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Given the abundance of small company storefronts, marketplaces, subscription services, and in-app buys on social media platforms, online shoppers have countless choices for where and how to buy things nowadays.
However, your best clients may not constantly be searching for your company, which is why it's crucial to broaden your online sales with multichannel selling.
DTC (Direct-To-Customers) brands should have a multi-channel eCommerce strategy in order to maintain long-term success.
Thanks to multi-channel eCommerce software, online sellers now can quickly and simply link with shopping carts, delivery services, transactions, and more.
Join us as we review the top 12 multi-channel eCommerce software listed below.
Multi-channel eCommerce refers to leveraging many channels to connect with customers and sell more goods to reduce your dependence on a single online marketplace.
The multi-channel strategy entails connecting several sales platforms and channels to your internet business as a core. For greater visibility and a broader audience, the products you sell and keep in stock are also offered in different sales channels.
It is easier for customers to buy anything via the channel of their preference when a variety of sales channels are available and promote your item to new buyers with whom you might not otherwise have a connection.
Such sales channels frequently combine physical storefronts, online marketplace displays, social media platforms, retailer websites, and other channels for online buying.
>> Learn more: Multichannel Fulfillment: All Things You Should Know
Multi-channel and omnichannel e-commerce are distinct strategies businesses use to engage with customers. Multi-channel commerce involves selling products through multiple, separate channels such as a website, social media, and physical stores. Each channel operates independently, with limited integration, which can sometimes lead to a disjointed customer experience.
In contrast, omnichannel eCommerce integrates all sales channels into a seamless, cohesive system. This approach ensures that customers enjoy a consistent and unified experience, whether they’re shopping online, in-store, or via a mobile app. Omnichannel strategies prioritize customer convenience, enabling features like synchronized shopping carts and personalized recommendations across all platforms.
While multi-channel commerce expands a business’s reach by being present on various platforms, omnichannel commerce enhances the overall customer journey by creating a more fluid and interconnected shopping experience.
Understanding these differences can help businesses choose the right strategy to meet their customers' needs and expectations.
Multichannel e-commerce optimizes the customer journey by offering various touchpoints for interaction. For instance, customers can browse products on a website, make purchases through social media, or visit physical stores, thereby creating a flexible and convenient shopping experience. This variety not only meets different customer preferences but also encourages engagement by providing multiple ways to connect with the brand.
Additionally, multi-channel ecommerce inventory management plays a crucial role in ensuring that stock levels are accurately reflected across all platforms, thus preventing discrepancies and enhancing customer satisfaction. Consequently, by delivering a consistent and streamlined experience, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers, fostering loyalty and repeat purchases. Ultimately, in an era where consumers expect seamless transitions between online and offline shopping, a multichannel approach helps businesses stay competitive and meet evolving customer expectations.
Another advantage of multichannel e-commerce is increased business resilience. By diversifying sales channels, businesses can better handle risks linked to market changes and disruptions. For instance, if one channel experiences a slowdown, other channels can make up for it, ensuring steady revenue. This diversification will significantly enhance stability and allow companies to adapt more swiftly to changing consumer behaviors and market trends.
Not to stop there, managing inventory on multiple sales channels is vital in this context, as it helps with efficient tracking and allocation of resources across various platforms. By maintaining optimal inventory levels and avoiding both overstock and stockouts, businesses can operate more smoothly and prevent potential losses. Moreover, in a dynamic and unpredictable e-commerce industry, a multichannel strategy provides the flexibility and resilience needed to sustain growth and navigate challenges effectively. Therefore, leveraging multiple sales channels enables businesses to remain robust and responsive, ultimately ensuring long-term success and stability in a competitive game.
Obviously, multichannel e-commerce also makes internal operations more efficient. Managing multiple sales channels requires strong inventory management systems to align stock levels and streamline logistics. Consequently, this reduces manual errors and boosts overall efficiency for your business. To better visualize this, businesses can better manage their supply chains, speed up order fulfillment, and improve customer service. Also, a centralized inventory system allows your employees to access real-time data, enabling better decisions and quicker responses.
Besides, a unified multichannel approach improves communication and teamwork within the organization, as different departments work together towards common goals. By enhancing internal processes, your business can cut costs, increase productivity, and provide better customer service, ultimately driving growth and success.
To conclude, integrating multiple sales channels and efficient inventory management enhances operational efficiency and ensures that businesses remain competitive and responsive to market demands, which results in long-term benefits.
Amazon is renowned for its vast selling potential and global customer reach, making it highly profitable for sellers of all sizes. The Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program enhances visibility and credibility by offering Prime eligibility, which significantly boosts sales.
This selling channel plays a pivotal role in multichannel e-commerce strategies by seamlessly integrating with other platforms, enabling centralized inventory management and maximizing sales efficiency across various channels. Moreover, Amazon's competitive marketplace environment encourages innovation and customer engagement, making it indispensable for businesses looking to expand their market presence and capitalize on diverse consumer preferences globally.
