Webshops for chains: one platform, a webshop in each shop

One central webshop or a webshop in every shop?

The quickest solution for a chain is often one shared webshop for the whole brand. It is easy to set up, but it is a poor fit for shops that sell locally: orders have to be distributed afterwards, and the shop sees the webshop as the chain's, not its own.

The alternative is a local webshop for each shop, run from one platform. Each shop has its own address, its own opening hours and its own delivery area, while the chain decides the brand, range and campaigns and sees all the data in one place. The shop owns the customer relationship locally; the chain owns the overview.

For a franchise it is often the only model that works. The franchisee needs to see their own customers and their own revenue, and a franchise webshop where everything lands centrally quickly raises doubts about who a sale belongs to.

Local visibility and click and collect

When people search for flowers, food or coffee, they search nearby. A page per shop with its address, opening hours and delivery area gives search engines something concrete to show in every town. A single shared webshop has only one address to be found at.

A local webshop also knows its own delivery zones and collection times, so customers only see what applies to their shop. That makes click and collect simple across the whole chain: the customer orders from the nearest shop and collects the order themselves.

This is where omnichannel in a chain becomes concrete: the customer orders online, collects in store or has it delivered, and finds the same range whichever shop they choose.

What should be managed centrally, and what locally?

The most important decision in chain management is where to draw the line. Draw it in the wrong place, and either the shops cannot respond to their local area, or the range drifts apart.

Central control typically covers:

• Brand and design, so every webshop looks like the chain.
• Range, product descriptions and images.
• Prices and campaigns that apply across the whole chain.
• Rules for payment, delivery and terms.

Local control typically covers:

• Sold out, because only the shop knows what is on the shelf.
• Opening hours, closing days and collection times.
• Delivery area and delivery times.
• Local prices, where rent, competition or range make it reasonable.

Write the line down before you choose a system. Then you can ask the supplier a concrete question: does a local exception stay in place when the chain pushes out a new range, or is it overwritten?

One central product catalogue, not a hundred copies

The heavy part of a webshop for a chain is the upkeep, not the launch. If every shop edits its own products, the range quickly goes in different directions, and shared campaigns become impossible.

So build on one central product catalogue, where products, prices and images are edited in one place and pushed out to the shops. If the chain already has a catalogue in its POS system or ERP, pull the data from there rather than typing it in again.

Also ask how changes are rolled out. Can you see what will change in each shop before it is sent? Can you send to selected shops only? And what happens to the fields the shop has changed itself?

Data across the chain

When every shop is on one platform, the figures can be compared. That requires every shop to measure the same things in the same way. As a minimum, track:

• Revenue and number of orders per shop and in total.
• Average order value per shop.
• Repeat purchases: how many customers come back, and how quickly.
• Campaign effect: what a shared offer changes in the individual shop.

The shop should see its own figures, and chain management should see them all. A shop that only gets the figures the chain sends out quickly loses interest in its webshop.

Se dashboard og dataindsigtandværktøjerne til marketing, når I afklarer, hvad hver butik skal kunne følge.

Roll out in phases: pilot, measure, roll out

Do not roll out to the whole chain at once. Start with a pilot of 10 to 20 shops that resemble the rest of the chain: large and small, town and country, with and without delivery.

Agree in advance what the pilot should show and when it ends. Gather feedback from the shops and adjust the setup before it is copied on, so new shops inherit a setup that has been tested.

Then roll out in waves, for example region by region, so training and support can keep up.

Common pitfalls

• Maintaining the range twice. If products have to be edited in both the POS system and the webshop, one of them falls out of date. Integrate, or choose one place to make edits.
• Shops without ownership. A webshop the shop cannot influence will not get mentioned over the counter. Give the shop its own webshop, its own figures and its own payout.
• Data held by a marketplace. If the chain sells mainly through a marketplace, the customer relationship stays there. With your own webshop, the customers belong to the chain and the shop.
• Campaigns without an end date. A shared offer must be possible to withdraw from every shop at once, otherwise it lingers in some places.

How to measure whether it works

Compare the pilot shops with their own figures from before the start and with shops that are not yet on board: online revenue, repeat purchases and average order value.

Also look at how much time the shops spend on the webshop. If sales rise while the workload stays low, the model is ready for the rest of the chain.

Chain management in WalletPlus

WalletPlus is built for the model this guide describes. We sit on top of your POS system and ERP rather than replacing them.

Se også de konkrete behov i vores guide til blomsterbutikkerandguide til tankstationer og kiosker, når I vælger flowet til butikkerne.

• A shared range pushed out to all shops or selected ones, with a diff view before anything changes.
• Local exceptions, such as a shop's own price, stay in place when the chain pushes out again.
• One offer across the chain that can be withdrawn again.
• A new location inherits the setup and range from the chain.
• A chain overview with revenue and orders per business and in total.
• “Switch location” on the webshop, so the customer can order from another shop in the chain.
• A separate payout per business, so the money lands with whoever made the sale.

See the full chain management, or the modules for florists, kiosks and petrol stations and restaurants. Chains get a special price, agreed for the whole network.