With online shopping being one of the most popular activities online globally, e-commerce is a sector that has tremendous potential.
Global e-retail revenues are projected to exceed USD$ 5.4 trillion by 2022. With the immense potential of e-commerce stores, competition is a factor that comes with it—succeeding in the online marketplace is a challenge because, just like any business, it requires making strategic decisions and investing invaluable resources. Third-party integration is one such investment that allows you to integrate your marketplace, consolidate your data, and make decision-making easier.
Is it productive? Of course, it is! Connecting your already established business to an e-commerce platform or establishing a business on e-commerce can significantly benefit from third-party integrations.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of connecting with marketplace integration software.
1) Big Marketplaces have Millions of Visitors.
Amazon is one of the largest global online marketplaces. In February 2020, it got 2.01 billion visits from mobile phones as well as desktops. Compared to this, in September 2020, the visits grew to 2.44 billion visits.
While we are talking about a marketplace with a significant reach, local marketplaces in developing countries also have millions of visitors per month. As a result, it is a chance for businesses to showcase their offerings.
Also, increasing the number of marketplaces in which your business/ product offering is listed increases the business’ chances of growing customer touchpoints. However, one issue is managing all of these platforms together. Many POS software for e-Commerce stores offers to consolidate the orders from these different platforms. As a result, it allows streamlining inventory management, supplies, as well as deliveries.
POS e-commerce software also allows you to improve your performance on these big marketplaces. As a result, you can get up on the list when clients search for products that you offer. This is one way to increase sales.
Just like a regular marketplace, strategies need to be devised to attract the customer and break through the clutter of competition. While connecting with e-Commerce brings tremendous opportunities, it brings in more challenges that a business can successfully overcome by implementing the right strategies through investment in the right tools. Third-party APIs are a concept that is discussed later in this article.
2) Scale your Business Internationally
Since big marketplaces have an international customer base, it allows businesses to increase their cross-border sales by reaching audiences worldwide. With the e-Commerce marketplace having an already established IT infrastructure, many companies do not even develop their website. As a result, they save thousands of dollars and take advantage of the e-Commerce platform.
However, it does mean diminishing a business’s brand value; running a store on big marketplaces alongside a website can help reach a broad audience. It also means directing traffic onto the website to increase organic searches.
As a result, it is an excellent opportunity to scale your business on an international level. However, using this opportunity in a vast pool of competitors is not a piece of cake. It requires careful strategic planning and sound business operations to lead a successful business on the e-commerce platforms.
3) A POS e-Commerce System Refines your Business.
Connecting a business to an e-Commerce platform can seriously up your game, but only if you have the right strategies. A POS e-Commerce system is not just a till counter of the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. It is a much more advanced and essential component in running the business and making important decisions.
A POS e-Commerce system not only helps in managing inventory and supplies but also helps in data consolidation. As a result, you can track the business’ performance over time and understand trends which can help you make decisions regarding inventory and growth.
Not just this, managing orders effectively can improve the service offered to the customer. One aspect of e-Commerce that makes it so attractive is the reviews of the customers.
A benefit of marketplace integration of the business is third-party integrations that allow your business to streamline deliveries, multiple marketplaces, and website orders. Third-party integrations mean platforms like Facebook and Amazon (third parties) allowing the use of their data.
It also allows the collection of data and its analysis, which is difficult to do independent of an automated POS e-Commerce software.
4) Word-of-mouth Marketing and your e-Commerce Business
In modern times, the importance of word-of-mouth marketing has grown immensely. This is all because of the reliance of customers on product and service reviews in making purchase decisions. In this regard, dealing with customer complaints is an essential aspect of improving your business value and customer loyalty.
On big marketplaces, customers post reviews and might file for returns in case of unsatisfactory product performance. While this is a cost, it also helps to get customer feedback and improving the product offerings accordingly. However, managing these bad reviews so that it does not impact the e-Commerce store’s rating is substantially essential.
An e-Commerce point-of-sale software consolidates data along with customer complaints to help in easy customer management. Also, handling delivery systems like automatic order placements is a feature that saves hours of repetitive work, thus saving on employee costs as well as improving the process efficiency. It, therefore, reduces the chance of complaints due to operational mismanagement.
What to do Next?
If you have a business that is not yet listed on an e-commerce platform, it is high time that you do so. If you wish to start up a business through the e-commerce platform, there is no right time to do it than right now. Suppose you have a business on e-Commerce that does not give the benefits that have been mentioned in this article. In that case, you might have to rearticulate your strategy and invest in the right resources to assure that you maximize the benefits from these marketplaces. As for the question of what to do next, it all depends on where your business stands, what you expect to achieve, and how much you are willing to invest.
Guest article written by: 
Kamil Riaz Kara is an SEO + Digital Marketing Specialist by profession and video content creator as a hobby. He loves to discover new places and share experiences in his vlogs.