Universal Shopping Baskets and Omnichannel Order Management

In this ecommerce podcast, James interviews Shaun Britton, Global Sales Director at Mercaux, and Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce, on their partnership and recent launch of a universal shopping basket solution for ecommerce businesses.

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Delivering a seamless cross channel experience is a strategic imperative for omnichannel retailers but operational complexity makes it hard or expensive to achieve, usually due to challenges integrating disparate technologies. This ecommerce podcast focuses on a universal shopping basket and OMS solution, looking at how it works and why it’s needed.

For this episode, experienced ecommerce consultant James Gurd interviews Shaun Britton, Global Sales Director at Mercaux, and Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce, on their partnership and recent launch of a universal shopping basket solution for ecommerce businesses.

Tl;dr – what we cover:

1. Mercaux & Fluent Commerce’s market offering and customer need
2. What the universal basket solution offers
3. Handling order management flows
4. Cost model & implementation

Key Discussion Points

1. What brought Mercaux and Fluent together: what customer need did you see and what’s the value proposition?
2. Universal basket is a new addition in 2022 so let’s start with the basics: what is your universal shopping basket solution & features?
3. Some ecommerce platforms enable this directly e.g. Proximis,so what’s the market need you’ve identified, what type of customer and which ecommerce platforms are you focused on & why?
4. What data can you share on the conversion, revenue and LTV impact of providing a universal basket rather than a standard online basket that sits on the website/app?
5. Universal shopping baskets indicate the need for a single customer view to identify customers regardless of channel: what are the technical requirements a retailer needs to satisfy to use this product?
6. What are the technical challenges of providing a universal basket – what are the potential barriers and how do you help retailers overcome them?
7. Is there a transfer mechanism for a Store Sales Agent to create an instore digital basket and then send it to the customer so they can use it on another device e.g. at home on their phone?
8. How do you ensure accurate stock data so SKUs aren’t sold that have since disappeared from a store shelf or storage room?
9. How does your OMS handle back order and preorder products as well as in stock items?
10. Does it limit the type of product that can be added to the basket e.g. simple, configurable, subscription, digital etc.?
11. How does Fluent handle the order management side once an item has been purchased – do you maintain the retailers standard order management flows and if so, how?
12. What’s the integration path & typical timeline?
13. What’s the cost model: what’s a realistic entry point for someone looking to improve their omnichannel capability?

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