Month: October 2021

The Internet became a mainstream technology that found relevance at universities and corporations in the 2000s and it paved the way for multi-billion organizations like Facebook and Google. Ten years down the line, the online software industry was becoming a part of our daily lives, with eCommerce and cloud software solutions becoming the major disruptors that everyone was very enthusiastic about, at least in silicon valley.

However, despite eCommerce being widely adopted by consumers, very few businesses have realized its vast potential. Today, eCommerce isn’t limited to selling your products on your website – it’s much, much more. We are talking about social selling, online marketplaces, affiliates, resellers, brick and mortar stores and a lot more.

All these various facets of today’s retail landscape benefit from being integrated into one technology stack or ecosystem. In fact, if you are reading this article, you are among the most informed decision-makers in the online retail industry. And that’s the agenda today – integration-first ecosystems for multichannel selling.

At Cin7, we knew this fact first hand and we set out to help our customers remain viable in the ever changing retail landscape. We recently conducted a wide-scale study on multichannel selling. To our surprise, the market’s awareness of what can be achieved by combining a robust ecosystem of interconnected software with data and automated processes was lower than we expected.

Here’s what our study found. An inventory management solution is only as good as the number of seamless integrations it can support. As a result, Cin7 continues to focus on expanding the ecosystem of integrated eCommerce solutions we offer to provide further efficiencies to run your business smoothly.

As a result, we can proudly say that we have over 550 apps onboard Cin7 and this is one of our biggest competitive advantages.

The Role Of Integrations In eCommerce

You, like many others, are working hard to increase your eCommerce sales. It becomes more difficult to control sales volume as you expand and scale. Your eCommerce system needs other 3rd party systems to operate and manage major aspects of your growing business. Getting all these individual systems to communicate with one another is a separate matter.

Consider all of the systems on which your growth plan is based. If they aren’t already connected, think about how this could be influencing your business model. For perspective, let’s consider one of the findings from our study and resulting ebook on multichannel selling: integrating your sales and accounting apps can increase your profitability by 43%.

Is your company ready to get started with a fully integrated inventory control system?

The synchronization of a company’s front end with its backend systems, such as inventory management software or a CRM system, is known as eCommerce integration.

In theory an integration, like an API, allows software programs to exchange data to maintain accounting records, share insights and inform business decisions. Integration centralizes the front end operations and keeps your business processes on the same page. Multichannel selling requires multiple layers of support for different functionalities, be it payment gateways, logistics partners or client servicing methods.

Without interconnecting your front and backend apps, your operations remain primarily manual and exposed to human error. You may undersell or oversell; miship, misquote; and even end up leaving customers unserviced. Multichannel selling sounds very interesting and lucrative, but it can easily turn chaotic if you don’t have the right eCommerce integrations in place.

For instance, if your backend isn’t integrated with a particular sales channel, you’ll have to manually update the inventory count in both your inventory system and in the selling channel.

This is where the value of a well-implemented multichannel eCommerce integration ecosystem becomes abundantly evident. Integration ensures that your technology stack is homogeneous, that insights travel smoothly and every program executes its tasks accurately.

Benefits Of Integrating Your Sales Channels With Your Backend

As more businesses embrace online sales and brick-and-mortar storefronts become less important, the demand for multichannel integration has skyrocketed. Here are four advantages of using multichannel integrations:

#1 Ditch Manual Order Input

Connecting your selling channels with your backend system minimizes manual and redundant data inputs and enhances data interchange speed. Since you need to input the same data at multiple locations for every transaction, automation becomes a critical component of successful multichannel selling.

#2 Enhanced Data Utility

With seamless connectivity across different functions of your business ecosystem, accuracy is never a guessing game. Inventory synchronization, real-time tracking updates and pricing; every sphere improves with data pooling. It all results in improved data utility because you can capture data across touchpoints and convert it into utilizable insights that trigger coordinated sales.

#3 Improved the Customer Experience

When your sales channels and backend are connected, your support reps can provide quick problem resolution and handle queries like product availability and shipping updates. You will also be able to reach out to the same user on different platforms according to their preferences and maintain a consistent brand presence.

#4 Expanding Into New Markets

Integrations allow your company to expand into more online markets while maintaining operational efficiency. New clients become available with each additional sales channel. Diversified income sources, greater customer experience and increased operational margins are all icing on the cake when it comes to expanding your brand through eCommerce integration.

Multichannel Selling Integration Roadblocks

Multichannel selling requires a free flow of information, automation and timely human intervention. Integrations can be cascading or real-time synchronous in nature, depending on the type of transaction.

Benefiting from a modern technical stack necessitates a technological workflow that rises above a legacy system.

Organizations frequently ignore the need for a closely-knit, advanced ecosystem of dedicated apps out of fear of high expense. They may also fear disrupting what established mechanisms have already been doing for them.

There are a few challenges that businesses must overcome to build a successful multichannel selling integration platform. Here are four potential roadblocks:

#1 Not Understanding Requirements

One of the most common problems that businesses experience occurs before they have even started to use a centralized integration platform. Many businesses are unsure where to begin.

