• Steve Weber• 20+ years in eCommerce and retail integration
• EDI pioneer at Sterling Commerce (an IBM company)
• Microsoft POS Reseller (Partner of the Year and ISV of the Year)
• nChannel• Integration and multichannel operational platform
• 120 customers
• Thousands of conversations with seller with multichannel requirements
Background
The last revolution in retail was about the movement of physical goods
Multichannel is about the movement of digital information
Real-time Inventory Status
Supply ChainIntegration
Distributed Fulfillment
ImageManagement
ProductAttribute Management
CustomerExperience Management
Endless Aisle
Where Multichannel Lives
Customer Type
Sales Outlet
Fulfillment Method
• B2B• B2C• Master data management• Customer loyalty• Payments
• Order management• Merchandising• Endless aisle• Location/device
(Omnichannel)
• Dropship• Third-party logistics• Buy-online-pickup-
in-store• Return anywhere
What is the market looking for?
(Requirements)
• Direct experience
• User reviews/forums
• Partner testimonies
• Media
What does “ready” look like?
(Evaluation criteria)
• Leading = 4
• Pacing = 3
• Laggard = 2
• Unaffected = 1 How are the vendors doing?
(The players)
• Market leaders
• Companies we have direct experience with
Evaluation Methodology
The RequirementsCustomer
Experience Management
Merchandising Supply Chain Flexibility and Market
Participation
Multichannel Order Management
Product Attributing Dropship API
Endless Aisle Kits/ConfigurableProducts
3PL Customization
Master data management
Bulk Editing Single Inventory Architecture
Real-time product availability
Multichannel Pricing
Supply Chain Integration
Multichannel Leadership
Multichannel loyalty
DimensionalProduct Support
Ecosystem
B2B Customer Support
B2B productcatalogs
• What is it?• Attributing is the ability to provide the ability to use keywords or phrases to
more fully describe a product.
• Why is it important?• Attributes are necessary to enable attribute-based navigation which helps
consumers limit thousands of choices to dozens and compare products.
• What are the key requirements?• Attribute sets
• Unlimited attributes
• Sharing attributes between channels
Example: Product Attributing
• Bulk editing• Attribute typing
Example: Requirement RubricScore Evaluation Criteria
4 – Leading Software provides an integrated order management capability for complete tracking of dropship items
Has leading inventory availability capability (See 5.1.4 Real-time product availability)
Allows for dynamic creation of dropship orders based on inventory availability Selects location or vendor closest to customer for fastest/least expensive shipping Tracks shipments down to the line item level Allows for partial shipments Three-way match capability
3 – Pacing Software provides a standards-based API that can be integrated into a third-party order management platform
Allows for integration with external three-way match software
2 – Lagging Software provides a proprietary API that can be integrated into a third-party order management platform
Allows for integration with external three-way match software
1 – Unaffected Has no three-way match capability Has no integration options
Software Packages EvaluatedPoint-of-Sale ERP eCommerce
NCR Counterpoint Microsoft Dynamics AX Magento Enterprise
Microsoft Dynamics RMS Microsoft Dynamics GP Magento Community
LightSpeed Microsoft Dynamics SL Shopify
QuickBooks POS Microsoft Dynamics NAV Shopify Plus
RetailPro Sage 100 Bigcommerce
NetSuite SuiteCommerce NetSuite ASPDotNetStorefront
Intuit QuickBooks Amazon WebStore
Volusion
* nChannel does not resell any of these packages and no sponsorships were accepted
Flexibility and Community Engagement
Customer Experience Management
Merchandising/Product Information
Management
Supply Chain Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility
The Importance of the API
• The experience won’t be the same
• It’s going to be expensive
• It will be brittle
• Who fixes it when you are gone?
Flexibility/Community EngagementWhat the leaders do well
API
• Uses Internet Technologies
• REST/SOAP
Architecture
• Database
• nTier
Customization
• Can add functionality without code
Multichannel Leadership
• Talk about multichannel – a LOT
Ecosystem
• Have lots of add-ons
• Embrace & promote partners
Customer Experience Management
Customer Experience Management
Merchandising/Product Information
Management
Supply Chain Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility
Creating Moments
• Make your customer’s life easier
• Give them a positive experience
• Demonstrate trustworthiness through consistency
• Be relevant
• Be easy to work with
• Know what your customer wants (and help them find it)
Customer Experience ManagementWhat the leaders do well
Real-time Product Availability
• Ability to share real time inventory data
Multichannel Order Management
• Support distributed fulfillment
• Provide CRM functionality
B2B Customer Management/
Support
• Support terms accounts
• Support customer specific pricing
Endless Aisle
• Support dropship transactions
• Support integration of supplier catalogs
Merchandising/Product Information Management
Customer Experience Management
Merchandising/Product Information
Management
Supply Chain Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility
Merchandising/Product Information ManagementWhat the Leaders do well
Product Attributing
• Support the creation of attribute sets
• Unlimited attributing
Multichannel Pricing
• Allow price definition by sales location
Image Management
• Support multiple images per product
• Image tagging
Catalog Import/Export
• Enable the integration of supplier catalogs (with attributes)
Supply Chain Management
Customer Experience Management
Merchandising/Product Information
Management
Supply Chain Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility
Supply Chain ManagementWhat the leaders do well
Drop Ship
• Create POs for supplier orders
Single Inventory
• Enable inventory from all locations to be viewed as one
Third-party Logistics
• Support multiple inventory locations
• Enable 3PL transactions
Supply Chain Integration
• Support supplier catalogs
POS Vendor Matrix
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Overall 1.8 1.8 3.5 1.7 2.3 3.0
Customer Experience Management 1.83 1.83 3.4 1.67 2.5 3.67
Merchandising/Product Information
Management
2.0 1.75 3.75 1.9 2.25 2.5
Supply Chain Management 1.75 2.5 3.0 1.25 2.5 3.25
Flexibility and Community Engagement 1.6 1.2 3.8 2.0 2.0 2.6
ERP Vendor Matrix
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Overall 3.6 2.4 1.9 3.5 2.1 3.8 1.8
Customer Experience Management 3.7 2.7 2.3 3.7 2.3 3.7 1.7
Merchandising/Product Information Management
3.4 1.9 1.5 3.3 1.9 3.5 1.1
Supply Chain Management 4.0 3.0 2.0 4.0 2.5 4.0 2.3
Flexibility and Community Engagement 3.2 2.0 1.8 3.2 1.8 4.0 2.0
eCommerce Vendor Matrix
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Overall 3.5 3.3 3.4 3.9 3.6 2.5 3.2 3.2Customer Experience Management 2.8 2.8 3.2 3.7 3.3 2.7 2.7 3.3
Merchandising/Product Information Management
3.4 3.4 3.5 3.8 3.5 2.8 3.3 3.3
Supply Chain Management 4.0 3.3 3.0 4.0 3.5 2.3 3.8 3.0
Flexibility and Community Engagement 3.8 3.8 4.0 4.0 4.0 2.2 3.0 3.4
Success isn’t a result of spontaneous
combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
- Arnold Glasowmagazine editor, humorist, author