Friday, April 22, 2016

eBay and BigCommerce Open Joint Sales Platform with Bigger Reach for Your Inventory

ebay and bigcommerce

BigCommerce, an Australian-based ecommerce startup that provides storefront software to help you get your products online and start selling, has announced it is entering into partnership with eBay to provide a scalable solution for efficiently managing of inventory and orders on both marketplaces.

As you probably already know, the modern retail sector is not what it once was — even a few years ago. It has changed. Today, consumers interacting with your business are not confined by devices, platforms or channel silos. Consumers buy in a manner dependent on context — purchasing when, where and on whatever device or platform that is most convenient at any given time.

In fact, according to forecasts by Forrester Research, ecommerce will account for more than 11 percent of all U.S. retail sales, or approximately $414 billion, by the year 2018. Transactions made with tablets and smartphones will account for about 20 percent of the online total.

That means your retail business needs to be present wherever and whenever a customer wants to purchase to ensure better buyer conversions. It needs to have intuitive multi-channel commerce capabilities that better align your brick-and-mortar sales with all of your digital activity, because the worlds of traditional commerce and ecommerce are merging. Retailers must evolve to survive.

The eBay and BigCommerce partnership will see the two companies open a joint online sales platform that provides a much bigger reach for your inventory. The partnership aims to enable retailers and merchants to integrate multi-channel commerce capabilities, sell more seamlessly across the two major channels and ultimately scale business operations.

eBay and BigCommerce Integration

Part of BigCommerce’s appeal with smaller retailers and merchants compared to rival ecommerce platforms like Shopify has been its simplicity, ability to scale along with small merchants as they grow and integrations with the world’s leading companies, such as Hubspot, Paypal and Facebook.

Now with the eBay integration, BigCommerce sellers who also use eBay will be able to seamlessly upload their existing inventory from BigCommerce to eBay, making it easy for the merchants and retailers to manage inventory across both channels in one simple dashboard.

eBay boasts 162 million active buyers who shop for goods from all possible retail sectors daily on its marketplace. Nearly 60 percent of these buyers are international, meaning the mammoth online marketplace presents exciting and scalable possibilities for brands looking to expand globally, BigCommerce says.

“Multiple channels can introduce business complexity, but this integration will bring our customers a more efficient way to grow their business across multiple channels, and save them time previously spent managing multiple platforms,” Brent Bellm, CEO of BigCommerce, said on the company’s official blog.

Growing Your Business Across Multiple Channels

If you are a seller, you can fulfill orders from both eBay and BigCommerce channels from one centralized inventory management location, the ecommerce company said . Inventory details such as product title, description and price will be synchronized immediately from BigCommerce to eBay, and orders will be imported to the BigCommerce platform, the software company revealed.

Moreover, merchants can sell their inventory in-front of a global audience by using eBay’s Global Shipping Program, BigCommerce said. Messages from buyers on eBay will also be visible within BigCommerce to ensure sellers won’t miss any important communications.

“We’re ecstatic to welcome BigCommerce merchants to our vibrant seller community, where they’ll have the ability to deliver the best choice and selection of inventory to buyers globally,” Hal Lawton, senior vice president, eBay North America, said in the release.

“We’re steadfast in our efforts to provide merchants of all sizes the tools and platform to drive their businesses and brands in a scalable, frictionless manner within today’s multi-channel environment — and that is exactly what this relationship is designed to accomplish,” Lawton added.

Beta testing of the eBay and BigCommerce integration will begin in Q3 of 2016.

Image: BigCommerce, eBay

This article, "eBay and BigCommerce Open Joint Sales Platform with Bigger Reach for Your Inventory" was first published on Small Business Trends

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