Retail Systems Research and Webgility Reveal Three Hidden Costs of Omnichannel That Impact Independent Sellers

"One of the biggest obstacles of being a small, independent retailer is that you have all of the challenges of big retailers, but none of the resources they have to tackle these challenges," said Nikki Baird, Managing Partner, RSR. "Omnichannel—the act of serving customers holistically across multiple touch points—is no different. Consumers don't care if the retailer is big or small. They just want to shop how, when, and where they want, in an interaction with a retailer or brand that is seamless and consistent. In this new research, we identify the top hindrances for independent retailers and offer practical solutions that will empower them to make the most of the omnichannel selling environment."

The new report tackles key issues facing independent retailers including:

• Inaccurate product availability: Small retailers struggle to "see" their inventory. Indeed, RSR found that only 8 percent of respondents with $250M or less of revenue can see inventory levels across their business, and can promise with confidence that they can sell an item to consumers across multiple selling channels.
• Poor product information:  According to RSR's 2016 benchmark on retailers' e-commerce strategies, smaller retailers are less worried about maintaining growth rates or uncertain consumer demand than their big company competitors. Independent retailers are instead struggling to find differentiation in a competitive market and keep up with evolving consumer shopping habits.
• Unexpected fulfillment costs: The biggest, most invisible cost in fulfilling customer orders is handling. For many small businesses where family members are often the labor, it's easy to forget that labor is a cost. But time, as they say, is money, and if an employee is wandering aisles in a warehouse looking for inventory or struggling to figure out how to pack something for safe shipment, that is time better spent doing other things that could potentially drive more value for the business.

The research also revealed that data is both the greatest hope and the greatest obstacle for SMB retailers. According to RSR's research, 63% of SMB retailers rely on their operational systems to provide insights into their business—either directly through reports, or by dumping their data in Excel to do manual analysis. While even more retailers know this data is critical, they struggle with getting the date from their systems and into the other systems or applications where they need it, let alone gleaning actionable insights from that data. This new RSR research concludes with advice on how to make the most of your operational systems and unlock this powerful data.

"RSR is the preeminent analyst firm in the retail industry, and we are thrilled to bring their research and insights to small retailers," said Webgility founder and CEO Parag Mamnani. "We founded Webgility to make operations a competitive advantage rather than a headaches for SMBs. This new report will give our rapidly growing customer base--and the overall small retailers industry--actionable insights that will make their businesses better than ever."

ABOUT UNIFY
Webgility's Unify is the first e-commerce solution that connects and unifies all revenue streams and expenses so multi-channel businesses can have better perspective, make smarter decisions, and run all operations from a single view. Unify allows e-commerce retailers to conquer the challenges that come with being multi-channel and lets them run and scale their businesses exactly the way they want—by unifying their business data rather than forcing them to switch platforms. To learn more and start a free trial of Unify, visit http://www.webgility.com/multi-channel-selling.

ABOUT WEBGILITY
Webgility, Inc. is the leading provider of software for multi-channel e-commerce companies, managing millions of transactions for 10,000-plus online stores every month. Webgility's mission is to empower online retailers to focus on their passion by simplifying operations. Its Unify software connects all revenue streams, expenses, and business systems so businesses can have better perspective, make smarter decisions, lower costs, and streamline operations. Webgility® is a certified partner of Intuit®, QuickBooks®, Xero, and NetSuite®, and works with more than 85 e-commerce platforms and SaaS providers (including Amazon®, eBay®, BigCommerce®, Shopify®, and Magento®), payment processors (PayPal, Stripe, Shopify Payments, Square), and hosting providers. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with an international branch in Indore, India. For more information about Webgility, visit http://www.webgility.com.

For more information, please contact:
Eileen Conway
Zealot Communications for Webgility
650-245-9015
[email protected]

SOURCE Webgility

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