Commerce is Complex, Multi- is the Key

How easy it is to have one-click checkout and a day after, my new yoga mat delivered to my door, but there is a problem. My yoga instructor just sent me a message, she wants to schedule our session today instead; her daughter has a year-end show in school that conflict with our tranquility session. Life is full of surprises and unexpected interruptions. What should I do now?

Let me ask the web wizard Google, he knows everything from what color of the mat I should order to which local store may have it for pickup. I can even schedule the pickup online. Oh lord, you are great, but I just realized there are these soothing candles also available online but not available in that store. Thankfully I can get it delivered in two days and available for my next session let me add this to the cart too. I love my iPhone, everything is only one click away.

Shopping is about convenience, removing all the friction, and time is the most precious commodity. We, consumers, are pushing limits on this. We want to do an online search that tells us what to buy and where to buy.

Isn't it perfect to have a third eye watching our life and making the best decisions for us? Where we are heading with all this? The answer is that we are looking for easier ways to get great value. Ideally, we want to save time researching, analyzing, and deciding what shampoo has the most gentle touch with my hair. We want to be told and follow what to do about everything.

Commerce is complex, my fellow followers. The simpler the expectations are by the customers, the more complex providing a feasible solution for them. This includes but is not limited to managing products, catalogs, pricing, inventory, warehouses, orders, vendors, sales channels, and, did I say, managing marketing. campaigns.

A digitally established product company needs an average of 15 components in their tech stack working simultaneously or serially to run the commerce operations. The below chart is a basic representation of how different members of the commerce world have to all connected for this smooth shopping experience.

The physical store, websites, marketplaces, social media sites, marketing platforms, B2C or B2B sites, or digital catalog, every touchpoint is a channel actually wherever?a transaction happens between a buyer, and a seller is a channel. Manufacturers, brands, distributors, and retailers are the main players who provide various services and information to these channels’ customers.

The new era of commerce requires a unified omnichannel experience by connecting systems that are separately used by each member of this ecosystem, including manufacturers, brands, distributors, and retailers.

A single and centralized digital shelf for all customer engagement points that include both sales and marketing channels is created by a collaborative effort from all four members of this ecosystem. The customer’s shopping experience continues in the fulfillment process and also requires integration between the operator of selling channels and fulfillment handlers.

The more accurate and consistent the information, the better the shopping experience created for the end buyers, whether it is business customers or individual consumers. Regardless of what type of customer, they do not like surprises, loyalty is harder to establish and requires consistent experience throughout the whole engagement points before and after the purchase.

On the other side, the fragmented nature of customer demand, product supply chains, and the need for a feasible, cost-effective fulfillment network require brands to think about multi-node commerce operations that include:

• multiple sales channels
• multiple suppliers
• multiple warehouses
• in some cases, multiple countries and multi-currencies

deal with all the complexity the multi brings.

D2C brands that a few years ago had a website on the Shopify platform are also looking to expand marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target to increase their influence and reach. Retailers traditionally work with few suppliers, now looking for ways to expand their product selections by directly working with vendors in dropship scenarios.

Multi is no more an option but a necessity for product companies to survive but also thrive. There is a need for a better way to handle large product catalogs and syndicate the product data, price, and inventory across various demand and sales channels in addition to running smooth fulfillment operations.

So all these problems in modern commerce indicate the era of an all-in-one commerce platform seamlessly integrating digital and physical operations, connecting different members and mediums of the commerce ecosystem for a consistent shopping experience and accurate fulfillment.

We members of StoreAutomator love thinking, creating, and discussing commerce, operations, optimization, scaling, digital transformation, integration, implementation, project management, and technology.

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