What makes Walmart stand out is its access to a vast base of loyal customers who trust the Walmart brand. Unlike more saturated platforms like Amazon, Walmart Marketplace offers a less competitive environment, making it easier for sellers to gain visibility and grow their sales. The competitive seller fees also contribute to its appeal, enabling businesses to maximize profitability while leveraging Walmart's strong reputation.
Choosing Walmart Marketplace for multi-channel eCommerce strategies can be a huge advantage thanks to Walmart's extensive customer base. In addition, this integration allows businesses to manage inventory centrally and optimize sales strategies across different platforms, ensuring broader market reach and sustained growth in a competitive retail environment.
Another potential platform must be Etsy. It has carved a niche as a marketplace specializing in handmade, vintage, and unique products, making it a profitable platform for creative entrepreneurs. With lower transaction fees and a community-focused buyer base, Etsy offers a lucrative opportunity for sellers seeking to connect with niche markets. It supports multi-channel ecommerce by seamlessly integrating with social media platforms, allowing sellers to expand their reach and engage with a broader audience.
On top of that, Etsy's emphasis on craftsmanship and personalized shopping experiences aligns well with modern consumer preferences, offering sellers opportunities to diversify their sales channels and enhance brand visibility across multiple online platforms.
Instagram Shopping leverages visual content to drive direct sales, particularly effective for businesses with strong visual branding and compelling product imagery. It is profitable by capitalizing on Instagram's large and engaged user base, which predominantly includes younger demographics aged between 18 to 34 years. This demographic values aesthetic inspiration and seamless shopping experiences, making Instagram Shopping a strategic choice for brands aiming to reach millennials and Gen Z consumers.
Especially, Instagram Shopping aligns seamlessly with Facebook Shops, a key multi-channel ecommerce platform, thereby enabling cross-platform selling and unified inventory management. This integration enhances brand visibility and customer engagement, allowing businesses to optimize their social media presence and drive sales through targeted marketing campaigns and visually engaging storytelling.
Facebook Shop enables businesses to showcase and sell products directly on Facebook and Instagram, leveraging a massive user base for profitability. Notably, nearly 60 million Facebook users have purchased products through the platform, highlighting its significant role in e-commerce. It is profitable due to its seamless integration with Instagram Shopping and Facebook's robust advertising tools, which enhance product visibility and customer engagement.
In fact, many sellers are leveraging Facebook Shop for multichannel selling, utilizing its unified platform to manage sales and customer interactions across social media channels. This selling channel can potentially help businesses streamline operations, optimize marketing efforts, and expand their reach across multiple online platforms, ensuring cohesive brand presence and sustained growth.
eBay stands out as a promising platform for sellers due to several key factors. Firstly, it offers a diverse customer base, ranging from collectors to everyday shoppers, providing sellers with access to a wide audience interested in a variety of products. Secondly, eBay's auction dynamics and competitive selling fees foster an environment where sellers can optimize pricing strategies and engage buyers effectively, enhancing profitability.
Beyond that, eBay supports multichannel selling by allowing seamless integration with other platforms. This enables sellers to manage inventory centrally and reach a global audience of active shoppers. This capability not only enhances market visibility but also improves operational efficiency, enabling businesses to scale effectively.
PayPal is one of the best multichannel eCommerce software ever. With the help of PayPal, businesses, and individuals can make and receive payments online without disclosing their credit card information. All sizes of enterprises can use the solution.
You don't have to re-enter details because PayPal offers a one-touch check-in process. By connecting their card information through PayPal's gateway, consumers can shop and complete transactions both domestically and abroad.
Users of the service who are company owners can take international payments via digital wallets or banks. With only a single account, businesses can charge clients, get payments directly from manufacturers or suppliers, and take money from even more than 200 marketplaces.
A piece of good news for you! PayPal is an open-source multi-channel eCommerce that is totally free. The main fee you have to pay is the transaction fee.
Learn more:
Depending on businesses' overall sales volumes, PayPal assesses a transaction fee. Moreover, mobile devices can also work with the system. This gives all users the utmost convenience.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to useExcellent customer service | Complicated dispute process |
Squarespace is one of the best multi-channel ecommerce platform which provides services for small and medium-sized businesses to develop online storefronts, as well as to help users create websites. Users of Squarespace's e-commerce services can manage their inventories, shipping, accounting, and taxes in addition to selling goods and services.
Squarespace stores enable customers to add countless goods to their websites. To organize and maintain their products, users are given access to an active drag-and-drop sorting feature as well as tags and categories.
Users can also track client behavior, sales, units sold, transactions, and so on in real-time with the use of Squarespace's built-in analytics tool. Besides, users can track orders and stock, scan identifying bar codes, process refunds, and complete orders using the store management mobile app.