IT stakeholders are unsure of what their company requires in order to effectively manage trade partners, customers and other internal and external connectors that make up their digital ecosystem.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the decision process. IT managers are concerned about having enough IT employees to support and maintain an integration platform in addition to their usual responsibilities. There’s also the fear that migrating data from one system to another may lead to mistakes, security concerns or data loss.

Companies must first achieve internal alignment before beginning a integration modernization path. They should figure out what they want to accomplish through integration, what obstacles they’ll have to overcome and what systems they’ll be integrating.

Further, businesses must determine whether data should be synced between systems and which procedures and workflows can and should be automated.

With the end goal in mind, the proper eCommerce integration project can begin.

#2 Systems That Are Obsolete Or That Are Part Of A Legacy System

While everything appears to be running smoothly on the service, the truth is that depending on legacy and obsolete technology leads businesses to drop and miss orders. Their technology does not allow them to see every single online order from beginning to end.

Legacy systems are clumsy and difficult to work around when compared to a contemporary integration platform.

Sometimes the tools and processes you’ve relied on for years still work for you and will satisfy your day-to-day company demands for the foreseeable future. When it comes to bringing on new partners and services, migrating apps to the cloud or supporting big data projects, legacy systems sometimes fall short of what your business needs to succeed.

It’s probably time to modernize your eCommerce solution if you’re getting chargebacks from your trade partners or don’t have the technical expertise to fulfill API connectivity needs.

#3 Lack Of Multichannel Management Capabilities

Traditionally, an eCommerce platform has provided businesses with technology that allows them to sell to their consumers on their website using a standard web browser. This disregards two critical considerations:

Call centers, brick and mortar storefronts, mail order catalogs, online marketplaces and other marketplace websites are other ways that retailers sell.

Customers want to buy using their own devices, whether it’s an iPhone or a personal laptop, so acquiring master data that can sync with the other systems connected to those customer contact points is a continental consideration.

#4 Lack Of Visibility

Product sellers that have yet to update their technical stack suffer from a lack of visibility, which prevents them from making real-time, performance-based choices. Companies may consolidate the amount of control they have over a piece of data and get end-to-end visibility by combining outdated integration platforms to improve business operations.

Companies may begin to obtain total visibility for every online order after completely adopting a modernized integration platform. Consider the benefits of having comprehensive omnichannel integration visibility. With full EDI and API connections, you can see all of your online, retail and wholesale orders in one place.

Getting Ready For Multichannel Selling Integration

Many firms put off multichannel integration because it seems complicated and they are concerned that projects will go over budget or take too long. However, integration is easier than you may think. The trick is to plan and prepare ahead of time and choose a solution provider with extensive onboarding services.

Begin by determining which of your manual procedures are prone to mistakes. When you find sluggish, complex or superfluous procedures, you can employ integration methods to eliminate them so that your team can focus on more important and high-value work.

The next phase in the planning process is to consider your customer’s journey. You may find areas that can be simplified with eCommerce integration by reviewing consumer shopping behavior.

Then you should think about how data travels between your systems. Examine how your data is transported, how you maintain customer information and how your accounting system manages payments, among other things. You may then determine which functions can be merged or automated.

You may choose the proper integration technique via APIs after knowing which areas might benefit from integration. As long as the appropriate functions are included, you will be able to meet your present and future eCommerce demands.

Summing Up

Your eCommerce business may become considerably more productive if you employ integrations in the right manner. You may obtain insights from integrated data that can help you make wiser decisions that are in line with your business goals. Increased demand may also be handled more easily with an eCommerce integration platform without the need for extra staff.

A modern technical stack also aids in the elimination of mistakes and allows your company to improve the customer experience. As a result of all of these advantages, your eCommerce operation will generate more income and minimize costly errors.

At the end of the day, the eCommerce industry is saturated, so making your firm stand out requires a lot of effort. Thus, integration-first inventory management ecosystems are the first step into leveraging the capabilities employed by the biggest players in your sectors.

Read the detailed report on “How Product Sellers Adapted to Change and Sold More” to know how other players in your industry are making integrations in multichannel selling work for them.

It’s no secret that the pandemic disrupted retail, forcing businesses to reevaluate their entire operational models. Now that we are finally transitioning out of the pandemic, eCommerce merchants need to rethink their approach towards their sales and distribution channels.

Besides the degree of disruption faced by retailers, life during the pandemic has also altered consumer behavior to a great extent. Multichannel sales are one of the best approaches to deal with the change in buyer behavior as it increases the number of sales touchpoints. It also helps you gather large and more relevant datasets regarding your customer base and increases your odds of retaining them.

As we continue to ease out of the pandemic, wisdom dictates that there may be unseen risks associated with over-expansion and the intricacies of multichannel sales. As the resurgence in online purchases over the last two years transitions into the next “new normal,” any significant changes that you decide to make should be taken slowly and weighed against expert advice from leaders in the inventory and order management space.

