6 Tools to Grow Your Multichannel eCommerce Store
The world of eCommerce grows more and more each year, as a majority of people all over the world transition to digital shopping. By 2040, 95% of retail purchases are likely to be made online and it’s no wonder that many retailers are setting up shop online.
If you’re an eCommerce merchant, you’re probably wondering how you can run a profitable business, grow it, and keep up with competitors. One of the best ways to achieve your goals is to get into multichannel selling.
Even though selling products from more than one channel can be demanding, you can make the process much easier by using some well-selected tools.
ETL Tool
Modern businesses collect an abundance of data from multiple sources, and it’s impossible to manually extract and process all of that data to make it useful for analytics. That is why every business that is looking to handle big data needs an ETL tool.
The best ETL tools ensure a business has fast access to transformed and integrated data no matter how large it is or what source it originated from. And since ETL tools process data while they’re transforming and loading it, it’s ready to use as soon as it arrives at the data store.
Some of the Benefits of an ETL Tool include:
- Visual flow. All ETL tools come with a graphical user interface (GUI) which you can use to design processes without any programming knowledge. All you need to do is use the built-in drag-and-drop interface to create data flows and specify rules.
- Operational resilience. Operational problems in the data warehouse can create serious issues and bottlenecks if they aren’t detected and resolved on time. Your tool will catch all operational problems alert the IT team, and also minimize the human error that’s inevitable in hand-coded solutions.
- Tracking data lineage. With your ETL tool, you’ll have a deeper insight into your data catalog to see how each result was generated. You can also see what source system the data came from when it was refreshed, where it was stored, and what process was used to extract and transform the data.
- Enabling advanced data profiling. To support data-driven initiatives such as machine learning and business intelligence, you need quality data. And since ETL tools allow you to maintain universal formatting and semantic consistency, you’ll be able to ensure solid data management and profiling.
Multichannel Software for Product Listings
When you’re using multiple channels to list and sell your products, multi-channel listing software can make your job much easier. It will allow you to list your inventory across different sales channels without needing to re-upload them for each channel.
Software for multichannel product listing will ensure all of the information about your products is always accurate and up to date across all channels. This type of software doesn’t require any manual uploads and allows you to seamlessly transfer all product data between merchants, suppliers, and marketing channels effortlessly.
When you’re looking for a multichannel software for product listing, make sure to find one that integrates with:
- Search engines such as Google Ads and Google Shopping.
- Social media websites such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay.
- Marketing platforms such as AdRoll and AdForm.
Feedback Software
Every experienced eCommerce store owner knows the importance of online reviews and how instrumental they are to the seller’s success. Customers need to see at least one review before they can trust a business and 56% of consumers read at least four reviews before buying a product.
However, some online merchants have issues with generating positive feedback, so if you want to generate or even speed up this process, you need to automate it with feedback software. This type of software targets people who are happy with your business and are most likely to leave positive reviews.
This usually includes customers who’ve received their deliveries on time, purchased your best-rated products, or already provided positive feedback for one of your items.
Multichannel Inventory Management Software
When you sell the same products on multiple platforms, it can be hard to keep up with your inventory and make sure everything you have on your website you also have in stock. If your inventory is not always up to date, you will have to deal with a lot of canceled orders and unhappy customers.
To avoid this, you need multichannel inventory management software that will provide you with convenient oversight and automated management of any and all of the products you have in stock.
When you run out of a certain product, the software will automatically update the product listing on all of your channels. And since all of your sales will be directed to this one software, you can ensure that each of them is fulfilled accurately and quickly.
Almost all good multichannel management tools integrate with most eCommerce shopping cart software, which will only help you streamline the purchasing process further.
Multichannel eCommerce Customer Service Software
All eCommerce businesses need to have exceptional customer support and 84% of consumers say customer service is a key factor in deciding whether to purchase an item. And when you’re operating from multiple channels, the best way to handle customer support is through one central hub.
Ideally, a business that operates from multiple channels needs to have service software that was designed specifically for eCommerce and specializes in multichannel service. This type of software usually has one shared inbox and manages all information from one place.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) Platform
One of the biggest drawbacks of eCommerce is that customers aren’t able to physically see and feel the product they’re buying. However, that doesn’t have to be an issue for you if you represent your products and brand with the appropriate digital assets.
Digital assets are photos, illustrations, videos, and any other media you use to build your online store, gain customer trust, and support marketing efforts. If you want a way to store, share, and organize all of these assets in one central location, you need a DAM platform.
These platforms keep your branding materials relevant in a secure, organized, and easily searchable storage facility. If you invest in DAM software, you can expect the following benefits:
- All of your assets will be organized in one central location.
- You can automate workflow and enhance employee creativity.
- Sophisticated search capabilities will allow you to locate all media files quickly and effortlessly.
- Automatically watermark any image.
- Manage permissions for all digital assets through copyright functionality.
- Use facial recognition to automatically tag images.
Final thoughts
Growing an eCommerce store into a successful business is no easy task, especially if you’re selling products from multiple channels. If you already own this type of online business, you know it comes with a lot of trials. However, running multiple online stores doesn’t have to be hard or demanding at all.
All you need for your multichannel eCommerce business is a couple of carefully chosen tools that will help make the road ahead much simpler and less stressful. And if you’re passionate about your business, you probably already know which of these tools are right for you.
