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# Omnichannel Commerce

This document guides you through the different documentation resources that will help you build omnichannel commerce with Medusa.

## Overview

Merchants selling across different channels need an efficient way to manage their commerce data and operations across these channels. Omnichannel commerce solves this problem by allowing merchants to support multiple channels through a single system while maintaining layers of separation.

Omnichannel commerce also provides customers a seamless shopping experience, regardless of where they’re shopping. Whether they’re buying your products from your online store, a marketplace like Amazon, or through social media, you should provide them with a good experience and handle orders consistently.

Medusa’s headless backend facilitates building omnichannel commerce, as your backend and storefront aren’t tightly coupled. You can also utilize plugins and Medusa’s sales channels feature to expand your business into other avenues like marketplaces and social commerce.

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## Create Multiple Storefronts with One Backend

You’ll likely build multiple webshops or mobile apps when creating omnichannel commerce. All these storefronts should be able to provide your customers with a similar experience and allow them to browse products and place orders.

Medusa’s headless backend allows all storefronts to interact with Store REST APIs to provide the same commerce functionalities. This separation also allows you to choose your tech stack for the different storefronts you’re creating.

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## Integrate with Marketplaces and Social Commerce

Businesses are no longer bound to sell in their stores. They can reach their customers through their different shopping channels.

One example is marketplaces like Amazon. Customers searching through Amazon to find products are inadvertently searching through many third-party stores connected to Amazon’s marketplace.

With Medusa, you can use the Sales Channels feature to set different product availability across sales channels. You can then integrate with Amazon’s seller program and use their APIs to push your products on Amazon. This integration can be achieved through a custom plugin you create and install on your Medusa backend.

Another channel that attracts customer sales is social media. Customers browsing a social media app can now find products and buy them. With an approach similar to what was mentioned above, you can create a plugin in your Medusa backend that integrates with social media apps to show your products and sell them to customers on the app.

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## Optimize Customer Experience

With Medusa’s modular architecture, businesses can focus on bringing their brands to life without restrictions.

You can implement the customer journey and design for your storefronts that leads to the best customer experience. The backend does not impose any restrictions on how the frontend is built.

Medusa’s architecture also makes it easier to integrate any third-party services necessary to provide a better customer experience with a plugin. This plugin’s functionality can be accessible to the storefronts connected to the Medusa backend.

For example, if you’ve integrated a search plugin like Algolia in the Medusa backend, the storefronts can utilize it through the Search Products API Route. Another example is installing the Stripe payment plugin on the backend and using it in your storefronts to make payments before placing an order.

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## Additional Development

You can find other resources for your omnichannel development in the [Medusa Development section](../development/overview.mdx) of this documentation.
