By Ruth Richter • June 13, 2018
Even if you haven’t used an aggregator yet in your business, chances are you’ve heard of or even benefited from an aggregator business model. If you’ve booked a hotel on Trivago, you’ve used an aggregator. Trivago isn’t a hotel brand. They have neither beds nor linens nor a continental breakfast, yet they “sell” consumers the opportunity to gain all those amenities from any number of competing hotels and website deals to find the best value for their money.
While growing a business through ecommerce channels, many small companies turn to aggregators to expand their reach to marketplaces or to connect other services to multiple ecommerce platforms. One of the primary aggregator models for ecommerce is a “one to many” model allowing businesses who sell goods and services to use the one platform to connect to multiple marketplaces for them. The true strength of this model is that the distributor can focus on increasing market share and sales rather than on setting up accounts, entering data, or managing multiple online platforms.
ChannelAdvisor (now Rithum) has been a popular aggregator since released in 2001. They specialize in helping businesses acquire more customers and increase sales.
Shipping Easy is another example of using one platform that connects to many ecommerce platforms. This platform is ideal for third-party logistics who can connect their customer’s platforms to Shipping Easy to allow them to find the best shipping deals across the various providers, from USPS to FedEx, for the orders they will be shipping.
Many to One and One to Many Data Integration
The hallmark of the aggregator business model is bringing many under the umbrella of one. Whether you’re the aggregator or the aggregatee, it’s important to be able to connect all the appropriate channels of the model for the appropriate—and accurate—flow of business, goods, and services.
When a provider is brought into an aggregator model, the provider maintains independence in branding as well as ownership of the original goods or services rendered. Under the aggregator, providers experience additional marketing and exposure to those seeking their products. Quality and price are assured through the aggregation contract.
It’s not just the services that are integrated. Flow of information must be integrated, as well. As a provider, you must have the right information at the right time to provide the right service or product through the aggregator, just as you do handling business under your own model.
Get the Right Middle Man for your Sage 100: IN-SYNCH
Fortunately, technology not only makes aggregators possible, it also makes integration within the business model quick and easy. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software such as Sage 100 provides businesses with a centralized platform for data collection. Connecting your Sage ERP to aggregation channels ensures that customer orders from the aggregator flow seamlessly into your order entry and fulfillment queues for timely processing.
That middle connector between your ERP and the aggregator is key to successful aggregator business models. Fortunately for Sage 100 users, IN-SYNCH by ROI Consulting was built on the premise of connecting multiple channels, carts, and platforms. IN-SYNCH works by providing real-time data synchronization with any third-party system, integrating everything from the basics of order tracking and status to inventory quantities and individual order history. Customized integration can ensure that your Sage ERP connects to any system an aggregator may use. IN-SYNCH provides secure, bidirectional, real-time synchronization, giving you peace of mind that no order—whether from your own website, a third-party shopping cart, or an aggregator—will be missed.
Under the IN-SYNCH Umbrella
Whether your company is adding its goods and services to an aggregator, or aggregating other services unto itself, you need the confidence of data integration. Let ROI Consulting and IN-SYNCH provide that security. Contact ROI Consulting or give us a call at 402-934-2223, ext. 1.
