The UK's productivity problems have been making headlines again recently — with figures indicating that productivity rose just 0.5% in the past year. For manufacturers, this presents a real concern.

While the proliferation of new ways to sell products in recent years can seem daunting, it presents an opportunity to defy declining productivity by growing sales while reducing man hours.

One of the fastest ways to give a company an efficiency boost is to find new processes that maintain output while requiring less work. Multichannel is one such way and provides an excellent method of doing just that.

What is multichannel?

Multichannel is a sales strategy that focuses on enabling customers to choose the ordering experience they want: be that coming into a store, buying via Amazon, calling a salesperson up or more.

Now that selling online is reasonably easy, effective and cheap, adding eCommerce to a multichannel strategy is easier than ever. For example, a manufacturer might use a traditional channel, such as a catalogue. Then they could add a public marketplace like Amazon, and use Shopify to sell via their website. This way, their customers can choose which option suits their needs best.

B2B vs B2C

For a long time, B2B multichannel was mostly confined to traditional methods such as selling over the phone or via email. However, B2B companies have been utilising eCommerce channels for longer than you might think — two to five years, according to BigCommerce — and manufacturers are starting to catch on too.

And so they should. According to a study conducted by Google and Millward Brown Digital, nearly 50% of B2B researchers are now aged 18 to 35. These buyers expect a seamless online buying experience, with no barriers preventing them from easily purchasing products.

How can multichannel improve productivity

Multichannel has been a watchword among UK production businesses for a little while now, primarily as a method of growing sales revenue. But it can also be a powerful tool for improving efficiency, by replacing time-intensive sales methods with automatic processes that run without human input and eliminate costly errors.

Take B2B sales, for instance. Using a traditional sales channel, such as phone orders, the process of completing a B2B transaction can be long-winded. The buyer has to call up during office hours, relay their order 100% correctly, wait for you to check what's in stock then confirm everything to ensure no mistakes are made.

An influx of new orders using this system can bring a smaller company grinding to a halt — and that's before any extra wrinkles are added, like overseas customers or complicated orders.

By moving B2B sales online using an eCommerce store, manufacturers can empower their wholesale customers to self-serve. Using a B2B Store, customers pick the products they need from an online catalogue and see real-time information on what's in stock. They can complete orders at the click of a button, with no need for the salesperson to manually write down details or physically check what's in the stockroom.

A process that may have taken several hours can now be managed in minutes. That frees manufacturers' time up for doing more important things than sales admin and grows productivity without requiring major investment.

The importance of solid inventory management

There may be a clear upside to selling multichannel, but it does require data to be shared across multiple channels and platforms so that the business can fulfil orders while maintaining 100% inventory accuracy. The easiest way of achieving this is with an inventory management system that's fit for purpose.

Multiple sales channels should not be managed in silos. The best multichannel strategy creates a seamless experience for the customers and the business. A centralised location to manage orders, inventory and product data gives businesses a bird’s-eye view of the entire operation. As a result, they’ll be able to keep inventory levels accurate, quickly and accurately fulfil orders and create high-quality product information.

With an online inventory system in place, manufacturers can utilise sales channels that increase revenue while decreasing the time spent on each sale. As the UK's productivity crisis continues to drag on, opportunities to improve efficiency such as this shouldn't be ignored.