On the Web: The New World of Direct Marketing

Only about 22 percent of sales from the average company at the ChannelAdvisor user group come from the company and shoppers directly contacting one another. The rest come through channels such as the marketplaces, comparison shopping engines and search.

Follow the Shoppers
In the new world of direct marketing, merchants set up shop in places shoppers are likely to be, whether an Amazon store, a keyword on Google or a comparison shopping engine. These merchants work hard to adapt their shops to the particular channel. They change copy and merchandise mix. They don't just put their complete catalogs on Amazon or Shop.com and expect great results. They pay attention to the actual results and adapt.