Top eCommerce ERP for Online Stores
ERP eCommerce features are revolutionizing the way online stores conduct businesses. Integrating an ERP system into your store helps improve customer retention, productivity and boost sales revenue. Today, we have different ERP software that eCommerce merchants are using in their day-to-day business. Top ERP features eCommerce stores need ERP vendors provide different features for eCommerce stores. With the increasing number of eCommerce ERP software, finding the best system can be daunting. As long as you understand the essentials of your business, you can go a long way in making a decision. Here are a few options to be considered when it comes to ERP eCommerce software. CRM Customer relationship management is an integral aspect of any business. A CRM software would help nurture your leads and turn them into loyal customers. It’s also important to preserve a high rate of customer retention as it costs five times to get and retain a new customer compared to maintaining your previous customers. Let’s compare two online stores. Do you feel safe purchasing from a retailer that fails to provide accurate shipping information? Most likely no. You never want your package to get lost somewhere across the country. Then with an automated CRM, merchants can get access to customer information within a few clicks, resulting in higher quality customer service. Finance Your software solution will operate in a vacuum if you don’t have real-time data. This is why financial management and accounting tools are important features of ERPs. Financial data is paramount to centralizing processing and developing an efficient forecasting model to allow you to plan, reorder, and anticipate delivery. Additionally, you can use financial data to decide which vendors to work with and follow. If your eCommerce business doesn’t have the best ERP software, it is time to consider integrating it into your website. Shipping/Distribution Several eCommerce stores participate in dropshipping – a process where products sold by a company are transferred by a third-party delivery service to the end customers. It allows businesses to offer numerous items without owning a big storage facility. Furthermore, it helps reduce the cost of acquiring a large warehouse to store these items. Product management Another important feature of an ERP eCommerce platform is product management. It is an essential feature that separates it from the brick-and-mortar retail store. The main reason is that it allows merchants to know the real-time number of products available in your store. Therefore, it takes away mistakes caused by the high volume supply, especially during the holiday season. Top eCommerce ERP When it comes to choosing the best eCommerce ERP software for your business, you can never run out of options. There are several reliable ERP software with overwhelming features to choose from for your business. Here are a few we consider efficient in delivering quality results. Fishbowl Fishbowl offers its own ERP system, which combines advanced inventory management software with other solutions for your eCommerce store. It offers features such as wholesale distribution, point of sale equipment, shipping solutions, and a complete accounting package. Acumatica It is a flexible ERP system; it uses a modular process to enable business owners to add new features. Its features include packaging, shipping, customer management, and inventory management. Furthermore, it has six cloud-based solutions for you to choose from depending on your need.
Magento and BigCommerce: Which is Better?
Magento and BigCommerce are two leading eCommerce platforms used in various quarters. It’s never been easy to choose which one to operate on. In this article, we will explore the essential features of BigCommerce and Magento to demonstrate how they would serve different needs of yours. In detail, we’ll focus on 3 criteria including pricing structures, functionality, and ease of integration. Magento and BigCommerce: Which is Better? 1. Pricing Structures When it comes to pricing, you should consider the total cost of owning each platform before opting to buy it. The monthly subscription for BigCommerce starts at $29.90 per month. The platform allows for any integration into other systems. However, these apps and extensions often come with an additional fee. Meanwhile, Magento has a licensing fee along with hosting provider fees. Moreover, you have to pay agency fees for fixing patches or bugs whenever there is an update. 2. Functionality Both platforms offer good functionality as you can customize your theme, manage products, create checkout pages, perform email marketing, and so on. However, these uses vary dependent on your business model (B2B or B2C), the type of product you’re providing, and your targeted market. Make sure that the platform you choose is compatible with your business goal. 3. Ease of Integration Another essential feature to consider is the ease of integration with other systems. The platform serves as a foundation for your eCommerce store. However, to operate effectively, you’ll need to integrate your website with several apps and extensions. For example, you might want to market your products on external sales channels such as eBay and Amazon for better promotion. Without integration, you’ll have to manually upload and manage orders on 2 different platforms, which is extremely frustrating. Furthermore, when you’re providing products of multiple variances, it’s helpful to install fulfillment software such as 3PL, POS, and ERP. Overall, both Magento and BigCommerce allow for integration. However, it’s much more complex to customize your website on Magento. This is because Magento does not provide an on-site developer to help you. In other words, you’ll need to find a hosting partner to host your site and your own developers to integrate your tech stack. If you are contemplating using an eCommerce platform, you should consider integrating to sales channels such as eBay and Amazon. Additionally, it should blend with fulfillment software such as 3PL, POS, and ERP. Furthermore, look out for integration features such as customers, product information, shipping, and tracking. Overall, both software can integrate well with other systems. Another indispensable parts are the automation tool. To help you minimize your work capacity and optimize the store management process, the app is essential. One of them could be Atom8 – the automation workflow integration. You can check out Atom8’s functions here, it’s available on the BigCommerce platform, and the Magento version will be coming very soon: Atom8 on BigCommerce: BigCommerce vs. Magento The eCommerce market is becoming more and more competitive. Holding a website doesn’t mean you’ll see customers running to your store. Rather, your store should be the foundation for higher-level inventory, marketing, and sales strategies. This is why choosing the right platform is exceedingly important. You need a platform that will process orders swiftly and full orders accurately, that allows for seamless storage and retrieval of information, that is free of bugs and flaws, and so on. Now you know the difference between BigCommerce and Magento. We hope you choose the most suitable platform for your business!
