It is nothing new to say that business and the way of doing business has migrated to non-face-to-face channels as a result of Covid-19.
It is clear that we have all changed our consumption habits and this leads to a reaction from companies to be able to meet these new or changed needs. Only companies that are able to adapt to this new reality are the ones that will survive and have long-term growth. One tool to achieve this is Digital Trade Marketing (DTM).
“Only companies that are able to adapt to this new reality will survive and achieve long-term growth.”
The concept of DTM is relatively new. Bakshi, Eccles and Jain touch on the concept in australia company email list their article “Advanced trade marketing for the digital world” in 2017 and then Jain works on this concept again in her article “ Digital trade marketing: Delighting shoppers in the age of digital ” a year later.
I got to know the concept firsthand in 2019 when I became an eCommerce Retail Specialist at Blacksip Colombia (a position that would later become a DTM Specialist).
This is where I really understand this concept . Putting the above ideas together with my experience, DTM is the distribution of products and/or services through non-face-to-face channels in a collaborative way between suppliers and sellers. Ultimately, the idea is to sell more through as many partners as possible (volume by volume).
“DTM is the distribution of products and/or services through non-face-to-face channels in a collaborative manner between suppliers and sellers.”
The big question is: How do you do this?
Taking into account six factors that must be in order and have clear increasing objectives: Availability, Digital Basics, Visibility, Purchase Motivators, Traffic and Data.
Availability:
Ensure that you have the most relevant products (if not all) of your portfolio within the platforms of each of your allies.
It is important to align with the marketing area, what role each product will play within the partners and what the target or buyer persona of each platform is.
Digital Basics:
This is all the basic information about the product, which must be readily visible to gain the user's trust. This includes the product name following a recommended UX taxonomy (Category, Brand, Variant and Unit of Measure), one or more clear images of the product, the short but concise and relevant description and the price.
Visibility:
There is no point in having all your products available and with all their basics in order if they are not visible within your allies' platforms.
These platforms have different visibility spaces (many of them paid) and ways of ordering products within categories. It is important to show these products to consumers to create brand awareness and for them to know that your products are there, where they are going to buy.
Purchase motivations:
These are tactics that will affect your consumers' decision when it comes to comparing you. They must be differentiating and always have added value for the consumer.
They usually translate into discounts, but we can go further with combos, gifting, free shipping, exclusive content, among others.