What's more? Limitless hosting is available with level 1 PCI compliance & 128-bit SSL encryption for Squarespace e-commerce websites. It accepts a variety of payment options, including PayPal, Apple Pay, and credit cards through Stripe.
| Pros | Cons |
| Numerous built-in tools and integrations that simplify starting a businessEasy to useProfessional customer support | Some features are missing |
With ShippingEasy, small and midsize e-commerce companies can benefit from the cloud-based transportation and inventory management service. Order administration, label personalization, connection with various seller channels, returns management and rate comparison are key features.
In addition to numerous marketplaces, shopping carts, and e-commerce platforms, ShippingEasy can link with UPS & FedEx accounts. Orders are downloaded across all selling channels by the software, which then automatically maps individual shipping choices, costs, and delivery alternatives.
Users of ShippingEasy can alter shipment labeling and packing slips to coordinate with branding. Next, you can choose whether to print labels and slips in batches or one at a time. Once an order is sent, the system will send messages with the tracking number automatically.
Monthly subscriptions are required to purchase ShippingEasy.
| Pros | Cons |
Seamlessly shipping integration Free trial version with many features | Not really user-friendly |
Through the automation of key business operations and the provision of real-time insight into financial and operational performance, NetSuite, an all-in-one business management solution, assists more than 32,000 enterprises in operating more efficiently.
NetSuite's integrated system, which includes ERP, commerce, financials, inventory management, PSA, HR, supply chain management, and much more, helps fast-growing companies across all industry sectors perform more effectively.
Additionally, NetSuite provides businesses with complete data visibility and business management.
Over 31,000 users in more than 200 countries utilize NetSuite. This platform is Ideal for fast-expanding businesses of all sizes and across all industries that require a basic system for financial management that can expand and change as the company grows.
Every step of your company's development, from startup to IPO to international expansion, is supported by NetSuite.
Under an internet connection, one can access NetSuite, a cloud-based system. The software can be used without the need for any additional hardware, software updates, or downloads. Role-based dashboards offer a quick and convenient way to obtain real-time information to support business operations.
Users pay an annual license cost to use NetSuite. The three primary parts of your license are the number of users, the extra modules, and the core platform. For the setup process, there is additionally a one-time implementation cost. You can quickly enable new modules as well as add users as your business expands.
With a mobile-first user interface for critical workflows and the capability to push alerts for time-sensitive operations, NetSuite's mobile app, which is available for IOS and Android, enables users to streamline work while on the go.
| Pros | Cons |
| Inventory management is great Easy to navigate set of the systems. | Quite expensive |
A cloud-based point of sale system called Lightspeed Retail is appropriate for multi-channel ecommerce businesses selling items including clothing, shoes, jewelry, pets, bikes, or home decor.
The solution gives retailers access to tools like inventory management, control over cash drawers, retail store management, payment processing, customer profile access, purchase order management, accounting software connectivity, and integration with POS devices like barcode scanners or receipt printers.
Customers can manage in-store and online inventory with Lightspeed's fully integrated eCommerce platform, which also provides a single view of the customer and multi-channel sales data analysis.
The retail POS system offers multi-store features including inventory synchronization between all locations, and mobile extensions allow associates to use iPads to check inventory and make sales from anywhere in the store.
Utilizing a matrix system, the inventory management features provided by the retail POS solution allow users to create, track and give serial numbers to products as well as generate product variations. Customer service services including profiles, sales history records, and customer insights are also available from Lightspeed Retail.
Monthly subscriptions to Lightspeed software are available, and it provides free, individualized onboarding and round-the-clock assistance.
With the help of the Lightspeed Retail POS iPad app, companies can set up an iPad POS system in their physical store to handle transactions, handle returns, take money with gift cards, apply discounts, and more. The software can also be used offline.
| Pros | Cons |
| Great analytics packageUser-friendly | Bad customer service |
Omnisend, which is an omnichannel marketing automation tool, designed for e-commerce companies that prioritize growth. For seamless communication through email, SMS, online push notifications, and other channels, Omnisend lets you integrate many channels into a single automation workflow.
To increase your customer base, Omnisend provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop visual composer for emails and email capturing capabilities. Automation tools enable you to build strong automation workflows as well as customize your message based on campaign participation, consumer data, and purchasing patterns.
The majority of eCommerce systems and other marketing tools can be integrated with Omnisend. Services cover email, online knowledgebase, and live chat help and are available on a monthly subscription basis.
| Pros | Cons |
| Good performance overallExcellent automation flows | Interface is quite complicated to navigate |
Continue to the list of the best multi-channel ecommerce platform, Ecwid is a small to medium-sized business e-commerce solution that allows customers to create an online store on most any social media or website platform. The system can interface with current websites without changing their look and is cloud-based.