Best Backorder Practices for Online Business
One of the significant challenges of dropshipping is dealing with backorders. Failure to offer the best backorder practices can cost any eCommerce owner to lose customers, which might lead to a dip in sales. In the long run, it can also devastate your brand credibility. If you are new in online business and don’t know the best backorder practices to implement, this article will expound more. What is a backorder? A backorder is an order where you assure your customers to fulfill their orders despite not having them in your inventory. The store usually makes a compromise that the order will be fulfilled and delivered later. For instance, you receive an order for four T-shirts from two different customers while there’re only 2 left. This means you are unable to treat all the customers the same. However, it’s not a good idea to leave the one customer disappointed. Instead, you can send two items to each of the customers, assuring them of fulfilling the remaining order in the future. This process is known as back-ordering. Today, backorder has become a prevalent practice that most eCommerce stores use. Best Backorder Practices for your eCommerce Store Inform the customers You should always inform your customer whether a product is available at the moment. Furthermore, give them the choice to wait or cancel the product order. Here, you can use a pop-up that allows the customers to fill in their decision when a product is out of stock. Get an estimated time of arrival One of the best backorder practices you can implement is to give your customers an estimated time of arrival. Modern automation tools can help you estimate the arrival time for every product the customer has placed. With this, consumers know when their product will be available and delivered to their address. Create a follow-up system Don’t ever forget to follow up on a backorder request. You need to keep your customer updated about the order status, the estimated arrival time, and any related problem that occurs along the way. Set up an ending date Besides having a follow-up system, you need to provide a time frame for the backorder process. For instance, if you can’t provide the back-ordered item within 21 days, you should place a refund and apologize for the inconvenience. Of course, the time frame depends on your product and the sales season. However, as you’re making money on a back-ordered item, you are under obligation to refund the money or deliver the product to the customer. Conclusion All in all, backorder adds tremendous value to your business. However, a small mistake can spell doom. That’s why most eCommerce stores take the issue of backorder very important. If you want to experience customer retention, ensure you adhere to the best backorder practices in this article.
Is Dropshipping Meant For Your Online Business?
What is Dropshipping? Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method; the business does not keep the products it sells in stock. Specifically, the products are sent directly from your wholesaler to your customer, and you are not required to keep products in stock. With a dropshipping model, when a store sells a product, it purchases it from a third party and gets the product shipped directly to the customer. In this model, a seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly. In the traditional retail model, you have to open a brick-and-mortar shop, maintain stock of products and have to pay overheads, whereas, in the dropshipping model, you open an online store and accept the customer’s order, and you transfer that order and the shipment details to a third party, i.e. a wholesaler, manufacturer etc., who then ships the goods directly to the customer. Pros Of Dropshipping For aspiring entrepreneurs, it is a great business model because it allows them to test different business ideas quickly. Some other benefits are: Low Investment Minimal funds are required to start a dropshipping business as there are no upfront inventory costs or shipping logistics. Easy to Start Prior experience is not inessential to start this business; you can easily start this business with some foundational knowledge. In dropshipping business, you do not have to worry about inventory, warehousing, shipping, etc. Flexibility A dropshipping business can be run from anywhere as it does not require a physical store, warehouse, team or office. You only need a laptop and a good internet connection. Moreover, you have the liberty to choose your work hours. Another advantage is that you can easily add new products anytime at no- additional cost as you do not have to purchase them. Scalability It is relatively easy to scale a dropshipping business as most of the additional work falls on the suppliers. Cons of Dropshipping Business Though dropshipping is an attractive business model but it has its downsides too. A few cons of are: Low Margins Dropshipping is a highly competitive vertical, and the margins are very low. For making profits, you will have to make more sales. High Competition It is easy to enter the market for anyone as dropshipping requires little capital and expertise and has low entry barriers, resulting in high competition. Inventory Issues Since you do not have your own inventory and source the product from different suppliers, it is challenging to track stocks as suppliers work with many other retailers. Supplier Errors You have to accept the responsibility and take onus in case of delayed shipment, damaged goods, missing items, and low-quality packaging even though it is the supplier’s fault. Dropshipping Best Practices It is a supply chain model that allows you to lower costs and expand with fewer efforts and resources. The best practices in dropshipping business are an investment in automation to save time and effort doing manual tasks. Establish strong communication channels with vendors and cultivating a strong relationship with vendors. Outline business rules and compliance guidelines very clearly. Additionally, monitoring vendor performance and taking corrective measures before the escalation of the problem is the key. In summary, following these tips will help you better manage your business and make it profitable.
