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Solving Multi-Channel Chaos: A Case Study in Custom E-commerce Integration

For a growing UK e-commerce business, success often brings a difficult challenge. Your sales increase, you expand onto new platforms – third-party marketplaces, drop shipping channels, maybe a second website – and suddenly, your administrative processes are a source of constant friction. What once worked for a single sales channel now creates daily headaches, costing your business precious time, money, and customer goodwill.

The issue? When your website’s stock levels don’t talk to your accounting software, or your marketplace orders have to be manually entered into your primary system, inefficiencies multiply. At Barrett Solutions, we frequently see businesses wrestling with this exact issue. We believe there’s a better way: working with a single technology partner to build targeted, effective connections between your systems. It’s about making your technology work for your business, not the other way around.

The Challenge: Juggling Disconnected Sales Channels

We recently partnered with a large UK-based e-commerce platform that found themselves in this precise situation. As a successful multi-channel retailer, they managed sales and stock across their own internal systems, several third-party websites, and various drop shipping arrangements. Their operational team was drowning in manual tasks. The weaknesses in their fragmented setup were clear and costly:

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Constant Stock Discrepancies

  • The in-house team's stock count was frequently out of sync with what third-party sellers were seeing, leading to overselling popular items and disappointing customers.

Intensive Manual Data Entry

  • Every sales order from external channels had to be manually re-keyed into their central Sage 200 accounting and inventory system. This was slow, tedious, and a frequent source of human error.

Lack of Real-Time Visibility

  • Management had no single, accurate view of stock levels or sales velocity across all channels, making forecasting and purchasing decisions difficult.

The business needed a way to automate sales order processing and achieve true multi-channel stock synchronisation. They required a custom e-commerce integration; UK businesses in their position need to scale effectively.

The Solution: A Centralised Hub Built on Bespoke Integration

Instead of applying more temporary patches or adding another piece of software to the pile, our approach was to architect a central system that would act as the single source of truth for all sales and stock data. This involved several key components of bespoke development.

Connecting to the Core: Sage 200 API Integration

The first step was to create a secure, reliable bridge between the client’s various sales channels and their core Sage 200 system. An API (Application Programming Interface) acts as this bridge, allowing different software to communicate and exchange data automatically based on a set of defined rules. We developed a custom API connection tailored specifically for their needs, a foundational part of the custom e-commerce integration businesses need when off-the-shelf connectors fail. This connection meant data could finally flow freely and securely, in both directions.

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Automating the Inflow: The Bespoke Sales Order Tool

With the API bridge in place, we built a bespoke sales order import tool. This web-based application automatically pulls new sales orders from all the different third-party sites and channels. It then validates the data and feeds it directly into Sage 200 in the correct format, without a single keystroke from the client’s team. This tool was specifically designed to handle the unique data formats from each different sales platform, demonstrating a key benefit of custom e-commerce integration expertise.

Real-Time Accuracy: The Custom Stock Management System

To solve the overselling problem, we developed a bespoke inventory management system that sits at the heart of their operation. This system holds the master stock count. When an item sells on any channel – be it their own site or a third-party marketplace – the order is processed via the new tool, and the master stock level is immediately updated. The system then automatically pushes this new, accurate stock count back out to all connected platforms. This ensures every channel displays the same real-time stock information, effectively achieving multi-channel stock synchronisation

The Outcome: Efficiency, Accuracy, and a Foundation for Growth

The technical solution translated directly into tangible business benefits. The client saw a drastic reduction in the manual workload for their administrative team, freeing them up for more valuable tasks. The near-elimination of human error in order entry improved data accuracy across the board.

Most importantly, they gained accurate, real-time stock visibility. This stopped overselling, reduced customer complaints, and provided management with the reliable data needed for smarter purchasing and sales strategies. The project successfully delivered on e-commerce workflow automation. Now, the client has a scalable foundation that supports their growth, allowing them to add new sales channels in the future without a proportional increase in administrative staff. This is the power of a well-executed custom e-commerce integration, built upon a reliable and secure infrastructure managed through proactive IT Support and Managed Services

Is your business battling with disconnected systems and manual data entry? Stop patching the problem and start solving it. Contact Barrett Solutions for a consultation on a custom integration strategy.

Broader Applications: Solving More Than Just One Problem

This case study is a specific example of a broader business solution. The principles of custom e-commerce integration can be applied to solve countless operational challenges for SMEs. Think about other areas in your business where systems don’t communicate:

  • Building a bridge between your accounting software and your project management tools.

Anywhere your team is manually moving data from one system to another is an opportunity for a custom integration to save time and reduce errors.

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Invest in Integration, Invest in Scalable Growth

For growing UK businesses, especially in e-commerce, fighting operational chaos with manual processes and disconnected systems is unsustainable. It puts a hard limit on your ability to scale efficiently. A strategic investment in a custom integration solution removes these bottlenecks, improves accuracy, and provides the solid, reliable foundation needed for the next stage of your growth.

At Barrett Solutions, our expertise lies in analysing these complex workflows and building the tailored Bespoke Systems and API connections that solve them. We don’t just provide software; we engineer solutions to real-world business problems.

Ready to streamline your operations and connect your critical business systems? Contact Barrett Solutions today. Let’s discuss your specific challenges and explore how our expertise in custom e-commerce integration can make your business more efficient and ready for the future.

Email:  info@barrettsolutions.co.uk 
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