Omnichannel ecommerce refers to selling through multiple sales channels while providing a unified, seamless experience for customers. With the rise of ecommerce, customers now expect to be able to browse and buy products through various channels such as online stores, mobile apps, social media and brick-and-mortar retail.
Implementing an omnichannel sales strategy comes with its fair share of challenges, especially when it comes to inventory management across channels. However, when executed successfully, omnichannel retail can help boost sales and create a more convenient shopping journey for customers.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what omnichannel ecommerce entails, look at popular platforms, discuss inventory management challenges, and provide tips for setting up unified inventory across channels.
Omnichannel ecommerce involves integrating your sales channels to provide a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. The goal is to allow customers to seamlessly research, purchase, pickup and return products through multiple avenues such as:
When executing omnichannel sales, the backend technology, inventory, order management, fulfillment and customer data is integrated across channels. This creates a unified brand experience for shoppers, no matter how or where they browse and purchase.
For example, a customer may see a product on your Instagram page, then research reviews on your website, purchase through your mobile app, and opt to pick up in-store. Or they may purchase online and return an item at a physical store location. Omnichannel makes these types of journeys possible.
There are many ecommerce platforms that provide tools and functionality to manage multichannel selling. Some popular options include:
These platforms make it easier to get an omnichannel operation up and running by providing the necessary built-in tools and integrations.
One of the biggest challenges faced with omnichannel retail is keeping inventory synchronized across all sales and fulfillment channels.
Some issues that can arise with multi-channel inventory tracking include:
The biggest culprit behind these issues is that inventory updates aren’t synchronized in real-time across all channels. For example, units sold on your online storefront decreases the available stock, but if that sale doesn’t automatically update the inventory level shown on your Amazon marketplace listing, it can quickly become inaccurate.
To avoid headaches with omnichannel inventory control, you need to implement centralized, real-time tracking across all sales channels, warehouses and physical store locations.
By leveraging the right platforms and inventory monitoring technology, omnichannel sellers can stay on top of real-time stock levels to prevent common issues that disrupt the customer experience.
Specialized omnichannel inventory management systems help retailers connect and synchronize product availability across all sales and fulfillment channels.
One leading option is ZORP, an omnichannel inventory automation platform designed for complex multi-channel ecommerce. Benefits of ZORP include:
For omnichannel sellers struggling with disjointed inventory tracking across channels, ZORP brings everything together into a centralized, real-time system. This prevents stockouts, improves accuracy, and provides the full visibility needed to optimize an omnichannel distribution strategy.
Implementing effective omnichannel ecommerce presents challenges – especially when it comes to keeping inventory synchronized. By leveraging unified commerce platforms and inventory management solutions, retailers can connect sales channels to track real-time stock availability. This helps create seamless omnichannel customer experiences that increase sales and prevent lost revenue due to out-of-stocks. With the right tools and strategy, omnichannel success is achievable.
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