Shopatron Says It’s First to Offer Freemium Solution for Inventory Lookup at IRCE

Cloud-based inventory management provider Shopatron has introduced Inventory Lookup, a new freemium solution that will allow retailers and merchants to make their entire inventory visible online to consumers while providing analytics to improve in-store operations, stocking, merchandising and product marketing. The offering was unveiled at the 2014 Internet Retailer Conference and Expo in Chicago.

Inventory Lookup makes Shopatron’s APIs available to merchants to quickly set up omnichannel functionality and reporting, and it integrates with most ecommerce platforms. As it taps into real-time data based on customer searches for products online, retailers don’t have to rely solely on historical sales data to drive enhanced inventory planning and order management.

Ken Callahan, senior vice president of retail for Shopatron, said the freemium model will give retailers the ability to start with a certain amount of capacity for offering inventory search, experiment, see how it impacts store traffic and then have the option to expand the service through a subscription agreement. It will also make the service available to smaller merchants who might not otherwise have the resources to purchase the capability.

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“Inventory search today is what dealer location was around 2000,” Callahan said. “The idea is consumers today want to find a particular product wherever and whenever it’s available, at the right price, and this service enables that.”

Ed Stevens, Shopatron’s founder and CEO, said Inventory Lookup’s free version can support 3 million storage records and 100,000 API calls per day, and help retailers display inventory across channels: in store, website, third-party sites, mobile and call centers. Stevens said users can apply today for the service, which will go live in late June.

“With this service we’re emphasizing how important it is to allow retailers to offer an improved customer experience, and how passionate we are about delivering those experiences faster, easier and cheaper through a true cloud-based solution,” Stevens said. “I think we’re the first provider in this space to offer a freemium model. It can change the game for retailers.”