Mckinsey Quarterly - Successful companies should examine all available channels and then tailor an approach according to their capabilities.

• Today's successful online retailers, depending on their underlying economics and whether or not they have physical stores, choose one of four strategies.


• To avoid cannibalizing their offline sales, multichannel retailers must integrate their online, catalog, and store activities and properly coordinate their marketing.


• By optimizing each channel and building efficient fulfillment processes and operations, even low-margin retailers can succeed.