Revolutionising the Online Retail Market

In the next couple of years, we are going to hear a lot about multichannel ecommerce. It is the key marketing and selling strategy for modern businesses; for many businesses, it is paramount to economic survival within the ever-changing online world.

What Is Multi-Channel Ecommerce?
Two general approaches are relevant when people speak about multichannel ecommerce. Multichannel ecommerce can refer to either, or both, of the following:

1. Multi-channel ecommerce for businesses with a single online shop. Here, businesses are able to link their online storefront to other means of online selling, for example, by attaching the store to their Amazon storefront, or to any other online market place.
2. Multi-channel ecommerce for businesses with multiple online shops (for example, those that have an international site and a national site; or, those that have an online shoe shop and an online clothing shop). Here, a link is forged between both stores. Furthermore, each store can be linked to any online market place (e.g. Amazon, EBay or Facebook).

When each aspect of the storefront is linked, businesses are able to track and keep account of all of their auditing, accounts and stock management. For instance, when a person buys an item from the business’s Amazon account, their online store is updated to take account of the reduction in stock – this is done across the multi-channel, so each aspect of the business is updated in real-time. The websites, eBay, Facebook, amazon are all updated in respect of the transaction. Furthermore, the transactions can be linked to accounting software, such as QuickBooks and Sage 50 Accounts.

What are the Advantages of Multichannel Ecommerce?
Clearly, the biggest advantage is in time saving technologies. Because the entire online business is linked across multiple channels that update in real-time, this removes the need for manual processing. In the past, somebody would have to physically update each area of the online business for each transaction – the larger the business, therefore, the more time is dedicated to administration. Each transaction and any additional stock/price change/sale item is synchronised across the system.

Multichannel ecommerce is beneficial to the customer, too. It allows easy browsing between different websites, across a multitude of devices. For instance, a customer will have the same browsing experience whether accessing the store from their laptop, smartphone, tablet or PC, and regardless of whether they are visiting the site, or a marketplace such as EBay.