If you have one business, but multiple sales locations, for instance an e-commerce site and a retail store, it's likely you know the challenges of integrating operations so you can manage them without duplicating efforts. To help those business owners beleaguered by so-called legacy issues, NetSuite Inc. today announced a new software solution designed to streamline the management of multiple sales channels into one system.
The new NetSuite Multi-Channel Retail Management Suite allows companies to use one on-demand software solution to oversee multiple locations. It provides an integrated point-of-sale system that integrates new or existing e-commerce operations and offers real-time data on all aspects of your business. For example, you get visibility into the entire company's inventory, orders, customers, finances, marketing and customer support across all channels.
Limitations in traditional software have forced many companies to either build their home-grown applications or use multiple silo software solutions to manage multi-channel sales, said Baruch Goldwasser, NetSuite's e-tail/retail business manager. Applications from vendors such as Microsoft and Sage were originally designed a decade before the rise of the Internet. As a result, he said, it was and can be very difficult and costly to extend them to support e-commerce for a Web business.
Furthermore, he said new applications from vendors such as Demandware and Volusion are designed specifically to build e-commerce sites, but result in isolated, "bolt-on systems" that are difficult and costly to integrate into core business processes such as accounting, fulfillment, inventory management, shipping and marketing promotions.
"If the e-commerce channel isn't integrated into the backend and the store location, what happens online is not reflected in real-time," said Goldwasser. "So it's two different worlds not speaking to each other, which means you're not integrating royalty programs, finances, marketing, inventory, which means you're losing sales."
If that sounds like your business, Goldwasser said you're not alone. According to a study by ARM research on the state of cross-channel operations, only 30 percent of those surveyed reported having tight integration between cross-channel and merchandising systems, with just 15 percent having tight integration with logistics and reverse logistics systems and just five percent having streamlined cross-channel loyalty services.
To that end, NetSuite Multi-Channel Retail Management Suite is designed to overcome those barriers. Here are highlights of the new features:
- Integrated E-Commerce:
NetSuite allows retailers to create Web stores that connect with retail locations. Inventory, accounting, and customer management are all unified and available in a single system. NetSuite facilitates the fulfillment process with integrated shipping labels from UPS, FedEx and USPS and automatically retrieves and sends package tracking information to your shoppers. It also supports multiple language and currency options and has built-in shipping customs documentation.
You can also create multiple Web sites, which means vendors can present different online storefronts to different markets. NetSuite also works directly with eBay to publish listings and automatically import orders.
- Customer Insight and Support: View every order a customer has ever placed, every item they have purchased, and every recorded communication, regardless of which channel was used. Collect and track detailed demographic information on any customer and provide personalized marketing to them based on purchase history or demographics. Offer customers self-service options online to view their order history, track shipments, reorder, and get answers to their questions at any time.
- Online and Offline Marketing: You can create targeted e-mail campaigns within NetSuite, and manage online keyword and affiliate marketing. Automated up-sell and cross-sell functionality improves the lifetime revenue per customer through add-on products at the register or in the Web store. Shopping-cart abandonment reports help you convert abandoned carts into sales, with automated marketing campaigns to shoppers that abandoned their cart with coupons for the items they abandoned. NetSuite also provides multiple promotional capabilities including multiple discounting capabilities, VIP pricing, volume pricing, and customer-specific discounts.
- Integrated Point-of-Sale (POS) through OnSite: OnSite capabilities include issuing custom designed gift cards that can be used in-store and online, electronic signature capture, and manager security overrides for refunds and other sensitive activities. Goldwasser said time-clock management, cash register data as well as lay-away and loyalty information is also supported and that OnSite would visit retailers to either set up existing hardware or sell or rent the hardware needed to get up and running.
- Real-Time Visibility and Business Intelligence: The software suite provides real-time visibility into inventory, sales, customers, finances, marketing and customer support across all channels and locations. You can measure the profitability of channels, customers and inventory; and identify the top selling items and top buying customers. NetSuite provides marketing ROI reports that tell you the effectiveness of each campaign in real-time. Finally, NetSuite includes automated procurement and cross-sell tools that can initiate purchase orders and can recommend cross-sells based on past sales history.
The NetSuite Multi-Channel Retail Management Suite starts at $499 a month, plus $99 per user.
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