Backorder Management Step By Step
Backorder management takes care of goods that the company cannot fulfill because the demand is beyond the supply. Today, we use different complex terms to describe how companies keep goods flowing to their customers—for instance, LIFT, FIFO, MRP, ERP, and supply chain and demand. Yet there is one important term most people overlook and misunderstand, which is backorders. Unlike preorder, which is to order a product that has never been on the market, backorder referred to a currently running out item that can be fulfilled later. Backorder involves a process where goods are about to be reproduced, meaning that they can always be delivered in the future. Causes of Backorders Backorders from Gritglobal can do you well given a thorough understanding of the concept. In the later part of this article, you will learn the simple process to address your backorder issues. Before we start, let’s go through different reasons for backorders to happen. Unusual Demand An unusual demand might occur during the holiday or festive time. It might also be due to natural events such as hurricanes and disasters where a large number of goods are required in a short period of time. A lot of factors can contribute to a product getting an unusual demand from the public. Supplier issues We live in a supply chain that is stretched throughout the world, and at times there will be supplier issues. While it might not be intentional, nature can have its cause. Additionally, regulatory compliance, strikes, or shipping can cause suppliers to delay products. The disparity in order patterns Natural disasters, weather events, and holiday seasons can cause variations in order patterns. Companies might depend on demand planning models to foresee the total orders and customers. However, a sudden change in people’s demands can disrupt or throw manufacturers off-balance. Steps of Backorder Management process To avoid disappointing your customers because of your inability to fulfill their expectations, you need to follow a good backorder management process. Here are the steps of the backorder management process to implement for your business. Be transparent about product availability and shipment date In dealing with backorders, you need to indicate product availability and shipment date. With this, customers can decide if they want to wait for the product or not. Furthermore, it helps build trust with your customers that you value their time. Fulfill available items if possible Peradventure you have a limited amount of the product, you can perform partial fulfillment. For instance, you have three mobile phones in stock while there are two customers, each of whom wants two phones. Here, you can decide to fulfill half of the order while backordering the other. In other words, customers will receive a partial shipment of the product with an estimated time for the remaining to arrive. Place order for unavailable items In case of dropshipping, you can order the unavailable product from your supplier or manufacturer. It is essential to keep the customers informed about the current state of the product. Update customer on order status After a customer has placed an order for an item, they have the right to be informed about the current delivery status promptly. In the event that the product is no longer available for manufacturing, it’s crucial to notify them and initiate a refund. Effective backorder management ensures timely updates and appropriate actions in such scenarios. Receive restocked items and fulfill Once you receive the items, you can restock and fulfill the backorders. Remember to stick to the estimated time you indicated in your first message. If You’re on BigCommerce See How BackOrder Solves Your Pain Points Eliminate Lost Sales Due to Stockouts Many businesses struggle with losing sales when items are out of stock. BackOrder ensures you never miss a sale by automatically enabling backorders when inventory reaches zero, keeping your revenue steady. Streamline Inventory Management Managing backorders manually can be time-consuming and error-prone. BigCommerce BackOrder automates this process, integrating seamlessly with your IMS/ERP to schedule workflow smooth and accurate. Enhance Customer Satisfaction Uninformed customers can lead to frustration and lost business. BackOrder allows you to customize notifications and BigCommerce automate emails, ensuring your customers are always informed about stock status and expected restock dates. This transparency improves the customer experience and builds trust. By addressing these pain points, BackOrder helps businesses maintain consistent sales, streamline operations, and keep customers satisfied. If you have further question, please contact us!
