Tag: ebay enterprise

It’s not easy connecting all your sales channels. Making sure that brick and mortar stores, the online store, live shopping channels and others are all in sync can become complicated. Retailers need to get all departments, all sales channels, suppliers and fulfilment operations on the same page. That’s why I’ve put together a list of the top software vendors in omnichannel commerce – to help you skip the software sourcing part.

It’s not an easy task to connect an omnichannel software vendor to existing systems.  Fortunately, some companies are really good at it. Others – just good at saying they are.

And here come the knights in shiny digital armor to rescue the day. The following 5 vendors have built omnichannel retail capabilities ready to be plugged into existing retail ecosystems. They are now the go-to elite for large retailers in need of upgrading their IT infrastructure.

5. Kibo – unified commerce.

Number 5 on our top software vendors in omnichannel list is Kibo. In 2015 former Shopatron became Kibo. The company now sports an API-first, microservices based platform that enables B2B and B2C ecommerce as well as order management, inventory systems and point of sale solutions.

The company was founded in September 2000 by Ed Stevens and Sean Collier. Since then, it has evolved into an integrated SaaS platform that connects offline and online orders management, making it easier for customers to purchase from retailers.

The company offers specific omnichannel solutions, most important being:

1. in-store pick-up
2. ship from store
3. inventory lookup
4. vendor dropship

Shopatron targets midsize retailers and its main benefit is the advanced order routing. The platform combines online and offline sales and claims inventory visibility across channels.

Pros:

• great fit for midsize companies
• developer friendly and easily integrate-able due to its API-first architecture
• headless commerce structure – enables building disconnected systems on existing software structure
• good fit for larger retailers that look for a quick roll-out for the solutions listed above
• can connect multiple sales channels and direct orders to the right fulfilment point
• works for both B2B and B2C commerce
• reduced costs and quick roll out

Cons:

• implementations can become costly due to development costs
• backend can seem outdated or complicated
• analytics may not be its strong point

4. NetSuite Suite commerce

NetSuite was already rocking a great SaaS ERP product and a fully flavored ecommerce solution when it acquired OrderMotion in 2013. Now the company can provide inventory management across channels, a single customer view, business intelligence data and omnichannel order management. In the past years the product has made the company one of the top software vendors in omnichannel with its SuiteCommerce collection of products.

The company, among the first to bet on SaaS platforms, was acquired by Oracle in 2016 for $9.6 billion and its multi-channel software became the go-to option for its 23 000 Oracle customers.

NetSuite started as NetLedger, envisioned as an online accounting tool, that later turned to an wider array of company management tools.

Prior to its Oracle acquisition, Netsuite was very active in acquiring companies itself. In 2013 it acquired Retail Anywhere, a POS solutions company that became its POS commerce solution. In 2014 it acquired both Venda, an ecommerce SaaS company, and eBizNet Solutions, a company focused on WMS (warehouse management system) solutions.

Netsuite has decided omnichannel is a perfect mix when it connects companies focused o separate blocks in the retail chain.

Pros:

• Extensive know how of retail operations management
• Integrated SaaS solutions
• Great record of acquisitions
• Single view of customer across channels
• Multi-channel channel inventory view and order management
• Extensive list of customers, a lot of them enterprise Oracle customers
• Great uptime

Cons:

• NetSuite is “broadly focused”: its solutions work with healthcare, finance, manufacturing and many, many others. That leaves little room for actual retail innovation
• Expeeeensive
• The solution is targeted at enterprise customers or midsized to large companies, a lot of them Oracle customers
• Complicated to operate and train staff on
• Complex pricing and licensing structure

3. New in the top software vendors for omnichannel: VTEX

VTEX was nowhere to be seen on this list 5 years ago. The company started in Brasil as an ecommerce company catering to the local market. It’s innovative technology caught the attention of Walmart as it entered the Brasil retail market. They’ve created a solid presence for the company in the country and expanded regionally in LATAM.

Companies such as Sony, Samsung, Adidas and many others has chosen VTEX as their B2C and B2B multi-channel software suppier.

From all the other companies on this list VTEX is the best in many fields, chief of which is its modern infrastructure, matched only by the likes of Shopify, which is more aimed towards ecommerce rather than multi channel sales.

Pros:

• Great user experience
• Headless, API-based ecommerce
• Microservices based
• Available globally
• Apps marketplace and third party developers
• Great developer support
• Fast time to market implementations

Cons:

• Not much customisation can be done on the core platform. It’s a multi-tennant cloud platform.
• The platform can be sometimes slow

2. SAP Commerce

SAP commerce was once a thriving, innovative company called Hybris. Afterwards SAP purchased it and there’s almost no way to find out how you can implement the software. Just trolling. The solution is good and it used to be number one on this list. Not anymore.

This omnichannel solution is scalable and built on a modern and flexible architecture, that allows interaction with all interfaces. Its order management solution, inventory and commerce application are built to work together seamless and easily connect with other systems.

SAP commerce’s solutions work both B2B and B2C and can handle inputs from multiple inventory sources and outputs on multiple sales channels. Moreover, the solution features a central content management system that enables retailers to push content across a multitude of interfaces.

Pros

• scalable solution
• feature packed
• fully integrated solutions
• works B2B and B2C
• modern architecture
• supports multiple interfaces
• works online, offline and on multiple other channels
• flexible enough to work with open source technologies

Cons

• training may be expensive
• professionals able to implement and train are hard to find, due to an increase of platform demand
• customization and setup can be time and resource consuming
• it’s part of SAP

1. Shopify Plus

Shopify is an amazing company and its communication, style, products and company culture really stand out. It used to be the small kid on the block but now, in term of product, market reach and its huge growth in 2020 it really shines.

It makes sense that its core enterprise product can work on multiple channels. It’s incredibly stable as an ecommerce platform, migration is extremely fast, works as a point of sale solution and you can integrate all logistics on it. Plus, it comes with the experience of having more stores on its platform than any other company.

Shopify Plus takes the crown on my list of top vendors for omnichannel software, 5 years after it was not even included here. Kudos, Shopify.

So that’s it – these are the best of breed. Of course, there are more out there that deliver great products and I could name Intershop or SalesForce Cloud . They, however are less inclined to omnichannel or have a really new found love for omnichannel retail. The vendors mentioned above are leading the pack in omnichannel retail implementation, especially for large customers.