In the latest edition of DigiTalks, Fashinnovation brought together Cin7 and Brain Dead to talk about something almost every growing fashion brand faces, but few people are willing to show behind the scenes: how to deal with multichannel sales complexity, from order to delivery, with inventory, pricing, returns and internal alignment in the middle.
The session featured:
- Marcelo Guimarães, cofounder, Fashinnovation (moderation)
- Cory Hebert, Product Trainer, Cin7
- Stephen Selgrade, Marketing Director, Cin7
- Amanda Smith, Operations Manager, Brain Dead
The conversation centered on real operational challenges faced by brands that sell in multiple channels, manage large assortments, operate across countries and still need to deliver a consistent experience to the end consumer, highlighting how multichannel sales complexity shapes their day-to-day decisions.
Why This Conversation Matters for Growing Brands
In fashion today, selling on Shopify, Amazon, wholesale, consignment, physical retail and marketplaces is the new normal. But with every new channel, the multichannel sales complexity multiplies:
- Where is your stock in real time?
- Are you overselling or sitting on dead inventory?
- Are prices aligned across countries, partners and customer tiers?
- Are operations and sales working from the same source of truth?
The panel made one thing clear: tools alone are not enough. Brands need centralized systems, clean data, and cross-functional alignment so that operations don’t become the bottleneck for creativity and growth.
Multichannel Sales Complexity in Practice
Across the panel, three themes kept appearing: the operational pressure of selling in multiple channels, the importance of data for planning and decision-making, and the reality of implementing systems that can support growth. As brands scale, multichannel sales complexity becomes even more evident, especially when visibility is fragmented across Shopify, Amazon, wholesale partners and physical stores, making it hard to avoid oversells, stockouts or pricing inconsistencies across markets and customer tiers.
Centralizing orders, inventory, costs and pricing becomes essential not only to maintain margins but also to deliver a consistent customer experience across every touchpoint, especially when multichannel sales complexity accelerates with growth.
Data plays a central role in this process. When costs, tariffs, discounts and margins are structured and reliable, forecasting becomes more accurate, promotions become less risky and cross-functional teams can align around the same information. AI-driven forecasting helps identify demand patterns and seasonality, but the panel emphasized that automation is a supporting tool, not a replacement for human context, brand intuition or creative direction.
Finally, the discussion demystified implementation. Rolling out an IMS or ERP is never effortless. It requires preparation, data cleanup, clear priorities and realistic expectations. The most successful implementations happen when vendors adapt workflows to the brand’s reality, teams arrive with clarity on what needs to change, and everyone understands that progress matters more than perfection. Even in highly complex structures, including multiple channels, SKUs and countries, brands can achieve stability within a few months when the process is collaborative and grounded in the right foundations.
How Growing Brands Can Apply These Insights
In the final part of the session, the conversation turned to founders and operators who are currently navigating the realities of multichannel sales complexity much like Brain Dead did a few years ago: brands that have already grown beyond a small online shop and now need structure. The discussion highlighted four ideas that tend to define this transition:
- Tools that are implemented too early or too late tend to create friction. The decision should be guided by channel complexity, number of SKUs and the level of coordination required with suppliers and partners.
- Product forecasting works best as a collective exercise. Bringing product, sales, operations and technology together around the same data, even if it demands time and energy, leads to more robust decisions than delegating everything to a single person or system.
- Tariffs and import classifications deserve strategic attention. Small changes in the way items are coded can significantly change the financial result of a category or a season.
- It is legitimate to ask for what you really need from technology providers and partners. In a competitive landscape of IMS and ERP solutions, brands are not expected to fit a rigid mold. The expectation is that the solution can be tailored to the way the business actually operates.
Key Takeaways
From this DigiTalks, a few clear themes emerged:
- Centralization is power. One source of truth for orders, inventory, pricing and costs changes everything.
- Clean data is non-negotiable. Forecasting, pricing and reporting are only as good as the data behind them.
- Implementation is a partnership. The right vendor should listen, adapt and grow with your brand.
- Multichannel success is cross-functional. Sales, operations, product and finance must work from shared information.
- AI amplifies human insight. The best results come when leaders use AI to inform decisions, not replace them.
What’s Next?
As fashion brands continue to expand into new channels, regions and partnership models, multichannel sales complexity will only increase. Conversations like this DigiTalks exist to help founders and operators turn that complexity into competitive advantage.
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Get more insights from our previous DigiTalks on our website, and stay tuned for our next session.
DigiTalks is where fashion’s operational backbone meets innovation, technology and real-world growth.
