Retailers should use search, marketplaces and social platforms to reach shoppers—but not let any one of them become the only way customers can find or buy from them. A retailer’s own website offers the greatest control over product information and the buying experience, while external channels can provide discovery and reach. A resilient strategy connects both, then measures which touchpoints contribute to visits and sales.
Why digital visibility spans more than one channel
Shoppers do not necessarily discover a product in one place and buy it there. They may encounter a brand through search, social media, a marketplace, a retailer’s content or recommendations from other people. That means visibility is a path across touchpoints, not simply a ranking or a social following.
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In IAB Australia and Pureprofile’s Commerce Report 2025, surveyed online shoppers in Australia and New Zealand used an average of 4.8 product-discovery touchpoints. The summary names online search, retailer stores and content, personal connections, other consumers and social media among important sources. Search led overall in that report, while social media and influencers mattered more to younger surveyed shoppers. Those findings describe that market and study; they are not a universal channel ranking.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Businesses also tend to operate across channels. DHL eCommerce’s 2025 E-Commerce Trends Report: Business Edit reports that 63% of surveyed global ecommerce businesses sold on at least three online platforms and 87% had at least one social media profile. DHL says its survey covered 24,000 respondents in 24 countries and was conducted in February and March 2025; it also cautions that not every subgroup has statistical significance. These figures measure business channel use, not which channels generated the most sales. The report notes that sole traders and micro-enterprises rely more on marketplaces, while larger firms are more likely to focus on their own ecommerce websites.
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What retailers gain by owning their website
A website is the place where a retailer has the most direct control over how products are presented, how information is organised and how the shopping journey works. That does not mean the retailer controls how search engines or other platforms rank or display its content. It does mean the retailer can maintain a dependable destination and shape the experience after a shopper arrives.
- Product information: Keep descriptions, specifications, availability and policies accurate and consistent.
- Presentation: Choose how products, reviews and related information appear together rather than relying solely on a third-party listing format.
- Buying journey: Design the route from product discovery on the site to checkout and customer support.
- Direct relationship: Use appropriate consent-based ways to serve customers and understand their interactions, subject to applicable rules.
Kelly Salter’s TechRadar Pro Perspectives article, “Why retailers need to own their digital visibility”, argues for maintaining accurate descriptions, structured content, reviews and updated information. Treat these as sound information-management practices, not a guarantee of a particular search position or an AI recommendation.
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What external platforms do—and what they do not give you
Search, marketplaces and social networks can help shoppers find and evaluate products. Their reach can complement a retailer’s website, but the retailer does not set those services’ ranking systems, display rules or product interfaces. A change in how a platform presents listings or referrals can affect visibility there.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe UK Office for Product Safety and Standards defines an online marketplace as a digital platform or website where third-party sellers offer goods or services directly to consumers. The marketplace facilitates the transaction and typically does not own the inventory. This distinction helps explain the trade-off: marketplaces can put a retailer’s products in front of their users, while the retailer’s listing and customer interaction take place within an environment governed by the platform. The definition is set out in the government’s Online marketplaces consumer journeys report.
There is no evidence here that one channel is best for every retailer. Audience, product category and operational capacity differ. The objective is not to be everywhere; it is to choose channels that reach relevant shoppers while retaining a reliable destination and customer relationship of your own.
How to decide which channels deserve investment
Assess each channel against the same practical questions rather than assuming that reach alone makes it valuable.
| Decision factor | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Do your target customers use this channel to find or evaluate products? Which audience and geography does the evidence describe? |
| Control | Who sets the rules for product presentation, ranking and the customer experience? What can your team change directly? |
| Customer relationship | Can you understand and serve the customer directly, with appropriate consent and in line with applicable rules? |
| Measurement | Can you connect a referral or campaign to site visits, conversions and revenue with enough confidence to make a decision? |
| Effort and economics | What content, staffing, advertising and integration work does the channel require? Do your own costs and results justify it? |
| Resilience | If rankings, platform displays or advertising costs change, do customers have another route to discover and reach you? |
Use customer and sales data to prioritise channels, and review that choice as the audience or economics change. The available survey figures show that discovery and business practices vary; they do not provide comparable channel costs or a universal allocation of marketing spend.
Measure whether visibility produces business results
Reach, impressions and followers can indicate exposure, but they do not by themselves show whether a channel helped produce a sale. Connect website analytics, ecommerce records and customer data so the team can follow the journey from discovery through visits and purchases. The aim is to understand which touchpoints contributed to outcomes, not to mistake a last click for the whole journey.
Best Value
- Define the outcome. Decide whether the question is about qualified visits, leads, first purchases, repeat purchases or revenue before choosing a metric.
- Connect the records. Link relevant referral and campaign information with website and ecommerce activity, using a consistent approach to naming and tracking campaigns.
- Compare paths, not just channels. Review how shoppers move between touchpoints and where they convert; note that tracking may not capture every interaction.
- Use the result to act. Shift effort only when the measurement is reliable enough to support the decision, and keep checking whether the result holds.
Salter’s TechRadar article highlights the importance of tracking how website visitors become leads or customers, but the article page does not identify the underlying survey behind its tracking percentages. Those figures therefore cannot be treated here as verified benchmarks. The durable takeaway is the measurement principle: visibility is useful when a retailer can connect it to customer and commercial outcomes.
A practical channel portfolio
For many retailers, the sound approach is a portfolio: maintain a useful, accurate website as the controlled destination; use search, social or marketplaces where relevant shoppers are active; and measure how those routes contribute to the business. That balances the discovery potential of external platforms with the control and continuity of owned assets, without assuming that every retailer needs every channel.
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