ChannelAdvisor Corporation, a leading provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions that enable retailers and manufacturers to increase global sales, today announced new features that help retailers scale their products, markets and customers. The ChannelAdvisor 2015 Spring Release includes updates that can help retailers sell more efficiently in the US and Europe, optimise product listings by promoting bundles as variation listings, increase profit margins on eBay, and much more.
“It’s challenging for retailers to keep pace with the increased complexities in e-commerce,” said Link Walls, ChannelAdvisor vice president of product management. “With a focus on providing a broader reach, greater flexibility and smarter technology, our Spring Release helps retailers scale their online businesses without overextending their resources. Sellers can use these new functionalities to help stay ahead of the competition and avoid plateauing.”
ChannelAdvisor is enabling retailers to use Facebook’s dynamic product ads from within its platform. Using ChannelAdvisor’s Data Transformation Engine, retailers can create, schedule and send a product feed to Facebook from the ChannelAdvisor platform and target consumers with ads on any device.
ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces now gives retailers more options to tap new sources of demand through its support of eBay Austria and eBay Switzerland.
ChannelAdvisor’s new Bundles with Variations feature lets retailers list bundles as variation listings, as well as optimise the browsing process by consolidating all the product options within one primary listing. Promoting items in a variation format shows buyers similar items that come in different colours, sizes or other options.
ChannelAdvisor’s Customisable Invoice Templates enable retailers to tailor follow-up messages to each customer, on each marketplace, after they make a purchase. The invoice templates can also be used on a retailer’s webstore.
The new ChannelAdvisor Order Consolidator sets a window of time when eBay orders from the same buyer address will automatically be detected and combined for packaging and shipping. This prevents retailers from spending time packaging separate orders, and helps retailers save money on shipping costs by shipping one package instead of multiple to a single buyer.
ChannelAdvisor has expanded its eBay Categoriser functionality for all eBay interfaces. The Categoriser will ask eBay to suggest an eBay category value for products that are new to the marketplace — and the value is then stored in the product details when the seller uses any eBay interface.
ChannelAdvisor’s Product Performance and Pricing Insights for Amazon gives retailers access to report insights showing best-selling products and Buy Box ownership. Retailers can gather details on a specific product through the SKU-level Product Performance and Pricing View, so they can tweak their strategies for optimal performance on Amazon.
The 2015 Spring Release also introduces unified, retail-centric support for Google’s Shopping campaigns. Titled the “Four C’s of Google Shopping,” the framework can help retailers increase the profitability of their Shopping campaigns through content, campaign structure, correct bidding and cross-channel analytics.
Additionally, ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces has introduced new widgets to help retailers track global destinations for every single package and understand which locales have the greatest demand. Not only do these insights help retailers know where to expand, but they can also direct their logistics planning so they place fulfillment centres strategically close to buyers to improve shipping speed and efficiency.
Apparel, shoes and accessories retailer Street Moda was able to use the Order Consolidator while it was in beta, and the company is already seeing the benefits of this new functionality.
“Since October 2014, ChannelAdvisor has successfully consolidated 713 of our eBay orders, resulting in cost savings of over $6,500,” said Sara Taylor, general operations manager at Street Moda. “Shipping orders together lessens customer confusion and results in fewer emails and phone calls. Combining orders also saves the warehouse time when shipping. We previously attempted to manually combine orders, which was very time-consuming and never 100 percent accurate.”
Source: ChannelAdvisor media release.