How Much Does A Drop Shipping and Marketplace Solution Cost?

eCommerce organizations aren’t strangers to contract negotiations. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) eCommerce organization, Logicbroker is often asked about our pricing and what are the key drivers that impact our price versus our competitors. 

While we can’t mention specific pricing due to the myriad of influences that dramatically influence the cost of our—and our competitors—solutions, we have put together this guide on the key factors that impact all SaaS eCommerce solution pricing. 

Depth of Product

One crucial consideration when evaluating SaaS eCommerce prices is the breadth of products offered. While some solutions may focus solely on order lifecycle transactions and inventory management, they may overlook essential elements such as product information or returns processing. 

Next-level eCommerce solutions embrace the idea of providing a “one-stop shop” for all your eCommerce expanded assortment needs. Products from supply chain visibility offerings through order management and communication tools allow retailers, brands, and suppliers to utilize their platforms to handle every aspect of their operations. 

When evaluating the price of various services your organization is considering, make sure to carefully compare the products being offered. Before considering a technology solution that will meet your needs today, ensure that your solution can adequately scale with your company for years to come. 

Level of Service

Another key factor influencing SaaS eCommerce prices is the level of service provided by the solution provider. Level of service is often broken down into the various automation tools your provider, or potential providers, can offer your organization. A good deal of SaaS eCommerce solutions provide some level of automation, but the pricing of that solution can vary wildly depending on what solution your company needs. 

These solutions run the gamut from toolsets that you deploy, operate, and maintain yourself to fully managed, white-glove service offerings. Solutions that leverage a manual approach often come with a cheaper price tag initially but have a higher total cost of ownership due to having to maintain and operate those solutions with a team of individuals from IT to Merchandising. 

White glove service offerings generally carry a higher price tag because the provider is executing the supplier onboarding, providing technical and operational support, and assisting with merchandising strategy but come with lower operational costs and reduced manual touchpoints. 

When considering a scalable solution for the future, research automation services that will reduce your manual touchpoints and full-time employee (FTE) requirements. In Logicbroker’s experience, embracing automation that enables your internal teams to explore new and innovative products (rather than requiring them to focus on manual documentation) gives retailers and brands a fighting chance on the market. 

As a real-world example, Logicbroker customer Orangetheory Fitness calculated that their franchisees have saved over 2,500 hours since adopting their proprietary B2B marketplace solution due to the automation capabilities Logicbroker has provided. 

Integration Capabilities

Integration capabilities play a vital role in determining the pricing of SaaS eCommerce solutions. Integration, at its core, is actually the most important pricing factor. Small business technology partners are excellent options for smaller organizations looking to build an eCommerce program due to their price-friendly options, but that’s almost entirely because of the connection types they provide. 

Technology partners that only provide EDI or portal connections will typically run cheaper as the burden of onboarding, supplier connections, or retailer connections is still primarily on your internal teams. 

Higher-cost SaaS services offer connections via API, EDI, XML, portal, JSON, XLSX, and others require a lot of technical knowledge along with supplier coordination, and, ultimately, a higher cost. Additionally, higher-cost solutions offer an incredibly wide range of connection types, including pre-built connections to leading eCommerce platforms and fulfillment solutions. 

While seemingly more expensive, these solutions actually provide a higher ROI due to time saved via reduced manual touchpoints, increased order volume, elimination of friction during onboarding, and full end-to-end automation.

Level of Validation & Reporting

Validation and reporting capabilities are often overlooked but are crucial for ensuring data accuracy and gaining valuable insights into business performance. And, because of the level of detail required for proper reporting capabilities, SaaS organizations with a wide range of visibility and validation offerings are often more expensive. 

The key to validation and reporting is often a yes or no proposition. Does one technology provider offer visibility? Do they offer validation? While many groups will often provide field-level validation (I.E. simple yes or no checks that numbers are correct superficially), high-level SaaS organizations can execute on business-rule validation that allows you to create your own validation requirements and ensure that each transaction is following specific guidelines. 

On the reporting side, SaaS offerings vary wildly but the most common reporting tools to be on the lookout for when discussing pricing revolve around your supply chain. Ensuring that there is proper visibility into the entire lifecycle of your order, not just from when a consumer hits buy, is vital to ensuring a healthy business operation. 

It’s Not So Simple

When considering SaaS eCommerce prices, it’s essential to evaluate the breadth of product, level of service, depth of integration capabilities, and the importance of validation and reporting. By understanding these key factors, businesses can make informed decisions when selecting a SaaS eCommerce solution that best aligns with their requirements and ROI goals. But it’s not even as simple as these four key factors. These are the factors that impact technology partners’ services, but there could be dozens of other unique factors to each organization your company is considering using. 

Use these as a stepping stone into your buyer journey and be sure to always calculate ROI before making any major purchasing decision. 

Check out these additional eCommerce resources:

• Collect First-Party Data through Drop Ship and Marketplace eCommerce Solutions
• Improved Customer Experiences Make eCommerce Solutions
• Unmatched White Glove Service
• More SKUs Don’t Equal More Revenue

About Logicbroker

Logicbroker is the premier Supply Chain Experience Management (SCXM) eCommerce platform. Our unique B2B and D2C offerings give manufacturers and retailers a single source of truth for their supply chain, yielding real-time visibility and communications, higher compliance rates, lower transaction costs, and exceptional customer experiences. Through drop ship, marketplace, and supply chain visibility solutions, Logicbroker processes $6.3 billion in GMV each year and can help your organization achieve Supply Chain Excellence. 

Our integrated suite connects all participants of an organization’s supply chain regardless of the type of business model: owned inventory, drop ship, or marketplace. We work with mid-market and Enterprise manufacturers and retailers across a number of verticals including Health & Wellness, Home Improvement, Consumer Electronics, Toys & Babies, and Consumer Packaged Goods and service brands such as Samsung, Victoria’s Secret, The Vitamin Shoppe, Walgreens, Ace Hardware, BBQGuys, and RiteAid.