For 20 years I’ve managed knowledge for each giant and small ecommerce firms. I’ve migrated knowledge from one platform to a different, cleansed knowledge, optimized knowledge for search engines like google, enhanced knowledge for conversions, and extra.
Ecommerce corporations with a number of storefronts and overlapping merchandise pose distinctive knowledge challenges. Combining the storefronts right into a single backend centralizes the info and streamlines oversight. But it surely comes with prices.
What follows are my execs and cons for combining a number of storefronts with the identical merchandise into one backend.
Professionals
Time administration. A number of storefronts with separate backends imply importing the identical pictures, descriptions, and product knowledge repeatedly. Combining that information right into a single backend saves a lot time. It eliminates the necessity to log in to every retailer and streamlines the method of including and updating the identical merchandise.
Analytics. A single backend makes mixed efficiency monitoring (for all shops) simpler. It eliminates the necessity for a separate enterprise intelligence device to view all knowledge in a single place.
Stock administration. A number of storefronts with totally different backends usually require third-party software program to trace general portions of the identical merchandise. When all shops level to the identical backend, customary stock administration instruments — native to many ecommerce platforms — can fill that want.
Completely different areas. Concentrating on totally different world areas from a number of storefronts is usually simpler with the identical backend. For instance, a service provider might promote the identical product within the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.Okay., and use country-specific top-level domains, corresponding to .ca, .co.uk, and .au, to draw native prospects. Customers in every of these international locations converse English, permitting the identical (or very comparable) product descriptions and pictures. Sellers would wish to customise solely the currencies, fee, and delivery strategies.
Cons
Search engine marketing. Using the identical backend to show the identical merchandise in several shops leads to duplicate search-engine knowledge, corresponding to titles, product descriptions, and pictures, all competing in opposition to one another for rankings. The result’s doubtless decrease general search visibility for all of them.
Distinctive costs. The identical worth throughout all shops prevents standalone costs and reductions. A workaround is customized pricing per channel or buyer group. For instance, a service provider could promote the identical product on each a B2C and a B2B web site. The B2B worth may very well be quantity-based versus a single-item quantity for B2C prospects. This assumes the ecommerce platform has that performance. In my expertise, managing totally different worth teams and worth ranges is extra complicated when utilizing the identical backend.
Promotional flexibility. Promotions for particular objects on particular storements are tough with a single backend, if not inconceivable. An instance is including banners on the market objects in a single retailer however not one other. Some ecommerce platforms permit for distinctive promos by storefront. Others are SKU-based whatever the retailer.
Threat. A single backend dangers disabling all storefronts attributable to knowledge breaches, fraud, platform errors, visitors spikes, and comparable points. Generally placing eggs in a number of baskets is best.
Buyer, order administration. Some ecommerce platforms permit buyer segmentation by storefront. Others don’t, which complicates emails, viewers focusing on, and general advertising and marketing initiatives. With no clear storefront distinction, it may be complicated to know which retailer drove which order.
Confirm
To make sure, my execs and cons rely on the ecommerce platform. Some facilitate multi-store backends higher than others. Earlier than consolidating, confirm the capabilities, significantly for web optimization, stock administration, advertising and marketing, and pricing.
