Can you imagine your online store without ERP?
Can you imagine your online store without ERP?
discover | Wednesday - 31 / 07 / 2024 - 8:38 pm
Can you imagine your online store without ERP?
Many believe that every online store is unique in its own way. I may have had a slightly different opinion, which I presented in the previous post. But even if we agree that online stores are unique, we cannot deny that they follow the same procedures and, most importantly, face the same problems. For example, you may face difficulty in setting demand expectations within your online store, tracking inventory, ensuring customer satisfaction, or even errors in accounting books, etc.
How do you know if your online store is in danger?
Sometimes the “red light” flashes to tell you that your online store needs some automation and a lot of management.. but you don’t see it!
And I’m here to help. Here are some signs to look out for:
Your sales are facing “hidden” obstacles
Sales are closely linked to a good customer experience and efficient inventory management. You need to ensure a smooth browsing experience from the moment a customer arrives at your online store until they pay for their order.
You can consider this a pivotal point in determining whether or not they will shop again. This also extends to turning a good customer experience into a source of “word-of-mouth” marketing; which means more customers, and therefore more and more sales.
An integral part of this experience is having a reliable inventory management system in place:
Are the products listed on your online store out of stock?
Have you stocked your warehouse with products that are in high demand? see
You certainly don’t want your customer to leave your online store empty-handed. Not only will this be disappointing for the customer, but it will also result in missed sales opportunities. These are challenges that you cannot ignore because they will have a huge impact on your brand reputation as well.
The complexity and time-consuming nature of accounting issues
The numbers are scary since school days! The problem is that you have to keep track of the accounts internally and externally:
Internally, so you can pay your employees’ salaries throughout the year and make sure that the business is running smoothly.
Externally, so you can see how much money is coming into your account through sales.
That means twice the horrors and twice the time spent keeping track of them!
Now, even if you have the best accountants, imagine their efforts to deal with a large number of employees who fall under different levels of the hierarchy and the huge number of products that are sold day after day. A daunting task, no doubt, right?
But what if you made it easier and chose an easy-to-use ERP system, like Logix?
Lack of Transparency in Your Online Store
Whether we’re talking about your customers or your investors, you need to be able to give them the answers they’re looking for, at any given moment. It could be questions about the estimated delivery time of a product your customer purchased, or how much your online store sold this quarter, it could be anything.
Do you have an effective way to handle these situations? Are your customers kept up to date on their latest purchase? Do you send regular reports to investors about how sales and ROI are doing?
Being able to provide instant answers to these questions is crucial because transparency is the key to customer loyalty and investor happiness. Data and reports need to be available anytime, anywhere. If you’re having trouble with that, you might want to consider investing in a cloud-based ERP system with real-time reporting.
Do other systems meet your online store goals?
If I asked you what the most important reason for launching an online store was, you’d probably tell me that it’s the most revolutionary way to buy and sell products in our digital world. Right?
That’s why, to be able to manage it, you’ll need more than just a powerful e-commerce platform to build your business on. The biggest challenge is finding a single solution that meets all your business requirements. In other words: You need an ERP system that works wonders for your online store, in several ways:
Digitizing Self-Service
Integrating your online store with an ERP system digitizes the customer purchasing process. Logix, for example, can inform customers about available and out-of-stock products. It also enables you to suggest alternatives based on their purchase or browsing history. Customers can get regular updates on when the product will be delivered. This not only reduces the operational costs of your online store, but also adds credibility to your business.
Eliminate Data Duplication and Errors
To run an online store efficiently, you need a system that works seamlessly and without much human intervention. Transferring data from marketing departments to sales is not easy without an ERP system.
This data can include buyer information, real-time sales data, HR details, etc. Imagine having to pass it through different software across multiple departments without any issues. And even then, there is no guarantee that it will be error-free.
Data duplication and errors are common when different software is used to handle this data. With an ERP system, you can eliminate these shortcomings and manage your online store better.
Better Inventory Management
We mentioned at the beginning of the article the importance of inventory management to ensure a good customer experience. Inventory or products move from the warehouse to the distribution center, and finally to your customers’ doorsteps. As you continue to sell products, you need to keep replenishing your inventory. With the use of ERP software, a large part of the supply chain can be optimized. It also helps in reducing costs in tracking inventory and improving ROI.
Increase in Revenue Growth
What is the point of investing in a software that does not show the promise of ROI?
Well, ERP integration has many benefits when it comes to improving your revenue.
Since the system is integrated with your online store, most of your sales and revenue data is readily available and updated in real-time. With this information, you can gain a deep understanding of your company’s revenue. You will be in a better position to identify and manage cost variances. You will also be able to allocate financial, human, and operational resources better. This will ultimately lead to amazing results like exponential revenue growth, growth for your business, and optimal employee payroll (and those are just a few examples!).
You know what you need to do, right?
ERP integration has great benefits beyond what I’ve listed in this article.
If you’ve already integrated an ERP system with your online store, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
If you’re still searching, now you know where to find a reliable, cloud-based ERP system!
