With the retail industry rapidly evolving, the latest of its emerging branches is the E-commerce market. E-commerce is an industry full of potential. Its volatile nature can be credited to the disruptive technologies that have changed the face of the world. With new opportunities of growth at every step of the way, it can be hard to navigate through and keep up with it. That’s where marketplace integration software comes into play.
WHAT IS MARKETPLACE INTEGRATION
As the words suggest, marketplace integration is the amalgamation of well-organized and existing online stores on the web, that can be expanded to different marketplaces, and as a result to a wider audience. The marketplace integration tools and service solutions make it a hassle-free process for e-tailers (E-commerce retailers) to trade on multiple marketplaces at a single time, manage resources and inventory, streamline operations, maintain books for financial records, and help stay ahead of the competitors. With easy usability, the software also offers total automation, complete connectivity with an organized flow of data to and from your online store.
KEY COMPONENTS OF MARKETPLACE INTEGRATION
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E-COMMERCE INTEGRATION
An advantage of marketplace integration is its e-commerce integration. E-commerce integration, by definition, is the synchronization between a company’s e-commerce website/store and the back-end accounting and inventory (ERP) management systems. With automation, the flow of data and information become smooth over time, reduces the chances of error, improves efficiency, and eliminates the time that would otherwise be taken to enter data for every transaction separately. It also updates inventory levels automatically, and sends reminders to order stock, and maintains certain levels of inventory holding as well. Perhaps, the clear benefit that e-commerce integration offers is the real-time two-way flow of data that not only gives you cues about customer preferences, allows customers to track orders, and helps you develop strategies to strengthen loyalties and increase profitability, but also gives you two-way communications with your suppliers. E-commerce integration offers flexibility to manage multi-channel and omnichannel retailing, without losing on the operational efficiency of the business.
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COURIER INTEGRATION
Along with the ease in managing the online store, one key marketplace integration tool is courier integration. This instrument of the software allows the retailer to improve the efficiency in the order fulfillment process. As the name suggests, it integrates the seller’s e-commerce store with the courier companies that handle the shipment. The system synchronizes the customer order information and data between the business and the courier service provider. It eliminates redundancies and the need for continued administration. Along with that, the courier integration tools also increase efficiency, erase chances of error during shipment and considerably reduce order dispatch and lead times. For retailers that deal in selling physical goods and products to customers on an online platform, incorporating a courier integration software with the e-commerce store can significantly reduce costs of hiring administrative employees, cut back on losses caused by errors in shipment labels and addresses, while also giving the customer the option to track orders in real time, thereby increasing ease and convenience for them and as a result increasing the likelihood that customers may choose to shop with you again.
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POS E-COMMERCE
What marketplace integration software also offers to retailers is its POS e-commerce tool. These tools allow for smooth hassle-free business dealings on the online store. For reference; POS stands for Point of Sale which is the point where the sale transaction is complete and where customers execute the payment for goods or services. E-commerce POS systems for retail outlets can significantly assist store owners and management in reducing chances of human error and develop their retail inventory management through complete automation.
Complete synchronization of sales and inventory information and electronic data storage as soon as the transaction is complete allows for efficient operations in the inventory control system at the retail outlets. The e-commerce POS will not only manage inventory according to orders, but also assist in checkouts, billings, and generate sales and vendor reports for stock updates, related costs and revenues.
THE COMPLETE PACKAGE
Marketplace integration software is a complete package that offers multiple tools to online retailers, which in this ever-evolving world, are central for growth and success. Today, it has become essential for businesses to be well equipped with the technology and be adaptive and receptive to changes, in order to successfully cope in the business world and be able to take complete advantage of every opportunity.
Many software houses and businesses have developed marketplace integration tools and software’s to assist e-tailers (E-commerce retailers) and introduce technology into business. Globally, firms like Shopify, Squareup, Cshop, and Productsup have been providing services for couriers, shipments, order fulfillment, order tracking, automated inventory tracking, etc. locally, startups and softwares like Asaan Retail are also aiming to offer similar services.
THE BENEFITS
These software and tools aim to offer a unified, single-channel to control your E-commerce business/ businesses. With marketplace integration strategies, you can sync data from all your existing online stores, like Amazon, Shopify, Daraz, or your own website, and control the stores from one channel and one software. What these bring to the retailer are hassle-free, smooth business operations that can easily be controlled.
It helps the seller also build two-way relationships with the customers, as well as the suppliers. For customers, checkout and sales transactions have become convenient, as well as the option of tracking makes it easier for customers to put their trust in online shopping.
As with the suppliers, automated inventory management sends a warning notification as soon as the store hits its low levels of inventory, a message is also sent to the supplier, who responds to the cue by sending an appropriate amount of inventories. Achieving operational efficiency becomes a lot easier with marketplace integration software.
These software are equipped with tools that can calculate a retailer’s profit and loss, and make statements of financial positions (Income Statement and Balance Sheet), and also calculate cash flows for the business.
Marketplace integration has not only changed the game for online stores, but retailers who adopted the software early on experienced that these strategies completely altered the pace of business as well, as handling multiple stores became manageable and convenient!
