The Ultimate Tech Stack: 4 Omnichannel Solutions for the Scaling Merchant

Editor's Notes

• #9: Robust, feature-rich technology that is simple enough for all users. (M2, SFCC, SHOP) 600+ vetted best of breed 3rd party applications ranging from high-end rewards programs to ERP connectors. (M2, SFCC, SHOP) 100+ API endpoints with industry leading 400 API calls per second, accompanied by comprehensive documentation. (M2, SFCC, SHOP) 24/7 phone, email and chat support along with an expansive knowledge base of articles and a community of users. An assigned Account Manager that partners with you to drive success through proactive guidance and recommendations. (M2, SFCC, SHOP)
• #10: Industry-leading uptime at 99.99% backed by SLAs, compared to the industry average of 99.5%. M2 Unlimited bandwidth on the Google Cloud Platform, the fastest, most flexible and secure global hosting provider. M2, SFCC Security vetted and authenticated by Coalfire ISO/IEC 27001 certification, the international gold standard. M2, SFCC, SHOP Servers that are PCI DSS 3.2 Level 1 certified, meaning your customers’ critical data will remain protected and secure. M2, SFCC, SHOP The fastest (20% faster than average) and most optimized global shopper experience by utilizing Akamai CDN. M2, SFCC, SHOP
• #11: Predictable, flat-rate pricing, so you make financial plans without any surprises. M2, SFCC, SHOP An assigned implementation project manager who leads store launches in 3 months on average. M2, SFCC, SHOP Pre-negotiated payment and shipping rate discounts which save merchants 1% of GMV on average. M2, SFCC, SHOP ShipperHQ and Avalara Avatax for advanced shipping needs and automated tax calculation. M2, SFCC, SHOP Automatic platform updates, feature releases and enhancements with no cost or website downtime. M2
• #12: Other bullets to swap in if relevant: Give your agile teams the green light to innovate quickly by empowering them to make changes to your front-end without disrupting the back-end. Plug in new technology into your existing systems using APIs that provide the flexibility to adapt without disrupting your business.
• #13: (US Version) Sales Notes: Here is a look into our current customers. We are proud to support merchants across all levels of growth from Inc. 5000, to IR 1000 to Fortune 500 brands. BigCommerce now serves 30+ Fortune 1000, 25 IR 1000, and leading brands in every B2C and B2B category from automotive to health & beauty to sports & outdoors.
• #14: Sales Notes: Historically, there were 2 options when it came to eCommerce, Open Source & SaaS. Merchants that favored having full control of their design & build of their site, chose Open Source. Merchants that favored simplicity and security, chose SaaS That compromise is no longer needed, with BigCommerce’s “Open-SaaS” solution. We have blurred the line between open & closed, by offering complete openness though our powerful APIs (>90% of the platform is exposed). You start with a strong, secure base (the BigCommerce Platform) and then can build on top with our APIs to achieve any desired outcome. With Saas, you no longer have to worry about infrastructure concerns (Hosting, Stability, Security, Load Balancing, Compliance). Rather than the “forced openness” of an OpenSource Solution, we give you a “Choice for openness”, build where you need, build where it makes sense. If you want to read more, I recommend this post in the BigCommerce Developer Blog, or if you want it to be even more in-depth, I recommend this PDF.
• #15: Sales Notes: Represented here is the BigCommerce Platform. Everything outlined in blue is included in the platform, we see each of these elements as being core to eCommerce. You can see that we handled everything from merchandising & promotions to catalog management to reporting and analytics. All of this is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, allowing us to deliver the best performance to our merchants. This is the “SaaS” element. Though, we understand that as merchants reach your level, they have sophisticated tools in house that they use to manage various things. Take an ERP for example, many of our merchants rely on an ERP for all of their business operations from: customer management, to catalog management to BI. These merchants (ex:SkullCandy, ResMed, Berlin Packaging), all take advantage of our Open API endpoints to connect to their ERP, that way the data transfers bi-directionally between the 2 systems. In a sense, they are overriding our native customer management, catalog management & analytics tool in favor of their more advanced tool. This is the “Open” element. Another key example to illustrate this point is Burrow. Burrow is a disruptor in the furniture market, a growing DNVB. To be competitive, they need to have a sophisticated digital marketing strategy. The way they achieve this, is through their CMS. Burrow utilizes the power of their CMS to customize the front-end experience of their site to their buyers while utilizing the power and stability of the BigCommerce platform to host their cart & checkout.
