REMIRA Software for Marketplace Connections

Greater reach through marketplace connections for retailers and manufacturers

Marketplaces, whether B2B marketplaces or consumer e-commerce sites, offer companies a quick way to get started with online commerce. The advantage of online marketplaces over your own online store: Customers know the platform and are already regular users of Amazon and eBay, for example. In addition, unlike your own online store, marketplaces already have tried-and-tested processes for sales and the entire transaction.

Marketing one's own product range online on sales platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Otto, Zalando and others holds potential not only for retailers, but also for manufacturers. Retailers benefit from the high level of awareness and can venture a quick and direct entry into digital commerce. Manufacturers and brands can present their offers on the online marketplace without intermediaries and act as sellers themselves. This allows them to reach users, their actual customers, online and gather important information about their preferences. Even for cross-border selling, a provider like Amazon already provides an infrastructure. So not selling on the right online marketplace can mean leaving sales potential untapped and money on the street. How do you get started with this business model?

Once the platform has been found, the connection to the online marketplace is established via an appropriate interface. This interface must ensure the correct exchange of data between the different systems, such as the retailer's or manufacturer's ERP system and the online marketplace's system. Connecting to a marketplace can be part of an omnichannel strategy. You may want to move beyond a single sales channel to include more marketplaces and your own online store. The tip here is to look for software that can centrally manage multiple channels. Because the basic principle of omnichannel applies: For a smooth customer journey, the solutions involved must work together seamlessly. And that can be achieved with software that acts as an overarching data control center.

Marketplace connectivity software is middleware that exchanges data with the marketplace software on the one hand and the company's existing software on the other. It synchronizes data, automates processes, and provides the marketplace or multiple marketplaces with the information they need.

With marketplace software, retailers can offer goods on the marketplace of their choice without having to have special e-commerce skills and without having to replace the company's existing IT infrastructure. The same applies to B2B marketplace software: it must ensure that products are visible on the online marketplace using the data available in the systems. The right marketplace software can also make old and outdated systems and IT infrastructures fit for e-commerce. A modular solution adapts to existing systems and individual requirements. In the best case, all retail, shipping, warehousing, and logistics processes are combined in a central system. The result is a control center for modern commerce that automatically maps all relevant e-business processes.

For example, if a retailer sells the same products online as it does in its brick-and-mortar stores, it can happen that the brick-and-mortar store sells an item that another customer has already ordered on the e-commerce platform. Marketplace connectivity software synchronizes all data on sales and remaining availability in real time. It can also book goods reserved online so that they are no longer available for sale through another channel, even if the item is still physically available in the warehouse. In this way, the e-commerce software helps to avoid overselling - and to offer only what is actually available for delivery.

Marketplace connectivity software drives omnichannel successerfolgreich

A retailer's or manufacturer's existing IT architecture is generally not designed for highly automated Internet sales. In order to generate sales via a marketplace, organizational and structural challenges must first be overcome. On the one hand, merchant-specific third-party systems such as ERP, merchandise management, accounting, and payment systems must be connected to the sales platform. On the other hand, each marketplace works with different systems and data formats and therefore has different integration requirements.

Merchants who want to sell through a platform often combine these many systems through extensive in-house development, tools, and numerous interfaces. This makes the entire system landscape more complex and more susceptible to errors or update problems.

To keep pace in the fast-paced and ever-evolving online selling environment, modern middleware is an ideal solution for connecting marketplaces.

style="color: #666666;">A multichannel strategy or omnichannel approach requires the coordination of many small processes in the technical and organizational infrastructure. The choice of marketplace connectivity software should therefore not only depend on the price and good service of the provider, but also on the interface competence and the performance required by your company, e.g. for:

style="color: #666666;">Control drop shipment vendors, shipping providers, and payment service providers
style="color: #666666;">Examples of sales channels from storefronts to apps to marketplaces to social media
style="color: #666666;">Integrate multiple inventory systems, including ERP, financials, PIM, logistics, and CRM
style="color: #666666;">Constant updating of all stock levels in all sales channels (avoids overstocking)
style="color: #666666;">Process multiple payment types, including partial payment processing
style="color: #666666;">Enable shipping options such as shipping from the main warehouse, via drop-shippers or third-party logistics providers, ship from store, or click & collect
style="color: #666666;">Support for return options such as home delivery and in-store returns
style="color: #666666;">Answer customer inquiries and create tickets

style="color: #666666;">Marketplace connectivity software ensures that the various requirements and complex structures do not interfere with the customer's shopping experience. For example, customers expect good usability, complete product information, an appealing presentation of images and text, and smooth processes after clicking "order now" or in the case of returns - in other words, a continuous customer journey. The fact that there are different channels, different touch points, through which the customer interacts with the seller, should not matter to the customer.

From business-to-business marketplaces to eBay classifieds for every user: Amazon, eBay, Otto and others have very different requirements. In addition to the increasingly complex system landscape at the brand or retailer, the sales platforms also require different data formats. This quickly leads to errors in the transfer of information, and instead of smooth omnichannel retailing, there are repeated errors in the transmission of orders. Over-sales due to non-automated processes and outdated inventory levels are also common. To ensure that companies not only list their products everywhere, but also take advantage of additional sales channels, marketplace connection software acts as an enabler for entry into the platform business. For example, it should provide the following features

Connection to marketplaces through listing and order management
Automated order routing
Short-term connection of new online marketplaces
Communication and shipping invoice to customers
Manage the interaction of disparate systems
Real-time data exchange
Automated processes
Payment Service Provider Integration
Provide current inventory levels
Provide complete product information
Smooth performance with platform operators
Integrated technical infrastructure eliminates errors
Reduce personnel costs
Easily expand your product range with dropshipping

Enter marketplace sales with existing ERP

It may seem difficult to integrate online stores and marketplaces with your existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. This is because the existing ERP system reliably manages all items with basic, packaging and pricing data, but is not designed for rapid scaling in online markets, either in terms of the scope of product information or in terms of its data formats and process orientation. This can be remedied by marketplace connectivity software, which acts as an intermediary between the inventory IT and the sales platforms and can be used as an extension to the existing ERP system. Such a solution enables the smooth connection of marketplaces, automatically providing them with all the necessary data in the required formats. And it can centrally connect other systems involved in online retailing, from payment service providers to external product information management (PIM) systems.

Software for Marketplace Connections

Greater reach through marketplace connections for retailers and manufacturers

What is a marketplace connection software?

Marketplace connectivity software drives omnichannel successerfolgreich

Looking for a solution to sell seamlessly on online marketplaces?

What are the benefits of Marketplace connectivity software?

Key features of online marketplace software

Enter marketplace sales with existing ERP

Looking for a solution to optimize your marketplace connections?