In this article, we will evaluate the multichannel seller landscape and see how you can make the most out of opportunities as they arise.

Risk Mitigation Strategies For Multichannel Sales

Online sellers need to revisit their multichannel sales risk mitigation strategies in order to stay relevant with evolving market conditions. Many industries have observed changes in consumer behavior, supply chain, finance, socio-economic presets and selling platforms. This has, in turn, impacted how different players compete and collaborate when it comes to online sales.

Cin7’s recent large-scale study found that 82% of 4,000 product sellers across the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are adding two or more sales channels in the coming months. Our latest ebook on multichannel selling has even more of these deep insights that point out why businesses are expanding their sales reach.

Let’s dive deeper into the risk factors and the counter efforts that current times require.

#1 Demand Forecasting

Successful online retailers need to integrate their backend systems (e.g., inventory management, order management, accounting) with their eCommerce website, social media, marketplaces, portals and third party logistics provider, and be able to do so at scale.

Each sales channel poses the inherent challenge of accurate demand forecasting and each channel needs to seamlessly interface with inventory to avoid over or underselling.

Another important factor that online retailers need to consider is that consumer behavior on each social media app is driven by an entirely unique set of motivators. Using a ‘one size fits all’ approach can sabotage demand forecasting capabilities. The best approach is to only sell on marketplaces that you fully understand.

Making an instantaneous change to your selling strategy to accommodate new sales channels like heavyweights Target or Walmart isn’t always advisable. The smart approach is to develop a foolproof sales forecasting strategy for every channel individually and cultivate an understanding of their performance as a collective over time.

#2 Branding Consistency Across Sales Channels

Brand consistency across sales channels is another challenge that continues to baffle businesses. Maintaining brand consistency on your own website is within your direct control, but when it comes to various marketplaces and social media you need to put in extra effort.

Product sellers need to ensure that their branding is consistent across all touchpoints. Failing to do so may cause your customers and prospects to distrust your brand as they might suspect counterfeiting. The same applies when you are communicating with your customers. This calls for an umbrella solution that groups your sales channels under a common strategy and provides you with a modular approach.

Creating a content stack is a powerful and cost-effective solution since it ensures that your branding stays consistent through a well-planned distribution strategy. Even your replies in comment sections and private messages on social media should follow standard templates and you can use inbox chatbots to serve this purpose.

#3 Inventory Management

Efficient inventory management is the primary challenge for product sellers looking to build or expand their presence over multiple sales channels. As discussed earlier, it’s important to synchronize your inventory seamlessly across all your sales channels and this is only possible with an inventory management system that allows for this type of integration. Ideally, when you confirm an order on one sales channel, inventory data is updated on all other sales platforms, maintaining a single source of truth.

Real-time inventory synchronization will also help you get a comprehensive picture of overall sales, thereby preventing overselling and overstocking. Better order fulfillment creates another advantage, but the post-pandemic inventory management strategies will need to go beyond these factors. Our recent survey also found that over 52% of online product sellers are planning to add four more sales channels in 2021 making them even more dependent on a reliable inventory management system. You can get more insights on this topic by simply downloading our new multichannel selling ebook.

Additional factors that sellers need to consider are smart automation and the ecosystem of solutions that cater to different target audiences and deliver the functionalities they seek. Big data, AI-enabled decision making, predictive customer queries and reduction of operational issues by moderating human intervention are among the top priorities, especially for SMBs.

#4 Customer Relationship Management

Customer experience is the ultimate differentiator when it comes to online selling, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to curate and measure. The reason is simple: a huge number of sellers have surfaced in the current eCommerce boom and it’s increasingly difficult for your brand to stand out from the others unless you are ready to spend.

Your spend should focus on a redesign of your CRM workflows, documenting new SOPs and orchestrating client-facing functions with fresh customer journeys. But before you start making drastic changes to your customer relationship management strategy, you should reach out to your customers to understand their motivators.

At the same time, make sure to invest in the right people and train them to handle customer inquiries. Taking an iterative approach is best to prevent making sudden policy changes. Allow time to reveal how a post pandemic consumer adjusts.

#5 Handling Shipping And Returns Management

The post-pandemic scenario will require you to rethink your shipping and returns management strategy to mitigate bottlenecks. This requires choosing the best third party logistics provider to meet order demand most efficiently.

Contracting with a third party logistics provider also requires seamless integration between your backend processes and sales channels. To begin with, you need to strategize your shipping and returns policy while also designing an automated framework for returns processing if you don’t already have one.

This should be followed by optimizing your internal operations to meet the fresh requirements of your shipping partners. This may also be the time to update your pricing policy and make sure to evaluate special cases like product bundling since it is one of the most common trends we’ve witnessed in 2021.

Summing Up

Throughout this article, one aspect remains constant: The need to expand in a sustainable manner. Successfully managing your sales ecosystem is going to be the key to success in post-pandemic eCommerce.