Company News • 10.11.2014

ChannelAdvisor expands e-commerce support for branded manufacturers

ChannelAdvisor Corporation announced the acquisition of E-Tale Holdings Limited, a UK-based company that offers a leading global “Where to Buy” solution. With this acquisition, ChannelAdvisor offers the industry’s first holistic e-commerce initiative that enables branded manufacturers to boost product sales and complement activities across online channels.

“When you consider branded manufacturers, their contact with end consumers has historically been through resellers,” said Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor CEO. “E-commerce has ushered in a new generation of shoppers and, with them, new shopping habits that send consumers directly to brands in search of their favorite products. We’re thrilled to welcome the E-Tale team and solution to the ChannelAdvisor family. This acquisition can help brands maximize sales opportunities for their products no matter where they are in the online journey.”

E-Tale, founded in 2009, provides Where to Buy functionality to multinational branded manufacturers in more than 30 countries. The Where to Buy solution allows brands to provide their website visitors with up-to-date information about the authorized resellers that carry their products and the availability of those products. With a simple click, consumers can then purchase products from a trusted reseller of their choice. The solution vastly improves the consumer experience, rewards authorized channel partners and monetizes the natural traffic to a brand’s website and digital marketing efforts. Further, it allows brands to gain a better understanding of consumer behavior through detailed data about the flow of traffic between the brand and retailer.

“Working with ChannelAdvisor not only gives us a global infrastructure, but it also gives us the resources to focus on innovation, customer service and client delivery,” said Bradley Keenan, CEO of E-Tale. “We look forward to joining the ChannelAdvisor team and developing an end-to-end solution for brands in the evolving digital landscape.”

With the addition of Where to Buy, ChannelAdvisor launches its ChannelAdvisor for Brands initiative that includes the following solutions to help brands expand their online presence and e-commerce activities:

• Where to Buy: A solution that drives qualified buyers on brand websites to certified retail partners and provides detailed information about how consumers are discovering and purchasing products. Where to Buy is even valuable for brands that offer on-site transactions. Brands can augment their transactional sites and manage channel conflict with retail partners by offering consumers multiple purchase options.

• Marketplaces: Many brands are expanding their direct-to-consumer strategies by experimenting on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. For example, more brands that sell wholesale (or first-party) through Amazon are complementing that strategy by also selling on Amazon’s third-party marketplace. This hybrid approach can be powered by ChannelAdvisor and gives the brand the opportunity to promote its entire product selection to Amazon’s millions of loyal customers.

• Digital Marketing: Once brands start selling direct to consumers, ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing enables them to use Google AdWords, Product Listing Ads and more than 100 comparison shopping engines to allow the brand’s direct-to-consumer strategies to have optimal global reach.

Source: ChannelAdvisor

channels: e-commerce, brand management, cloud computing