Mirakl Marketplace Architecture: 3 Essential Considerations

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1 For optimal performance KEY BENEFITS Better order visibility Single view of inventory visibility across all your channels Enhanced fulfillment coordination and optimization M arketplaces provide retailers and manufacturers with new and exciting opportunities to grow revenue. Deployment of a marketplace lets them offer thousands of additional SKUs, without adding inventory. However, when architecting a marketplace solution, too often the marketplace platform is treated as an extension of ecommerce. In this white paper, we ll discuss three things to consider when architecting your marketplace, and why it makes sense to integrate it with your Order Management System (OMS), just like you would any other distribution channel. So what s the first reason? 1. A Single Order View Without an order management back-end for marketplace fulfillment, most systems end up breaking marketplace items into separate orders. This creates a fragmented and disjointed view of the customer interaction, which only multiplies as you begin to manage payments, settlement, returns, and potentially customer appeasements. Delivering Intelligent Fulfillment > BridgeSGI.com

2 Let s consider two scenarios where a customer orders 3 order lines which will be fulfilled in 3 different ways: 1. Store 2. Marketplace 3. Direct to Consumer shipment from a warehouse. Without an order management system drop ship order packing slips may show a different order number than the one displayed online. Using a traditional e-commerce platform without an order management system consolidating the order, these would be broken out into separate orders, as shown below. Order Splitting Without an Order Management System ORDER 1 Line 1: Line 2: Line 3: ORDER 2: ORDER 3: ORDER 4: 2

3 This means that if a customer calls in with an issue on their order, there are multiple order numbers to be reconciled. Rather than this, an order management system preserves the customer order number while treating each line s fulfillment as needed. A single order number makes it easier for call center associates to assist customers and resolve issues when they call. By plugging marketplace lines into the OMS, you get the benefit of the consolidated customer experience a single order number for all line items while still being able to invoice, settle, and return marketplace lines individually. See the diagram below. Order Splitting With an Order Management System ORDER 1 Line 1: Line 2: Line 3: ORDER 1, Line 1: ORDER 1, Line 2: ORDER 1, Line 3: 3

4 By integrating Marketplace inventory into the central hub, your organization achieves a full view of your promise-able inventory, both your own inventory, and marketplace inventory as well. Key Takeaway An Order Management System acts as an Order Hub, so you can provide: A Single-view of the order, regardless of the combination of line items Better Order Visibility Customer Self-Service Returns Better Customer Call Center Support 2. Inventory visibility Traditionally, the order management system is the place where an entire enterprise s supply and demand are brought together to calculate what can be sold to a customer (aka Available to Promise or ATP). By integrating Marketplace inventory into the central hub, your organization achieves a full view of your promise-able inventory, both your own inventory, and marketplace inventory as well. By managing these, you get the omnichannel benefits of preventing stock-outs and overpromising to your customers in realtime, without all the additional effort for individual marketplace sellers. Without a central inventory hub, this is not possible. In addition, brands can use this consolidated information across channels to 4

5 make several other key marketplace decisions, such as: Is this item in high enough demand that we should make it a stocked item? Are the margins so tight that an item should be better served from our marketplace? Based on Mirakl item lead time, you might delay releasing your other orders so that all line items arrive at the customer s location on the same day. Key Takeaway An Order Management System provides Global Inventory Visibility, so you can achieve near real-time inventory visibility across all your channels, including your marketplace, which prevent stock-outs and overpromising. 3. Fulfillment Coordination and Optimization One of the core benefits an order management system s sourcing engine provides, is optimization of fulfillment decisions across all of the order lines available for shipment. Ensuring that product is sourced from the correct location based on things like customer preferences, warehouse inventory locations, profit margins, etc. By giving the OMS visibility into the inventory and current orders, you allow it to make better fulfillment decisions. For instance, based on Mirakl item lead time, you might delay releasing your other orders so that all line items arrive at the customer s location on the same day. You can also coordinate the delivery of services and items across marketplace and stocked items to 5

6 Delivering Intelligent Fulfillment Headquarters, New Jersey, USA Main: Fax: Bangalore, India Main: BRIDGE Fax: Medellin, Colombia Main: Fax: Bridge Solutions Group enhance customer experience and support incremental revenue. For example, you might onboard an installation company s services onto the marketplace, and you would want to coordinate the installation along with delivery of the items themselves. With OMS as a central repository, these value-added use cases become easy! Key Takeaway An Order Management System provides flexible Fulfillment Coordination & Optimization capabilities, so you can provide a better delivery experience for your customers, including: Product and Service Delivery Coordination Same-day delivery from multiple fulfillment centers; Adding marketplace can seem complex, but by integrating it into your order management system and so you can leverage existing omni-channel capabilities, will simplify the process. Learn More For more information on Mirakl architecture, please contact us at: contact@bridgesgi.com