Seven factors for the right channel selection when marketing online stores

When it comes to marketing the online store, many companies are spoiled for choice.Price search engines, product portals, affiliate networks, retargeting offers, marketplaces, cashback, shopping clubs and mobile offers - the variety of digital channels for marketing product ranges is both a blessing and a curse for online stores. On the one hand, there are suitable placement options for almost all product categories, but on the other hand, it is difficult to keep track of the "channel jungle." This strong fragmentation of the portal landscape favors the lack of transparency and standards - general data and statistics on market shares and channel performance are difficult to find. Feed Dynamix has compiled seven factors that help with the individual selection of sales channels:1. product range affinityGeneral interest portals such as Idealo, Billiger.de or Amazon are being joined by a growing number of niche portals that focus on specific product categories such as furniture, electronics or fashion. By matching their own store range with the offer of the respective portal, online stores reduce wastage and increase the quality of traffic.2. product presentationIf the store offers additional sales arguments such as seals of approval, voucher promotions or special payment functions, it is worth making sure that these can also be displayed in the selected portal. In this way, better performance values can be achieved.3rd target groupCustomer centricity - focusing on the customer or the target group - also applies to the selection of individual portals. Price-sensitive customers can be found on price search engines, while quality-conscious buyers are more likely to be found on product portals.4. trafficReach versus profitability - this is often the balancing act that an online retailer has to perform when making a decision. This makes it all the more important to clearly define traffic targets and include them in the decision.5. cost trapMany retailers tend to set a maximum cost-per-click when selecting portals. However, looking at CPCs in isolation can lead to conclusions that hinder success, as the traffic quality of the portals plays a particularly important role. Online stores should therefore always keep an eye on key performance indicators such as profitability.6. referencesQuality seals on the portal pages and online testimonials can provide an initial impression of the seriousness of the partners. An alternative is to talk to colleagues from the industry, agencies and service providers who deal with the topic of product data marketing on a daily basis.7. competitor analysisWhen selecting channels, the respective competitive situation in the portals should also be considered. The fact is that a high level of competition generally goes hand in hand with higher CPCs and less traffic for your own store. Feed Dynamix has compiled a detailed guide on how to select the right marketing channels in a white paper entitled "Multichannel Digital". The whitepaper is available free of charge at the following link:http://feed-dynamix.de/ressourcen/downloads/multichannel-digital.html