Feature
Financial and enterprise resource planning firm Netsuite has bought Retail Anywhere in hopes to unify online and in store customer experiences.
Retail Anywhere builds point-of-sale apps, so with this purchase Netsuite can offer a more seamless experience for people who shop online and in stores.
Customers' Expectations Driving Saas Buying Spree
Because so many people are doing so much business and social online, companies are scrambling to deliver SaaS models to satisfy them. In turn, this has been driving large IT companies like Oracle, IBM and even Salesforce to buy up Saas vendors on what seems to be a weekly basis.
For Netsuite, the Retail Anywhere purchase means it can focus on what it calls the omnichannel experience. People can shop, pay and receive merchandise anywhere. That kind of consistency within one company is hard to do, and is another reason SaaS vendors are being acquired in mass.
Specifically, Retail Anywhere's POS software will help Netsuite bring e-commerce, CRM, digital marketing and financials under one roof. Additionally, by having the same system in store as online, businesses can offer customers the kind of consistent, personalized experience that breeds loyalty.
NetSuite SuiteCommerce
SuiteCommerce is NetSuite's integrated cloud system for retailers, and the company is partnering with several other vendors to build it. SuiteCommerce combines retail and supply planning, payment processing and POS hardware among other things.
By integrating POS systems with online data, customers will get a more seamless experience in stores or via moble and the Web.
Netsuite Retail Anywhere will be available in the US, UK, Canada and Austrailia and will show a single view of customers no matter where they are shopping. Both the website and in store workers can offer targeted promotions as well as the personalized experience.
Former Retail Anywhere CEO Branden Jenkins has been appointed GM of NetSuite's eTail/Retail Products business unit. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
