Storis Introduces eCommerce Buying Group Interface

August 11, 2021  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

“Regardless of the strategy our retailers have for their website, we want all of our partners to be able to maximize their growth potential,”Pete Dressler, e-commerce product manager.   

In support of this, Storis is introducing a Buying Group Interface. The solution's first integrations are with BrandSource’s AVB Marketing Platform and Nationwide’s website partners, Site on Time and Retailer Web Services. The Buying Group Interface is a plug-and-play solution for these website platforms. Web services are a valuable part of Buying Group memberships. This integration enables mutual partners to take advantage of these web services while utilizing Storis’ industry-leading retail technology.

The Buying Group Interface packages fundamental APIs needed to connect STORIS’ retail software to these website solutions and share key data that enhances the customers’ shopping experience. The APIs have been pre-configured for these web partners making it easy for retailers to build seamless multi-channel experiences. By providing the fundamental connection points, STORIS aims to make website integration accessible to partners of all sizes.

With the Buying Group Interface retailers can seamlessly manage inventory across channels in real-time, to accurately reflect updates to product details, price, and availability. Retailers can also push association pricing into their Storis inventory management solution. Further in-store Quotes created by retail sales associates can be sent to the retailer’s website for completion at home, while final Sales Orders will submit back to Storis for order management.

Steve Mahler, director of POS Initiatives for Nationwide Marketing Group commented, “The Buying Group Interface streamlines processes for our mutual partners and provides a single source of key data for our retailer websites and showrooms. Nationwide will support our members in configuring this interface. To support this integration, it is critical that our members stay ahead of the ever-increasing consumer demand for real-time and up-to-date inventory availability. With this information transparency, customers can confidently purchase online or visit a location to purchase.”

Chad Evans, VP of Merchandising for AVB, Inc also comments, “We have seen a huge spike in eCommerce business, that accelerated even faster during the early months of the pandemic and has brought many new customers to our dealers. In this new world we live in, our members are gaining new business by treating their websites as their flagship stores. It is very important for dealers to have their systems fully integrated, so consumers can see, via our members’ websites, which items are in-stock and are ready to ship or pick up. Through our partnership with STORIS we have created a strong solution that accomplishes this and so much more.”

In May of this year, Storis announced its full website integration solution with over 50 API touchpoints, eBridge Commerce. Retailers that launch with the Buying Group Interface can easily upgrade to eBridge Commerce as their eCommerce needs scale.