Bigcommerce Partners With Square On O2O Real-Time Data

Retail is getting a little more time-sensitive with a partnership from Bigcommerce and Square.

It was announced yesterday (Oct. 5) that the cloud-based eCommerce platform now allows offline retailers to synchronize their inventory in real time — as well as automatically export their product catalog — from Square to their online store.

The integration is designed to allow small to medium-sized retailers to expand their customer reach and improve the inventory process for both online and offline stores. The press release announcing the partnership cites a recent survey (of SMBs in the retail space) indicating that 50 percent of retail businesses spend more than three hours each week syncing their online and offline orders and inventory, while 10 percent spend more than 10 hours each week.

“I saved 100 hours of manual work by importing my Square inventory to Bigcommerce. With that type of efficiency, you can have your online store up and running in less than a day,” Alex Head, owner of Drink Dispatch, said in the release. “The integration allows for inventory continuity and a better customer experience, which are necessities when you’re offering your customers options like one-hour delivery.”

Besides the aforementioned, the press release touts additional benefits of the Bigcommerce/Square partnership for their retail customers, including the avoidance of poor customer experiences resulting from overselling and cancelled orders and the elimination of the need for manual bookkeeping across multiple sales channels.

The release also shares that Bigcommerce and Square will be rolling out functionality that enables online sellers to sync their inventory to Square for in-person transactions, a feature that is expected to be released this quarter.

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