For many retailers, 2020 and 2021 meant profound changes in their internal sales and procurement process. In addition, the closure of stores and businesses caused by the pandemic has profoundly transformed the shopping experience. The OMS system (Order Management System) has taken on a new dimension by becoming the cornerstone of commerce operations.
At the same time, the pandemic has encouraged the rise of new business models, including one in particular: the marketplace. As proof, according to a YouGov study for Stripe dating from September 2021, 52% of French people say they prefer marketplaces to make their purchases centrally. Faced with these two variables each evolving exponentially, the establishment of the OMS / Marketplace duo for retailers almost sounds like a no-brainer today. Explanations.
A growing role of marketplaces
The marketplace has become over time an essential sales channel. Its first advantage, and it is not negligible, is to offer much lower marketing costs compared to other sales channels. How? ‘Or’ What ? By centralizing the possible space for purchases, the marketplace unifies the communication and marketing vectors used by merchants.
The marketplace is also a channel opening up the possibility of internationalizing its sales for retailers. If opening its market to as many people as possible is a business opportunity for any brand, it must however take up a challenge: to make itself known and to gain the trust of its customers. The marketplace helps to circumvent the obstacle. Faced with the many third-party sellers present on the web, the marketplace is gaining popularity among customers, offering a direct and convenient way to compare prices and products from a single and reliable source. In this quest to strengthen the trust factor between the consumer and the retailer, rather than buying from an online store unknown to the customer, the latter will thus feel ever more reassured in his purchasing process via the marketplace of the brand.
Finally, making purchases 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, was for a long time a sweet dream for both sellers and consumers. The marketplace now frees merchants from the constraints of time and place by providing them with its own logistics services.
WHO: a pilot role in the management of marketplaces
The whole point of a marketplace is to provide the customer with reliable information on the products offered for sale. For this, the WHO has all the assets to play a central role. But this one doesn’t stop there.
The OMS makes it possible to expose the stocks to be marketed on the marketplace simultaneously. Several strategies are then open to retailers: selling products initially present in stores (and then shipping them from points of sale, thus providing a Ship From Store service), selling exclusive stock to marketplaces or selling off stock. from previous seasons.
Integrating the OMS into its marketplace also makes it possible to ensure the sending and receiving of all orders taken online. Via a control interface, the customer promise to be delivered on time and above all, according to the right delivery method, can be kept. Still around the customer experience, the OMS also impacts the retailer’s customer service by informing him about the cancellation rate or the status of orders.
From an internal point of view, the OMS makes the problems of out of stock visible before or after an order, since it virtually segments the stock in such a way as to give the merchant the possibility of controlling what it puts up for sale in every market. Furthermore, by “absorbing” orders placed on the marketplace and updating the inventory in real time, OMS will avoid overselling (or “overselling”).
All these positive externalities, making information more easily accessible for the retailer, inevitably lead to increased margins and lower production costs. In a very concrete way, for example, the OMS makes it possible to automatically choose the cheapest and most ecological delivery method according to the variables received by it.
As you will have understood, the marketplace / OMS couple brings significant SEO and accessibility gains for retailers. In line with new post-COVID purchasing practices, this duo will offer merchants of today and tomorrow the acquisition of new customers, undeniably leading to an increase in their turnover.