Staples introduces online Exchange

Easy access to an expanded offering of online inventory is the premise behind Staples Exchange, a marketplace-like concept that allows suppliers to leverage Staples’ online presence.



Staples doesn’t call its new Staples Exchange a marketplace – the term used by Amazon to describe the massive aggregation of third party sellers on its site – but rather and a world-class platform that makes it easy for suppliers to offer products to Staples customers.



"Staples Exchange allows our vendors to rapidly integrate with us, bringing even more products and services to our customers," said Faisal Masud, Staples executive vice president of global e-commerce. “We want to make things easy for our customers and our suppliers, so they can make more happen with their businesses. I'm proud of the innovation behind our proprietary platform, which will grow in importance as we continue to increase the number of items available on Staples.com."



The new exchange is described as a unified platform that allows vendors to sell through all of Staples' e-commerce channels, with multiple integration options. Unlike other retailers, Staples said it doesn’t require vendors to use a third party that charges integration fees, instead giving them a single portal to enroll with all of Staples' sites, like Staples.com, and coming in 2015, Staples Advantage, Staples Canada and Quill.com. Once enrolled, Staples said vendors can upload their products and start receiving orders, with no-cost access to real time alerts, reporting by channel and self-service tools to manage inventory.

Staples said its new Exchange will benefit customers by providing them with a larger product assortment, post-shipment order tracking and greater visibility into product inventory.