• #23: Whether you are shipping 1 order a day, or 10,000, ShipStation will help you import, manage, and ship your online orders. As the top shipping platform, we compliment BigCommerce, SellerActive, and SkuVault, as well as hundreds of other integrations.
• #25: Marketing is expensive, but ShipStation provides customizable features so your brand can stay top of mind with customers Tracking emails have over 100% open rate - on average, delivery tracking emails are opened 3 times, which means that is 3 times you can brand yourself and send traffic back to your page instead of the UPS or FedEx website. Also, 88% of consumers say the ability to track shipments in real-time is important. There is a 16% LIFT in average order volume for the sellers using ShipStation's Branded Returns Portal. Consumers are 29% more likely to order again from a seller after returning an item through a self-service portal.
• #26: We already mentioned using free marketing tools within ShipStation to help grow your business, but these are some other ways to increase revenue. Free Shipping: 88% of consumers are more likely to shop on a site that promises free shipping 93% of consumers will add products to their cart to receive free shipping In contrast, 58% of consumers are likely to abandon their cart if there are shipping charges Amazon has changed customer expectations, so free shipping is becoming the status quo In order to offer free shipping, try offering a purchasing threshold or dissolving the cost within the product prices If free shipping is unsustainable for you, try using it only for the holidays Transparency with Shipping Prices If you are going to charge for shipping, make sure you are upfront about it Customers don’t like being bamboozled at checkout Provide Shipping Options at Checkout Let customers decide if they want faster shipping instead of offering it upfront (saves you money) Over 80% of consumers are willing to pay for same-day or faster delivery - give the people what they want Have a few options, but not too many - maybe 3 delivery time options
• #29: An inventory & warehouse management system is a software solution designed to handle day-to-day warehouse operations with complete visibility. Some basic building blocks of a WMS include Real time quantity syncing, making overselling on your channels virtually impossible real time access to inventory levels and locations, allowing warehouse workers to find their products in a fraction of the time Transaction Reporting. All transactions need to be recorded and stored for higher level of quality control on your orders Barcoding scanning speeds up the process and allows less user error CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE
• #30: Firstly, demand planning and forecasting is imperative because it enables you to make smarter purchasing decisions Expert Tip: Having real time forecasting based on sales history means you never have more or less product than you need to sell. CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE
• #31: A WMS integrates with the ecommerce software you need to build a well-rounded business. Here’s a few ways integrations work with your WMS to store inventory information in one place. Real time quantity syncs and the use of buffers reduce chances of an oversell. buffers are a way you can push a false quantity to a marketplace, whether it be less or more than what is actually currently available in your warehouse. a WMS must have the functionality to pull orders and order costs in from the marketplaces to be able to provide accurate reporting information. CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE 
• #32: Each transaction should be tracked and timestamped so you can spend less time reconciling incorrect orders. Higher order quality means more happy customers, therefore better reviews and more sales. CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE
• #33: QC while picking- many operations don’t require a scan at each point in the fulfillment process. A true WMS should offer the opportunity for flexible workflows which allow as many or as few touch points as needed. Pull orders in from shipping platform - its imperative that your WMS offers functionality to pull orders from a shipping platform so that shipping labels and packing slips can be printed without having to navigate to another system. CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE
• #34: A WMS should offer you the functionality to sell not only finished, assembled goods, but also any raw materials that make them up. Multi-warehouse visibility is important for you to be able to view quantities in multiple merchant warehouses, channel fulfilled warehouses such as Amazon FBA, and vendor feeds if necessary CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEAS
• #35: Most consumers check product reviews before deciding to purchase. eComm sellers need a way to boost seller ratings, get more positive reviews, and win the buy box by shipping out quality orders in a timely manner. Better forecasting means you always have the products you need in stock. For example, ship out quality orders on time with: Quality control Customized picklists Better forecasting Streamlined pick/pack/ship A WMS must have functionality to ensure that each user is picking and packing the correct product and amount of product in each order. Combined with streamlined picking and packing, the correct orders are shipped out more quickly than ever CHANGE SLIDE HERE PLEASE
• #36: We’re only here with you today because of the great success realized by our mutual clients. We’ve we’ve helped them to streamline workflows, increase team efficiencies and reduce errors .. and right, that all boils down to some fantastic growth.