Question
Thank you for sending all the useful information about your POS Integrator. This is exactly what I need to connect my point of sale system. Can you walk me through how your Integrators connects to marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay? Does it connect directly with a 3rd party service like Channel Advisor?
Answer
This is a question that comes up a lot. Let me see if I can explain it for you and give you some tips and thoughts about how to integrate Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce and Magento with Amazon.
Modern Retail's Integrator (1) connects the point of sale (POS) system with Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce and Magento. It does not do the integration directly with Amazon or eBay, nor does it integrate with 3rd party services like Channel Advisor. Instead, Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce and Magento are connected with the marketplaces (2).
Shopify and Bigcommerce have direct integrations with many of the popular marketplaces (Bigcommerce made it available in late 2016 and Shopify in early 2017). If you are using one these ecommerce platforms there may be nothing else you need to use to get your store integrated with Amazon, eBay, Google, etc. Please talk to Shopify or Bigcommerce if you need more information about these integrations.
WooCommerce and Magento do not have a direct integration and instead rely on 3rd party services and software. This means you must install an extension to both WooCommerce and Magento to get these platforms integrated with Amazon, eBay, Google, etc. Modern Retail uses a solution from ChannelUnity to get WooCommerce integrated with Amazon and eBay. On Magento we use a solution from M2E.
We have also used Channel Advisor and found it to be a very good solution but it can be pricey. However, it may be the only solution when you have sophisticated needs. You may also find Shopify and Bigcommerce's solutions too limiting given they are so new. Undoubtedly both Shopify and Bigcommerce's marketplace integrations will improve over time but you may find yourself using a 3rd party service until such time.
If you take a look at the above diagram you'll notice that Products flow from the POS system to Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce or Magento (A). These products are then sent to Amazon, eBay or Google using one of the methods described above (B). Any Orders you receive from the marketplace will then be sent back down to Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce or Magento (C) and sent to your POS system (D).
As you can see you have lots of options when it comes your marketplace integrations. Please work with your website developer or agency to understand which approach or service is right for your business. As you can see from a POS integration standpoint, it doesn't matter which approach you take as long as you integrate the marketplace directly with your Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce or Magento website.