In this presentation, 20+ year retail veteran and CEO of nChannel, Steve Weber, explains how to evaluate best-of-breed software solutions to enable true multichannel management. The presentation dives into the criteria a retailer should use when evaluating software platforms like eCommerce, ERPs, and POS systems.

1. PRESENTED BY:
STEVE WEBER, NCHANNEL
A Software Buyer’s Guide
for Omnichannel Sellers

2. • 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

3. In the beginning, retailers thought it was ALL
about speeding up the checkout process.

4. But they were deceived…

5. The last revolution in retail was about the
movement of physical goods
Multichannel is about the movement of
digital information

6. Real-time Inventory Status
Supply Chain
Integration
Distributed
Fulfillment
Image
Management
Product
Attribute
Management
Customer
Experience
Management
Endless Aisle

7. 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

8. Great experiences happen when everything works together.

9. How do you know what will work?
1970s
- UHF
- VHF
1980s
- VCR
- MTV
1990s
- DVD
2000s
- HiDef

11. 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

12. The Requirements
Customer
Experience
Management
Merchandising Supply Chain Flexibility and
Market
Participation
Multichannel Order
Management
Product Attributing Dropship API
Endless Aisle Kits/Configurable
Products
3PL Customization
Master data
management
Bulk Editing Single Inventory Architecture
Real-time product
availability
Multichannel
Pricing
Supply Chain
Integration
Multichannel
Leadership
Multichannel
loyalty
Dimensional
Product Support
Ecosystem
B2B Customer
Support
B2B product
catalogs

13. • 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

14. Example: Requirement Rubric
Score 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

15. Software Packages Evaluated
Point-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

16. Flexibility and Community
Engagement
Customer Experience
Management
Merchandising/Product
Information
Management
Supply Chain
Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility

17. 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?

18. The Winners take APIs Seriously

19. Flexibility/Community Engagement
What 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

20. Customer Experience
Management
Customer Experience
Management
Merchandising/Product
Information
Management
Supply Chain
Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility

21. 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)

22. Customer Experience Management
What 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

23. Merchandising/Product
Information Management
Customer Experience
Management
Merchandising/Product
Information
Management
Supply Chain
Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility

26. Merchandising/Product Information Management
What 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)

27. Supply Chain
Management
Customer Experience
Management
Merchandising/Product
Information
Management
Supply Chain
Management
Business Intelligence
Flexibility

29. Supply Chain Management
What 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

30. Vendor Ratings

31. POS Vendor Matrix
NCRCounterpoint
MicrosoftDynamics
RMS
LightSpeed
QuickBooksPOS
RetailPro
NetSuite
SuiteCommerce
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

32. ERP Vendor Matrix
MicrosoftDynamicsAX
MicrosoftDynamicsGP
MicrosoftDynamicsSL
MicrosoftDynamics
NAV
SAGE100
NetSuite
IntuitQuickBooks
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

33. eCommerce Vendor Matrix
MagentoEnterprise
MagentoCommunity
Shopify
ShopifyPlus
Bigcommerce
ASPDotNetStorefront
AmazonWebStore
Volusion
Overall 3.5 3.3 3.4 3.9 3.6 2.5 3.2 3.2
Customer 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

34. Success isn’t a result of
spontaneous
combustion. You must
set yourself on fire.
- Arnold Glasow
magazine editor, humorist, author

35. www.nchannel.com/wintermarket2015
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