iVend eCommerce is the integrated eCommerce portal of iVend Retail Management Suite. Notwithstanding the business benefits of an integrated eCommerce portal, iVend eCommerce also extends a high level of convenience to the retailer – more from the view point of master data management. The fundamental and the most basic expectation from an integrated eCommerce portal is to not only have the transactions integrated, but also to have a common repository of the master data.

Master Data Management in the context of an eCommerce portal plays an important role in establishing a successful online business. One of the major aspects of master data management is the ability of the application suite to allow users a single application interface from where the entire master data can be managed. Specifically, we are referring to item master, their associated images, price lists, special price lists, gift cards, coupons, etc. In an integrated retail application like iVend Retail Management Suite, iVend Enterprise is the central repository of the entire master data. The configuration settings available in iVend Enterprise make it possible to either share the entire master data across the retail network or make it store or eCommerce specific.

Definition and management of images determine the aesthetics and usability of an eCommerce portal. Since the customer does not have the option of physically feeling the products, the closest an online retailer can come is to show multiple different images and profiles of the product. Moreover a product can either be displayed on the home page or the entity page or on the product page or any other location on the eCommerce portal. The size of the image at all these locations is always different. Given the different locations (on the portal) and the image sizes, managing images can be a nearly impossible task.

iVend eCommerce resizes images automatically depending on the location (on the portal) where all the image is to be displayed. It is the same image that can be shown on the home page, entity page, product page, in the shopping cart, in the order confirmation page, etc. This feature significantly reduces the overhead of master data management for images.

Not only the images, iVend eCommerce being integrated to iVend Enterprise allows seamless integration of gift cards, coupons and loyalty cards between the two applications. Similarly price lists can be made specific to iVend eCommerce.

There are many more such features in iVend eCommerce that reduce the need to duplicate master data once it is entered in one of the integrated applications of iVend Retail Management Suite.

To know more about master data management in iVend eCommerce, please visit www.iVend.com or write to us at [email protected]