iVend Platform Equips Midmarket With Total Omni-Channel Solution

iVend Retail is designed to enable merchants to launch an effective omni-channel strategy including mobile point of sale (mPOS), collecting data through loyalty and customer engagement programs, and sending digital offers and coupons to a consumer’s phone or home computer. “The omni-channel feel can be achieved at brick-and-mortar stores or online,” Mick Adamson, VP, North America, says.

VARs had the chance to learn more about the iVend platform from Citixsys at RetailNOW 2015. Adamson says the solution, aimed at midmarket merchants that sell finished goods (such as apparel, footwear, and appliances) and that “grew up alongside SAP,” has evolved over the past decade to meet changing demands of the retail vertical.

A feature that merchants immediately recognize as a benefit is the ability to connect in-store inventory with e-commerce inventory. Sometimes when brick-and-mortar locations accept returns from online sales, they can incur a loss because the item is not in the location’s inventory and it is no longer visible to online shoppers. iVend provides visibility of both the brick-and-mortar and e-commerce inventories so items can be shipped from a store to an online customer.

Adamson comments that the components of the iVend solution are modularized, so VARs have the ability to sell a part of it, as well as the ability to sell a complete, integrated solution. 

As a channel-only company, Adamson says Citixsys CEO Kamal Karmakar’s emphasizes developing long-term relationships with partners. Adamson says the platform has open APIs to allow resellers to build their own integrations and add their own modules. In addition iVend provides development training for partners to learn how to build from the company’s APIs. iVend also provides integrations with more than 40 payment processors, including its preferred partner Cayan.

Adamson adds that iVend also supports resellers with larger clients with enterprise resource planning (ERP), providing full integration with SAP and integrating with platforms including NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Microsoft’s retail platform. 

For more information on iVend, visit https://www.ivend.com/.