5 Top Software Vendors in Omnichannel Commerce in 2021

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.

Kibo – unified cloud commerce – number 5 on top omnichannel software vendors

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.

Suite is no. 4 on our top software vendors in omnichannel commerce list

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.

PayPal to Process More Offline Payments

Ebay subsidiary PayPal is dead serious about taking on a $10 trillion market: the Multichannel Payments Market. To do so it will have to prove its worthiness against older companies, especially in offline commerce.

Multichannel Payments

A steady increase in Ebay's Revenue. Biggest cash cow - PayPal, 41% of total revenue.
A steady increase in Ebay’s revenue. Biggest cash cow – PayPal, 41% of total revenue.

With more than 140 million registered users already, PayPal has the sweetest spot in the online payments today. Its acquisition of global payments company Braintree secured an additional 35 million registered users. As President David Marcus puts it – this is a part of an effort to redefine money and payments into what he calls “Money 3.0” – a new way of looking at payments and how customers use them.

PayPal owner-company Ebay is at the front of what some would call a commerce revolution led by technology. Its three main branches (The Marketplaces, Ebay Enterprise and PayPal) all work together in this changing landscape.

The Marketplaces (including Ebay.com, Shopping.com and Rent.com) enable C2C Commerce, while Ebay Enterprise caters end-to-end multichannel commerce technology. Ebay Enterprise is the tech, operational management and marketing vendor for the likes of Toys’R’Us, Radioshack, Sony ant many others.

Between these two, the payment processing subsidiary PayPal leads the way in online payments. The company is Ebay’s most promising subsidiary, growing at 20% in 2013. As of 2011, it decided to go offline, allowing customers to handle their money, cards and PayPal wallets in one place.

POS solutions

paypalofflineTo increase offline usage, PayPal now offers point-of-sale solutions, mostly targeted at the new tablet-based counters. Store owners can easily implement its apps and start charging right away.

In an effort to increase adoption, PayPal started integration with third-party store management solutions such as ShopKeep POS, Booker, or Leapset.

Among its benefits for store-owners, Paypal lists security, quick implementation and an all-in-one approach to accepting payments, scanning barcodes, tracking inventory and sending invoices.

Customers willing to take their PayPal Wallet to an offline store account can pay by swiping their PayPal paycard, using their account or by paying online and picking up in store. Having a larger pool of companies accepting PayPal payments allows the company to securely handle all transactions, allow customers to receive loyalty points and handle all personal information.

Ebay and PayPal will stick together

paypal-growthSince Ebay purchased PayPal, both companies listed a successful increase in revenue. Ebay powered PayPal’s adoption to its marketplace users and in turn PayPal grew up to become one of Ebay’s most profitable subsidiaries, amounting to 41% of total revenue in 2013.

With the help from Ebay, PayPal grew from $600 million in mobile payments to $27 billion in just three years. The figures are posted on the 2014 annual shareholder meeting website, in response to Carl Icahn’s demand to spin PayPal off into a separate company.

Carl Icahn, one of the most notorious corporate raiders in the tech industry, demanded PayPal to be split into a separate company and become listed on its on. The board of directors fought his demands showing that even though the company is open to changes in the future, right now the two are working better together.

Luck would have it that shareholders reached an agreement to keep the companies together and handle the incoming commerce revolution as a whole.

“[…] we have moved aggressively to leverage PayPal’s integration with eBay to expand PayPal’s reach to millions of online retailers and to offline transactions. PayPal remains one of the fastest growing elements of the company – which helps explain why others are targeting the payments business but are far behind PayPal.”

John Donahue, Ebay CEO. Source.