How the right ERP system can help your business make the leap to ecommerce
Multi-channel retail continues to be a rapidly growing sector in today’s business landscape, with brands of all sizes across a wide range of industries looking to take their offerings online. More and more companies are adding ecommerce capabilities to their repertoire, and those that have yet to do so are most certainly feeling the pressure to follow suit.
But many of those same companies also fear the challenges of adding an ecommerce element to their current business structure. There are a lot of aspects to monitor and stay on top of once retail organizations go digital, and overseeing everything is often an intimidating process.
This is where an ERP system can make a huge difference. Here are some of the key ways the right ERP platform can help your business smoothly and successfully make the leap to ecommerce.
Achieve a comprehensive view of your business
An integrated ERP platform provides a comprehensive view of your business, allowing you to monitor financials, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, and more – all from the same digital portal. This comprehensive view aims to optimize all your business processes as you go digital, helping you:
- Track inventory
- Automate processes
- Improve decision-making
- Improve customer service
- Integrate physical locations with online sales
- And more
Tracking inventory
With an ERP system, your team can access the real-time status of orders, inventory, shipments, and profitability by product and location. This data can be used to get ahead of issues and drive better decision-making, including the ability to identify any fast- or slow-moving inventory and adjust pricing accordingly.
Automating processes
The automation capabilities of an ecommerce ERP platform save your business time and money while also reducing errors in the ordering and fulfillment process. You’re able to automate how orders are taken and fulfilled and able to automate stock replenishment as inventories get low, keeping sales moving smoothly and freeing up time you can devote to more important tasks.
Improving decision-making
The array of reports available in a quality ERP system help drive informed decision-making on pricing, inventory, overhead, and more. Analytics can be used to identify issues early on and resolve them before they reach the customer, preserving the relationship and encouraging future purchases.
Improving customer service
The ultimate goal of an ecommerce ERP system is to improve the buying experience for your customers. This is primarily achieved by providing them with greater access to your products and by delivering a smoother purchasing process, but customer service and support also receive a boost.
An ecommerce ERP system improves customer service by:
- Simplifying the complicated returns process
- Allowing online orders to be picked up or shipped from any store or corporate location (also reducing freight costs for your business)
- Providing your customers with 24-hour mobile access to your products
Integrating
At its best, ecommerce will integrate seamlessly with your physical locations and the two will work to complement one another as key components of your business. Through an ERP system, you are able to integrate your point-of-sale platform with your ecommerce applications to create a winning connection between the two and a greater customer experience whether your shoppers are interacting with your brand online or in-store.
Make the leap to ecommerce with Copeland Buhl and Acumatica
Copeland Buhl is an Acumatica partner and a BigCommerce partner, allowing us to provide our clients with a full suite of sales and fulfillment solutions for retailers, franchise operators, distributors, and manufacturers in a single integrated package. Acumatica integrates seamlessly with ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce and Magento to provide a comprehensive view of your business and to help you streamline your sales process. Contact us today to connect your business with Acumatica, BigCommerce, and Copeland Buhl.