Editorial update (August 2026): An unsupported customer-growth statistic was removed, and Hybris was updated to its current SAP Commerce Cloud name.
Multichannel selling can help retailers reach customers across marketplaces and storefronts, but the result depends on channel fit, catalog quality, fulfillment, pricing, and operations. There is no universal percentage increase that applies to every retailer.
Retailers no longer ask themselves Should I get listed on Amazon or eBay? — just as they no longer debate whether to sell on a marketplace or run their own store. They do it all simply to stay in the race. However, updating product lists and managing the selling process across dozens of platforms separately can quickly become overwhelming, which is why most retailers rely on multichannel software to automate these functions.
Basic Functions Retailers are Looking for in a Multichannel Solutions
Multichannel software is a solution that lets retailers provide a unified and consistent customer experience across multiple online sales channels. For example, it allows controlling business processes connected with inventory management, order fulfillment, shipping management, and synchronizing product listings.
A high-quality multichannel solution, including an ecommerce multichannel shipping API, should be able to perform the following functions:
- Managing orders throughout all sales channels from a single screen.
- Controlling inventory stock levels and shipping from a single place, ideally through an ecommerce multichannel shipping API that keeps stock and fulfillment data in sync across channels.
- Update prices on all platforms from one system.
- Distribute products lists to all the platforms.
Clearly, the ability to manage orders and products across multiple platforms is the backbone of any multichannel commerce software. If a multichannel solution provider wants to work with this kind of data from online stores, they need to build integrations with the shopping platforms those stores use.
The quality of an eCommerce multichannel software depends on its level and quality of integration with shopping platforms. Integration means tying a multichannel solution to a third-party system, so if something goes wrong and information is lost or distorted, a whole chain of integrated processes can be disrupted.
The easiest way to build integrations with multiple eCommerce platforms at once is to use API2Cart. API2Cart provides a full set of API methods for working with data from online stores, including order, product, and shipping data needed to power an ecommerce multichannel shipping API.
API Methods for Multichannel Software
Let's take a closer look at the methods that make a multichannel system a truly all-encompassing solution:
- for working with products:
- for working with categories:
-
- category.add/ list/ update/ delete
- category.assign/unassign
- category.image.add/ update/ delete
- for working with prices:
-
- product.currency.add- assign a currency to a certain product
- product.currency.list- retrieve the list of product’s currencies
- product.price.add- add some prices to the product
- product.price.update - update some prices of the product
- product.tax.add - assign a tax class and rate to a certain product
- for working with orders:
-
- order.count
- order.add/ update/ delete
- order.shipment.list/ add
- order.status.list
API2Cart connects multichannel software with a broad range of supported shopping platforms and marketplaces. The former Hybris product is now SAP Commerce Cloud. Verify the current method and parameter coverage for every platform in your target channel list.
If you'd like to explore your options, start using API2Cart for free and see how it can improve your multichannel software.
You can also find more detailed information about the business cases you can solve with API2Cart here. Or contact our managers by phone, chat, or email — they'll walk you through all the API2Cart API methods available for multichannel software.
