There are many distinct benefits to having multiple eCommerce stores.
You can sell your products to multiple audience targets, geographies, products under differentiated retail brands, you can sell product sets that just aren’t related etc.
You may have legitimate reasons or benefits for setting up multiple eCommerce stores. However, It's very difficult to manage without losing your head.
Here are some common or predictable challenges you'll face:
Managing multiple eCommerce stores can get a little tricky if you don’t do it right. Here are some tips for making it easier to build out a multi-store strategy:
Use PIM (product information management) software that is specifically built to deal with product information. It’s a much more scalable solution than mastering your items in an eCommerce platform. Your product data is kept clean on a platform that stands independent of the sales channels to which it publishes.
Manage your inventory from a central location. You may present multiple brands to different sets of customers, but “under the hood” you’re one company. Don’t segregate how you manage your inventory, just because your stores are separate. You’ll want to centralise where you manage inventory and make sure all inventory numbers are updated across your stores in real time.
Just like with inventory management, you’ll want to centralise how you manage and fulfill orders. Keeping fulfillment, customer care, and drop shipping processes consistent across all of your company’s brands will make it easier for you to manage them. Don’t deviate from your standard, unless you have to.
Reach Multiplier Allows