Ecwid enables customers to take payment from their phones by integrating with a number of POS programs, including Square POS, Vend, and Clover. Upgrades, security, SSL certificates, hosting, and server setup are all managed by Ecwid for websites. Users can control promotional pricing, discounts, product selections, and combinations along with inventory using Ecwid's shop administration tool.
Facebook, Drupal, Joomla, 1and1, WordPress, and Sitebuilders are all integrated with Ecwid. It supports 45 languages, more than 40 foreign payment methods, and real-time shipping integrations.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to useMany support tools and tutorials | Don't have their own payment processor |
Businesses can automate accounting for many eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Walmart, Amazon, Etsy, and eBay, using the ETL and financial management software A2X.
A2X enables businesses to interface the platform with a variety of outside accounting programs, including Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks, improving back-office operations and opening up new e-commerce prospects.
A2X offers meticulous reconciliation and complies with the stringent requirements of qualified accountants and bookkeepers.
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of useDecent support team | Time taken to set up might be a bit lengthy |
TrueCommerce EDI Solutions - a cloud-based distribution system enables companies to automate every step of electronic data interchange (EDI), including end-to-end integration, data backup, and order processing.
File archiving, data format conversion, AS2 support, reporting, EDI testing, and analytics are a few of the key features.
TrueCommerce EDI Solutions, which are created for wholesalers, distributors, suppliers, and manufacturers, enable businesses to handle digital information by gathering different forms of data such as invoices, purchase orders, and more.
Utilizing a variety of protocols, including XML, ASC X12, and UN/EDIFACT syntax, the centralized solution enables businesses to exchange EDI documents with trading partners. Through plug-in tools, the system also assists in displaying trade partner maps to prepare outbound EDI transactions in accordance with customer demands.
TrueCommerce Distributors can create online forms with the help of pre-built business requirements and business compliance thanks to EDI Solutions.
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of useCan import hundreds of orders | It might be quite hard to integrate the mappingDoes not work consistently, sometimes |
Now you can streamline your posts for Instagram, Facebook, Google Shopping, as well as 2,000+ other channels in 60+ countries.
You can quickly optimize your data stream with DataFeedWatch, which also allows you to advertise on more than 2,000 shopping marketplaces, channels, and price comparison websites! Sales are aided by increased product visibility.
Additionally, DataFeedWatch displays each product's performance across all channels; underperforming goods can be eliminated with a simple click to increase the total campaign ROI.
You can basically do anything with this software to customize your feed to your business objectives, including adding missing data, adding custom labels, combining fields, assigning the precise (sub-sub-) category, and excluding products. You can combine and unmerge your feed using the DFW app depending on the channel criteria.
DataFeedWatch is simple to use and straightforward. You can import data in a variety of forms, which we accept. Additionally, you also can link and integrate with a variety of eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Lightspeed, PrestaShop, Magento, and others.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to useAwesome support | Quite expensive |
Drip is the automated marketing tool for your goals. It works with developing eCommerce firms to send targeted emails that are read and help them figure out what generates the most revenue.
Email marketers all over the world hail Drip as one of the most potent, logical, and simple-to-use platforms. It provides you with all the tools you need to:
On the verge of something novel - a breakthrough in income, customer expansion, or elevated brand loyalty?
The Drip team provides that extra little something in addition to our toolkit to assist you to cross the threshold into the sustainable eCommerce marketing field. So, let's push the envelope, perfect your email marketing strategy and approach, and enjoy each victory as it comes.
| Pros | Cons |
| The automation is top-notchEasy to set up and manage automations | Slow support |
The last option for the best multi-channel eCommerce platform is SyncSpider. This application-to-application connectivity solution is intended to increase income for eCommerce companies by automating multichannel sales.
It facilitates unified inventory management, data synchronization with eCommerce systems, and enhanced client purchasing experiences. Data transfer across apps and markets is made easier by SyncSpider.
| Pros | Cons |
| The number of integrations is amazingFast customer supportEasy to use | Lack of overriding information |
Struggling to juggle orders from multiple marketplaces and your own website? EFEX steps in as your multi-channel fulfillment companion. Our solution seamlessly integrates with your existing sales channels, eliminating the chaos of managing separate fulfillment processes. Imagine that you will access all order data within a single platform to streamline inventory, orders, and shipping, no matter where your customers click "buy."
Why you should choose EFEX fulfillment service:
This is just the beginning! EFEX empowers you to focus on what matters - growing your sales - while we handle all the fulfillment tasks.
Without a doubt, the uses of headless commerce software, which separates frontend and backend systems and connects them with the relevant APIs, makes it easier for retailers to manage multi-channel e-commerce.
We hope our list of the top 12 best multi-channel eCommerce software above will help you a lot when running an online business.
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