Sales Channels
Sales Channels
Sales Channels are designed to centralize and simplify the management of your sales across various platforms. By leveraging sales channels, you can gather all your orders from different marketplaces, e-commerce sites, and other integrated systems into one unified platform, streamlining your operations.
When you connect and configure your sales channels, you can do the following:
- View and manage all your orders and analytics in one place, with Afosto’s own Warehouse Management System (WMS) or an external system to handle your inventory. Afosto seamlessly integrates with your sales channels to fulfill orders efficiently.
- Better data visibility for making informed business decisions.
- Save time and reduce manual errors with automated workflows.
This guide covers the different Sales Channels for seamless operations.
Let’s get started 🚀
Types of Sales Channels
After logging into your Afosto account, navigate to the dashboard to view and manage your sales channels in the "My Channels" section.
The screen will display a list of Sales Channels available for integration, such as:
- Shopify
- Decathlon
- WooCommerce
- Bol
- Lightspeed
- Afosto CMS
- Blokker
- Effect Connect
- ePages
- ePages Now
- Exact
- Integration
- POS
- Storefront
- We Are Eves
- Winkelstraat
Shopify
Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform that enables businesses to create and manage their online stores. It supports a wide range of features like product listings, payment processing, and order management.
Why Do I Need This?
Integrating Shopify with Afosto ensures that your orders, inventory, and customer data are automatically synced. This saves time, reduces errors, and streamlines operations by centralizing all your Shopify store activities in one platform.
Decathlon
Decathlon is a leading global retailer specializing in sports equipment and apparel. Integrating with Decathlon allows businesses to connect with a vast audience in the sports and fitness market.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting Decathlon to Afosto ensures efficient order and inventory synchronization, streamlining your operations and expanding your reach in the sports retail space.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a popular WordPress plugin that allows users to turn their websites into fully functional online stores. It is highly customizable and supports a variety of extensions.
Why Do I Need This?
By connecting WooCommerce to Afosto, you can automate order processing, sync inventory in real-time, and manage all sales from a single dashboard, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.
Bol
Bol.com is a prominent online marketplace, particularly popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. It provides businesses access to a large customer base and tools for selling products effectively.
Why Do I Need This?
Integrating Bol with Afosto allows seamless order and inventory synchronization, enabling you to manage your marketplace sales efficiently without manual intervention.
Lightspeed
Lightspeed is a cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce platform that supports in-store and online retail businesses. It offers features like inventory management, sales analytics, and payment processing.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting Lightspeed to Afosto ensures real-time synchronization of your inventory and orders, helping you maintain accurate stock levels and deliver a seamless customer experience.
Afosto CMS
Afosto CMS is a content management system designed for seamless integration with the Afosto platform, offering a customizable and efficient way to manage your e-commerce store.
Why Do I Need This?
Linking Afosto CMS with your sales channels ensures consistency in product information, faster updates, and a unified platform for managing all your e-commerce operations.
Blokker
Blokker is a well-known retail chain in the Netherlands, offering both physical and online stores. Its integration is ideal for businesses targeting this market.
Why Do I Need This?
By integrating Blokker with Afosto, you can automate inventory updates and streamline order management, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual tasks.
Effect Connect
Effect Connect is an integration platform that connects online marketplaces with your store or ERP system, simplifying order and inventory management.
Why Do I Need This?
Integrating Effect Connect with Afosto centralizes your marketplace activities, ensuring smooth operations and reducing the risk of overselling.
ePages
ePages is a professional e-commerce platform designed for businesses to create and manage online stores with ease. It offers robust tools for product listings, payments, and customer management.
Why Do I Need This?
Integrating ePages with Afosto ensures automated order processing, real-time inventory updates, and a centralized view of all your online store activities, saving time and reducing errors.
ePages Now
ePages Now is a next-generation version of the ePages platform, offering modern features like mobile optimization, sleek templates, and enhanced customization for online stores.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting ePages Now to Afosto allows you to synchronize orders and inventory seamlessly, providing a streamlined workflow and a hassle-free way to manage your modern e-commerce store.
Exact
Exact is a business software solution offering tools for accounting, ERP, and CRM. It is widely used by small and medium businesses for financial and operational management.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting Exact to Afosto allows you to streamline your financial and inventory data, ensuring accuracy and efficiency across your operations.
