the app on your phone or your computer so you can quickly respond to anything that comes in.

5. Keep an eye on your sales and analytics

It will likely take some time to build up a new sales channel. Monitor performance to make sure the channel pulls its weight.

If you discover a certain channel isn’t making enough sales, put together a marketing campaign aimed at that channel to help boost it. Perhaps all you need is a bit more brand awareness so your customers can discover your additional sales channels.

Sales channel strategy: building your multichannel approach

A clear multiple channel sales strategy helps you stay focused, scale sustainably, and avoid operational bottlenecks.

Common multichannel challenges and solutions

Multichannel selling comes with its own set of challenges:

• Resource limitations. Each sales channel requires setup and ongoing maintenance, which can quickly become overwhelming. To solve this, focus on one at a time and only expand once it’s operating efficiently. 
• Consistency. Each platform has its own guidelines on how your products are presented. Having inconsistencies can dilute your brand recognition. Solve this by nailing your unique selling proposition, brand voice, and style guide. Reference these elements everywhere you sell. 
• Inventory management. You’ve sold 33 units on TikTok, 65 through your ecommerce website, and 20 on Amazon. How much do you have left to sell at your retail store? Use a multichannel inventory management system, like the one found in Shopify, to get real-time visibility into how much stock you have available to sell. This helps prevent stockouts that drive customers toward competitors. 

Measuring sales channel ROI

Not every sales channels will be a strong performer for your business. When analyzing each platform in your sales strategy, track the following key performance indicators (KPIs): 

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): How much do you spend to acquire the average customer through each sales channel? Channels with the lowest CAC should be higher priority—you’ll make more profit on each order. 
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): The total revenue the average customer generates during their relationship with your brand. Compare this to each sales channel’s CAC to ensure you’re not overspending on acquisition. For example, if the average CLV for a TikTok shopper is only $23 but costs $40 to acquire them, you’re losing money. 
• Conversion rate: The percentage of people who convert through the sales channel. If your online store has a low conversion rate, follow conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practices: improve page speeds, streamline navigation, and invest in product imagery.
• Customer retention rate: Some channels bring in one time shoppers, while others drive long term loyalty. Marketplaces, for example, typically have a low retention rate as you don’t own the customer data or control retargeting. Your online store gives you more options to follow up, which you can combine with email marketing to drive shoppers back to your website. 

Customers often switch between multiple channels on their path to purchase. Someone might discover your brand through TikTok Shop, attend a livestream, receive a retargeted email for the product showcased, and make their purchase through your ecommerce website. 

Use multichannel attribution software to shine a light on this customer journey and give each sales channel the credit it deserves. 

Why an online store should be your sales channels hub

Starting out with an ecommerce website first allows you to establish your brand, find footing as you develop your products, and set up a mission control center before expanding through other indirect and direct sales channels.

If you’re already using another type of sales channel to sell, like a traditional marketplace or social media, here’s why launching an online store is still a smart move. 

Ease of use

If you’re still developing your product, it can be easier to build your business on an ecommerce site and add different sales channels once you’re ready to grow your business. 

Traditional marketplaces often require high-quality and accurate product information upfront, even for early-stage brands. To even apply to sell on a marketplace, you may need to provide unique product identifiers like SKUs or ISBNs.

Building within a siloed ecosystem 

Platforms and trends change: policies update, algorithms shift, and users move on. Third-party platforms are vulnerable to these changes, so it’s best not to over-rely on one indirect sales channel for revenue.

Shopify lets you set up different entry points to your business via sales channels, but all roads lead to your central hub. You maintain reach and ownership, which means you can sell to your target audience on whatever platform, channel, or marketplace they’re on. 

Seller restrictions 

Traditional marketplaces control branding, how products are listed, and who owns the customer relationship. Customers will associate more with the product and the marketplace rather than with your brand, so it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from other shops that sell similar or the same products as you.

Overall, your relationship with a traditional marketplace is one of trade-offs. While these platforms offer a built-in customer base, the trade-off is the risk of diluting your brand identity and reduced flexibility. 

Building a brand story 

Your own website is a blank canvas to help fully realize your brand and leave customers with a lasting impression. It gives you complete creative control, something marketplaces and social media platforms often limit.

Mary of Abracadana built a separate Shopify store in order to differentiate the new brand from her pre-existing business, Maryink. “I wanted to break out of Maryink and develop a new brand that’s still associated with Maryink, but that brings about the imagery of a bandana,” Mary says. 

“So we came up with Abracadana, because we think bandanas are magical. They’re so simple and you can do so many things with them. We broke off and started our Shopify site, because you can do a lot more with the design, and that was important to us.” 

How to set up sales channels on your Shopify store

Managing sales channels through your Shopify store helps keep your business simple and organized. Here’s how to set up additional sales channels on Shopify.

1. Navigate to the dashboard of your store. On the left navigation, you’ll see Sales channels with an arrow next to it. Select it. 

2. Next, a box will pop up. To search for a sales channel you’ve already added, type its name into the search bar. To add new sales channels, select a recommended app or click All recommended sales channels.

3. If you don’t see it there, select Shopify App Store at the bottom of the box. Within the Shopify App Store, scroll to find the sales channel you’d like to add. Click on it and select Add app.

💡 Here are the best apps for adding sales channels to your Shopify store.

Building a resilient business with multiple sales channels 

Think of each sales channel as a bolt with a different head. You could craft a single purpose screwdriver to fit just one, but that’s only going to get you so far. 

Instead, build a universal screwdriver: a flexible ecommerce site like Shopify that lets you swap in the right “bit” to unlock each channel individually. 

With Shopify, selling across platforms is seamless for both you and your customers. Each sales channel is fully integrated with your online store, so you can create a unique brand and maintain ownership of your customers and your data.