Multi-channel management: The new age of commerce

After last month's Magento Imagine conference, the industry buzz around eCommerce is at an all-time high. Today's eCommerce options are so robust that they enable large companies the flexibility to manage their web sales channel with a similar finesse as they do their store or other sales operations. Meanwhile eCommerce systems are so affordable that small companies are able to compete against larger retailers with a similar level of comprehensive features. While traditional eCommerce sites have given companies a taste of online commerce, most companies have been dissatisfied when using an eCommerce site alone. And many companies have expanded their online sales channels to include marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon to reach their goals for online sales.

Although there is a tremendous amount of energy and excitement around these opportunities, it's important to consider the back-end ramifications of a multi-channel sales strategy.  The backbone of your organization is your Microsoft Dynamics ERP/RMS system, so if eCommerce data doesn't move to/from that application, your operations could be compromised and you could have a gaping hole in intelligence.

But there's more to managing multiple channels than simply integrating data from system A to system B.  To maximize the return of your back end system and provide the highest level of service to customers, business processes should also be integrated, standardized and streamlined.  Here are some key capabilities for properly managing a multi-channel sales strategy:

Item management - The first step of achieving this state is to ensure that all sales channels have accurate item information. Item data should be dynamically pushed from a master item list to all channels to ensure consistent product information for all channels. However, each channel will likely require some data ...