Integration
The Integration option in Afosto allows you to connect custom systems or platforms via API for unique business requirements.
Why Do I Need This?
This flexibility enables businesses to tailor the platform to meet specific needs, ensuring seamless operations and data flow.
POS
Point of Sale (POS) systems support in-store transactions, inventory updates, and customer management for brick-and-mortar businesses.
Why Do I Need This?
Linking your POS with Afosto integrates your in-store and online operations, keeping inventory and sales data synchronized in real time.
Storefront
Storefront provides a headless checkout solution, allowing businesses to create custom online shopping experiences while maintaining a fast and flexible backend.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting Storefront to Afosto ensures smooth checkout processes, inventory synchronization, and centralized order management.
We Are Eves
We Are Eves is a niche marketplace platform focusing on beauty and personal care products, offering a targeted audience for specific businesses.
Why Do I Need This?
Integrating with Afosto helps manage orders, inventory, and customer data from this platform efficiently, saving time and effort.
Winkelstraat
Winkelstraat is a luxury fashion marketplace offering access to premium customers looking for high-end products.
Why Do I Need This?
Connecting Winkelstraat to Afosto allows for seamless order processing and inventory updates, ensuring a premium shopping experience for your customers.
Ways to Connect with Afosto Platform
You can choose to connect from the following options:
1. A Third-Party App
Connect external platforms like Shopify, Bol, WooCommerce, etc., for managing all your marketplace and e-commerce orders.
2. Afosto Storefront
Add a Storefront Sales Channel to connect your Afosto webshop, enabling centralized management of your online store’s orders and inventory.
A Storefront Sales Channel is also required if you need to manually add orders, such as for B2B sales where customers provide their order details directly. This ensures that all orders, whether entered manually or generated automatically, are efficiently managed within the platform.
3. Afosto Point of Sale (POS)
Add a POS Sales Channel to integrate your Afosto Point of Sale system, ensuring seamless synchronization between in-store and online sales operations.
How to Add a Sales Channel
You can add a Sales Channel in two ways:
1. From the Dashboard
Navigate to the My Channels section on the Dashboard and click the "+" button corresponding to each channel type to start adding a new sales channel.
After selecting the desired sales channel, follow the step-by-step instructions to install and configure the respective app, ensuring it is set up correctly for seamless integration with the Afosto platform.
2. From the Admin App
Click the "Admin App" button located in the top-right corner of the header on the Afosto screen.
You will land on the Sales Channels page, displaying a list of your existing channels.
To add a new channel, simply click the blue “ADD” button in the top-right corner to start adding a new sales channel to your Afosto account.
The Add Channel screen will appear, where you can select the Channel Type from the dropdown menu. Once selected, click the “Next” button to proceed to the channel settings configuration.
The Channel Settings page will open, allowing you to provide the necessary details and configure the settings for your sales channel. Complete the required fields to set up the channel successfully.
Note: When adding a sales channel, you may need details such as API keys, login credentials, store URLs, account IDs, and more. The specific details required may vary based on the channel and how it integrates with Afosto.
Configuring Your Sales Channel
Once you’ve installed the app for your sales channel, configuring it depends on how you plan to use Afosto and run your business operations. The configuration process involves deciding how orders imported into Afosto should be handled.
Following are some key details you may need to configure:
- Shipping Methods: Determine how you want to fulfill the orders imported from the channel (e.g., shipping carriers, delivery times, etc.).
- Data Synchronization: Choose what information you want to sync between the sales channel and Afosto, such as orders, cancellations, returns, or inventory updates.
- Inventory Management: Specify the locations you use to manage inventory, ensuring smooth order fulfillment through Afosto.
The exact configuration settings depend on your business and fulfillment workflow. Afosto allows you to tailor these settings to fit your needs, ensuring a seamless integration that supports your business operations.
How to Access Sales Channel Setup Guides
When adding a sales channel to Afosto, you may need guidance on settings, API keys, or configurations. To simplify the process, we provide detailed how-to guides covering everything from setup to inventory syncing.
Visit https://afosto.com/docs/apps/ to access all the guides and ensure a smooth setup process.