What are some of the key benefits for leveraging FocusPoint to manage the integration of multichannel distribution?
Lets look at FocusPoint from a few perspectives.
FocusPoint automatically – indirectly – integrates the 3rd part market reseller with the ERP (SAP Business One) decreasing “time to market” for listing on the market reseller
Brand Visibility – FocusPoint can improve brand visibility by providing sales channels like Amazon and allowing you to explore a wider range of market segments. This can help attract potential customers and increase sales.
Customer Loyalty – FocusPoint helps build customer loyalty by providing greater convenience and flexibility. Leveraging Amazons warehousing for example may allow your customers to get products faster by leveraging Amazons shipping network.
Targeting – FocusPoint can help you simplify the process of targeting specific customers from different demographics and behaviors.
Revenue – FocusPoint can enable the conditions to lead to increased revenue by serving new customers through multiple channels and penetrating new markets. This allows businesses to collect a wide range of data about your customers, including sales history, demographics, and locations.
What is a common hurdle stopping SMEs from wanting to transition into omnichannel ecommerce?
Traditionally this has been a high cost for many companies. Integrations can be complex, costly and present numerous business process challenges. Historically, there was expensive software licensing, complex transactions like EDI integrations, logistics around fulfillment requirements per channel, brand awareness, and customer service presented other continuous challenges.
What major struggles are SMEs facing when trying to sell through big-box stores?
The big box stores are protecting their own brands and their own perception of their customer service. Big box logistic companies like BestBuy, Costco and even Amazon put heavy demand on the SMEs to supply product at an accelerated rate (faster delivery times means a buyer will come back more often to “this” sales channel). They go as far as shipping on the merchants behalf by having the companies send their products in advance into BigBox warehouse before it’s sold. This increases the upfront cost of having unsold assets on the books which can artificially increase demand. Other struggles include honoring different warranties for different service level agreements for each big box.
