Online shopping popularity continues to soar, as the convenience it brings pairs well with the busy lives consumers lead today. With just a few clicks, shoppers can access a limitless catalog of products. Enter drop shipping. The practice of drop shipping, also known as direct to consumer (D2C), vendor direct, vendor to consumer, and vendor direct to consumer (V2DC), allows retailers to open up an endless aisle of virtual inventory and suppliers/brands can partner with more retail channels to increase product sales. Before jumping too far ahead, let’s cover drop ship 101 - you’ll have your degree in no time!
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It’s no secret eCommerce sales continue to skyrocket each year. U.S. online retail sales will exceed $506 billion this year and by 2022, will surpass $712 billion, according to Forrester Research. With the conclusion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018, Logicbroker wanted to share some interesting findings we saw during this peak shopping time.
Today’s retailers and brands are faced with numerous challenges. With talks of the ‘Retail Apocalypse,’ store closings, and on the more positive side, a projected retail growth of 4% this year there are many opposing views on the current state of retail. Regardless, executing an omni-channel strategy is crucial and should not be ignored. Brands and retailers both must adopt a seamless, cohesive strategy when selling direct to consumer (DTC).
With just a few short weeks before the eCommerce event you simply will not want to miss, we wanted to thank our fantastic sponsors. Without their support, this event would not be possible. Without further ado, here is our Sponsor Spotlight!
What are you doing September 13, 2018? Well, if Connected Commerce is not on your radar, we’re about to fill you in on this can’t-miss event!
Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. Today, EDI is a mandate of large retailers, but it took many decades to get to this point. Here is a brief timeline and overview on the history of EDI. EDI is popular with, and a mandate of many large retailers. To best offer customers a wide variety of products, these retailers turn to a drop ship model. Drop shipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product. EDI enables all order documentation to be sent between the third party drop ship vendor and retailer quickly and efficiently, enabling a seamless order lifecycle.
Whether selling online, in store, on social media, or in a pop-up shop, Shopify delivers the eCommerce solution you need to run your business. However, as your brand grows and you explore introducing new products to your site things could get tricky. In the age of brand stores and competing with Amazon, many brands seek to open up a ‘brand marketplace’ to offer their customer a one-stop shop and greater variety of goods via drop ship. Vendor compliance, onboarding time, and manual data entry can complicate the attempt to open up a brand marketplace, but fortunately there are solutions available to remedy the technical hitches.
Democratizing digital commerce relies heavily on flexibility. Brands and retailers are exploring other means of connectivity and data exchange, but this does not mean a complete abandonment of the tried-and-true methods of old. EDI has been around since the 1960s and was heavily adopted in the 1980s, so it is safe to say EDI is here to stay. However, companies searching for an easier approach and immediate validation of files are seeking out EDI alternatives.
EDI is the choice solution for order documentation exchange. Whether you have a handful of partners or you are working with thousands of them, choosing the right provider is crucial in defining the future of your business. Selecting the wrong solution for EDI will hold you back, as seemingly quick integrations can drag on for months, costing you money, time and resources. This is why we are pioneering the concept of Lean Commerce.