More and more mail order companies are relying on comprehensive multi-channel strategies to secure or further expand their existing market share in eCommerce. The advantage of having several listing and communication channels to place your own product range is obvious: more potential buyers are addressed via more sales channels and ideally won over as customers.
Today, it is no longer just a matter of intelligently combining and linking offline and online activities, for example, stationary sales in the retail store and parallel online sales in the web store. Even those who do not have a local store or a supra-regional branch structure should address the issue of multi-channel. Many online retailers perceive the almost consistently disproportionate sales growth of eCommerce marketplaces in recent years as growing competition. In particular, store operators who have so far completely refrained from implementing a suitable multi-channel strategy should review their position and attitude.
In this blog post, I would like to list and explain the opportunities and advantages of wide multi-channeling. I will then introduce you to a tool that you can use to implement the wide distribution of your product offers in a targeted manner. As a long-standing JTL technology partner, we at marcos software have developed unicorn 2, a software for JTL-Wawi that allows you to quickly and conveniently list the products you want on numerous major marketplaces.
The importance of multi-channel in eCommerce
Global online retail has been recording steadily growing sales figures for years. In Germany alone, sales are expected to reach EUR 43.6 billion in 2015, an increase of almost 12% on the previous year. The trend is unbroken: The majority of customers previously only found in bricks-and-mortar stores are increasingly shopping online, more and more full-time professionals are taking advantage of the more flexible online ordering options and the next generation has been one of the most active groups of shoppers for years, setting the trend.
There are many reasons for this stable redistribution process in favor of eCommerce. For example, a Statista survey conducted in Germany in 2015 revealed that online customers are particularly interested in browsing outside of opening hours, the peace and quiet when shopping, a targeted price and service comparison (also with regard to bargains) and simultaneous access to many retailers. The resulting time savings are also cited by users as one of the main reasons for shopping online.
If we now take a closer look at the motivations of online customers from the Statista survey, it is noticeable that, in addition to the more general advantages of online listings in general, the comparability of prices and services as well as access to many retailers are of great importance.
ECommerce marketplaces with advantages over the classic online store
The classic, individual online store is inferior to the eCommerce marketplace in both of the points mentioned above. Although it is possible for customers to find a large number of listings for the product they are looking for via price comparison portals, the classic “browsing” – after all, the second most important motivation for buyers – is eliminated by the targeted, exclusively product-related search in said portals.
It is more practical for customers to look and find their way around where they can find a maximum number of listings (from a maximum number of retailers) in an appealing design. If this wide range of offers is now joined by a simple and always the same checkout and Good customer service, then it is difficult to counter the preferences for such marketplaces. The above-average growth of Amazon in Germany documents this development.
Another factor that is causing problems for many store operators is the sharp rise in the number of new online stores and the growing competition among them, especially in niche areas. The probability of reaching potential customers via organic search engine results is continuously decreasing in increasingly narrow markets. The relevant search result positions are and will remain limited – if you want to remain successful in the future, you will have to calculate with significantly increasing costs.
This makes it clear that it is becoming increasingly important for online retailers to place their listings where potential customers search for them and ultimately find them. Experts agree that eCommerce marketplaces will continue to gain ground here and significantly expand their market share.
For online retailers, implementing a differentiated multi-channel strategy not only results in visibility gains, but also other advantages for their e-business as a whole. An overview:
Greater market coverage
Different and new target groups can be addressed and acquired via the respective eCommerce marketplaces.
Savings potential / profitability
A branched offer system across several channels can lead to a reduction in distribution costs.
Better risk management
A balanced multi-channel system makes it possible to balance out fluctuations in demand from specific target groups and minimize dependence on individual channels and sales intermediaries.
What opportunities are there to expand your own multi-channel sales?
A marketplace customer has the same high expectations as a store customer. Here, too, the buyer expects uncomplicated service, fast order processing and, after the purchase, problem-free processing of any queries or returns. If you want to meet these expectations, even in times of increasing competition, you can no longer do without the use of intelligent and cost-efficient software solutions.
JTL-Wawi comes with an excellent infrastructure for managing many different sales channels. Centrally managed customer data, interlocking of relevant processes for offer management (automated stock reconciliation) and a wide range of options for differentiated, channel-specific product communication. By providing these functionalities and also through the experience and success with eazyAuction – the fully automated interfaces to eBay and Amazon – JTL-eazyAuction is ideally positioned for the integration of further marketplaces. This is precisely where we come in with our unicorn 2 software solution.
JTL-Wawi and unicorn 2: More reach through new channels!
As a technology partner, we work closely with JTL on a daily basis and are therefore very familiar with our customers’ requirements. When developing unicorn 2, it was and is important to us to offer a solution that meets the increasing needs of multi-channel customers, creates a variety of new sales opportunities for mail order companies and still keeps them free from additional, time-consuming administration work.
unicorn 2 is a local add-on software for JTL-Wawi that – once set up – sends all desired items and details to important eCommerce marketplaces fully automatically and without further action by the retailer and keeps them up to date at all times. Orders are picked up in a matter of seconds and also automatically entered into JTL-Wawi for further processing. Retailers have the option of scaling their listings at any time and expanding them to other marketplaces.
