Many tyre retailers now sell in their own online shop and on marketplaces at the same time – usually the local eBay and Amazon sites of their country, such as ebay.co.uk and amazon.co.uk in the UK or eBay.de and Amazon.de in Germany. Marketplaces bring reach and customers searching for a specific tyre size. The trouble starts when the same tyre is offered in several channels at once.
Overselling – the biggest risk of multichannel sales
You have four tyres of one model. A customer buys the set on eBay, and a few minutes later someone orders two in your shop because the stock had not been updated yet. The result: a cancelled order, negative feedback and weaker seller metrics. On marketplaces, service quality directly affects the visibility of your listings, so overselling hurts twice.
One stock level for every channel
The solution is a single, shared stock level used by all channels. Every sale – in your shop, on eBay or on Amazon – immediately reduces stock everywhere. It also pays to:
- include wholesaler stock – if you dropship, availability should combine your own warehouse with your suppliers’ stock,
- use a safety buffer – for the last few units, list fewer than you actually have,
- update stock several times a day – in season, wholesaler data changes very quickly.
Prices per channel
Every channel has its own fees and its own competition, so your Amazon price may differ from your shop price. Automatic pricing (in TyreSoft, the OVI module) lets you set rules – margin, channel fees, minimum prices – and react to the market without editing thousands of listings by hand.
Orders and tracking numbers without retyping
Orders from all channels should land in one queue. Once the parcel is shipped, the tracking number is sent back to the marketplace automatically and the customer is notified – no manual data entry, no delayed status updates.
Which marketplaces in which country?
- Most of Western Europe and the UK – the local eBay and Amazon sites are the key channels (e.g. eBay.de and Amazon.de, eBay.es and Amazon.es).
- Netherlands and Belgium – besides Amazon.nl, bol.com is the leading local marketplace.
- Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia – Allegro is the dominant marketplace and only operates in these three countries.
Multichannel checklist
- One shared stock level, updated automatically.
- Wholesaler stock included in availability.
- Separate pricing rules for each channel.
- One order queue and automatic tracking numbers.
- Clean product data: size, load and speed index, season, EAN and the EU tyre label (EPREL).