Omni-channel has been one of the buzziest of buzzwords over the last decade. Powerful mobile devices paved the way for the age of ecommerce and the marketing hype for omni-channel commerce quickly followed. Unsurprisingly, this caused omni-channel to become synonymous with retail and holiday shopping. However, many Salesforce customers that sell B2C, B2B, and B2B2C products across various industries have become omni-channel organizations. In fact, you are likely one and may not even know it.
Let us make the case, starting with the definition Shopify uses to describe omni-channel:
“It’s about communicating in ways that are aligned with why they use a given channel and showing awareness of their individual stage in the customer lifecycle. Customers can purchase wherever they are—rather than treating channels as independent silos, omni channel accounts for the spillover between channels and offers customer experiences within and between channels.”
Salesforce Omni-channel for Inventory, Orders, and ERP
As companies layer on more customer touchpoints and channels, managing inventory and the customer experience have become MUCH more complex. Even on a platform as powerful as Salesforce. Long gone are the days of large inventory stocks sitting in a warehouse that get picked, packed, and shipped directly to the end customer based on linear, predictable demand. As more Salesforce customers extend SKUs, price books, services and supply chains, more companies get involved in the value chain of manufacturing, marketing, selling, and fulfilling products. This dramatically increases the complexity of tracking sales orders, real time inventory, customer service inquiries, and returns. Plus, you now also need insights into which partners/vendors are delivering the highest levels of service you need to delight customers.
Omni-channel Organizations:
- Sell B2C, B2B, and B2B2C products
- Interact with customers via multiple channels (i.e. mobile, website, email, social media, phone, brick and mortar, etc.)
- Work in any industry that manages inventory
- Utilize partners in the value chain to manufacture, fulfill, or manage returns
Salesforce Omni-channel Isn’t Just For Retail
Just about any company that manages inventory is now omni channel. At Ascent Solutions we provide Salesforce customers with apps, solutions and pre-built integrations that extend the platform for ERP, inventory, order, warehouse and financial management. We call this capability Operations 360 on Salesforce and our customers often integrate with 3rd party ecommerce solutions like Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and Amazon
We’re fortunate to work with leading retail companies like Flow Water and On Running but we also work with customers in other industries that leverage our technology to manage complex inventory, fulfillment, and returns. We’re especially excited about the recent conversations we’ve had with companies in non-traditional omni channel industries like energy, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals that are looking for better ways to manage inventory on Salesforce.
To learn more about all of our 100% native Salesforce apps on the AppExchange visit: Ascent ERP, Ascent IM, Ascent OM, Label Anything, and Rental or email us here.