At the same time, unicorn 2 is completely invisible in day-to-day work. It permanently monitors all changes that the merchant makes to items, categories or orders in JTL-Wawi. All necessary information is sent to the connected marketplaces according to priorities and individual settings. Thanks to an interface that is always the same, it is also quick and easy to integrate additional marketplaces in a targeted manner. The retailer enters their access data, then defines which items and categories may be uploaded and unicorn 2 automatically begins to process all further steps.
eCommerce marketplaces that you can already integrate effortlessly with unicorn 2:
Rakuten.de is one of the leading German marketplaces with an integrated store system. Over 7,200 retailers sell more than 22 million products here, offering a unique shopping experience.
Hood.de was founded in 2000 and is now one of Germany’s largest online marketplaces with over 1.5 million members, more than 4 million listings per day and over 3 million visitors per month.
Allyouneed.com (formerly MeinPaket.de) is DHL’s marketplace and offers store operators a professional sales channel for their entire product range.
Shopgate.de makes your online store mobile. Whether as a mobile website or shopping app for smartphones and tablets – Shopgate is the right partner for the shopping experience on the go.
Hitmeister.de is now one of Germany’s largest online shopping portals and has been pursuing the goal of making buying and selling all kinds of products 100% secure, simple and affordable since 2007.
DaWanda.de is the online marketplace for unique, one-of-a-kind and homemade items. Creative people offer their lovingly crafted products in over 230,000 DaWanda stores.
ricardo.ch is the largest Swiss online marketplace. More than 2.3 million members currently trade goods worth over CHF 660 million a year here.
SumoScout.de is more than just an online marketplace. SumoScout creates new marketplaces and thus opens up new sales markets for retailers and additional sources of profit for the new marketplace operators.
The integration of the following marketplaces is currently planned for 2016 and in the course of further internationalization:
idealo.de | check24.de | yatego.de | smartvie.de | fyndiq.de
crowdfox.com | ricardoshops.ch | cdiscount.com | priceminister.com | etsy.com
unicorn 2 for testing and installed in just a few steps
For all interested parties, we naturally offer a free trial period of 14 days during which you can test the advantages and handling of unicorn 2 in detail. We can also extend this period on request. You can apply for the test version via our homepage: uni2.it/testen
You can also convince yourself of the advantages on our partner site unicorn 2 at JTL and start a test run from here.
If you opt for unicorn 2: With a flexible license model, we want to give young retailers an uncomplicated entry into the world of multi-channel eCommerce. But we also offer a suitable license for unicorn 2 to established companies with a larger portfolio and the desire to present across many sales channels at the same time – and always at a fixed, calculable cost. Two license types are available to you:
The single license with which a marketplace from the unicorn 2 portfolio can be integrated.
The multi-license, a flat rate with which all marketplaces from the unicorn 2 portfolio can be integrated.
unicorn 2 can be installed in just a few steps, a wizard and many instruction videos guide you step by step through the necessary processes.
unicorn 2 in use: A look at the practical side ...
New marketplaces can be easily added in unicorn 2. Thanks to the clear user interface and always the same look – regardless of the marketplace – further integrations can be implemented effortlessly without having to wade through long documentation!
A wizard helps you with the integration and setup so that you don’t overlook any necessary information.
In unicorn 2, the items to be uploaded and updated to the respective marketplace are controlled centrally via a set of rules defined once by the merchant. This has the great advantage that – once set – any number of new items can be added to the JTL-Wawi range (e.g. automatically via JTL-DataTransfer). These items are also directly available to the connected marketplaces without any additional effort per item for the merchant! Once set up, the set of rules automatically decides whether an item should be uploaded, regardless of whether 500, 5000 or 50,000 items are in the range or new ones are added!
The categories of a marketplace – called portal categories by us – can be assigned to the items in unicorn 2 with little effort: Thanks to an inheritance within the category structure of JTL-Wawi, it is sufficient to simply assign a marketplace category to the top category. unicorn 2 then automatically adopts this for all subcategories and their items. This allows you to achieve a maximum number of assignments with just a few clicks.
The respective marketplace categories are prepared and always displayed with the same appearance directly in unicorn 2 – a manual search on the marketplace and the error-prone typing of numerical keys is a thing of the past!
The data exchange between JTL-Wawi and unicorn 2 always takes place automatically in the background. It is not necessary to initiate a manual synchronization by clicking a button or similar. Thanks to the Windows-integrated services of both systems, unicorn 2 notices every change to items, categories and orders in JTL-Wawi. Within minutes, this information is automatically sent to the connected marketplaces. This service, similar to that of JTL-Wawi-Worker, starts automatically with Windows, eliminating additional effort for the merchant when maintaining products and offers.
You can use the corresponding settings to precisely set the times for the respective synchronizations to be carried out. For example, you can ensure that the bandwidth of your Internet connection is spared during daytime business or that there is an automatic interruption for the nightly database backup.
I hope that I have been able to give you a small impression of the performance and opportunities that unicorn 2 has to offer. I would be delighted if the well-coordinated team of JTL-Wawi and unicorn 2 also leads to better visibility and a sales boost for you in the future.
Good thanks for your attention!
Marc from marcos software
