Multichannel retailer

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A multichannel retailer is a company that sells directly to the public via more than one distribution channel. Most multichannel retailers sell through mail order catalogs and "brick & mortar" retail stores. Some multichannel retailers, such as Illuminations, sell online as well, allowing them to attract new customers using their seasonal mail order catalogs, their retail stores located around the U.S. and their e-commerce web site, illuminations.com[[1]].

Some other successful multichannel retailers are: Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, Macy's, Restoration Hardware, J.C. Penney and J. Jill. Typically, a multichannel retailer begins with a traditional retail storefront, then adds a mail order catalog and finally, once those two channels prove lucrative, expand to a third selling channel by establishing an online presence.

Although this is the normal sequence of events, there are other successful multichannel retailers, who have started with either a web channel or direct mail channel first and then expanded their marketing efforts into the "real world" of traditional retail storefront selling environments.

Establishing more than one way for their customers to shop for their products, is a good way for retailers to grow their monthly revenues and gain new customers, who in turn can be marketed to via other channels not used during their initial purchase. For example, if you shop at one of your local retail stores and they also market via direct mail and online, you will normally be added to their customer loyalty program and begin receiving both promotional emails (also known as SPAM) and direct mail advertisements. If you don’t want to receive promotional emails or direct mail from the retailer, be sure to ask at the time of check-out, not to have any of your private contact information used for promotional purposes. In addition, consumers need to be aware that some retailers may choose to sell your private contact information to other online and/or mail order companies, as a means to increase their overall profitability.