Important BigCommerce Integration SME
One priority for eCommerce owners is to ensure the website functions perfectly. However, you don’t always have a tech expert to do the work. Fortunately, it’s really easy to add integration to your BigCommerce store to improve performance and boost sales. To make it even easier, we will explore some critical extensions many retailers have successfully employed. But remember: apart from them, there are other apps you can use to improve your store productivity and effectiveness. Point of Sales (POS) You need to connect your POS to your store to manage your inventory throughout all channels accurately. This integration is essential, especially if you offer your customer curbside or BOPIS as an option. Shipping Integration The eCommerce industry is very competitive with high expectations from customers. You need to provide the best delivery experience, otherwise, you’d be lagged behind. One solution is to use a third-party system to manage your shipping and fulfillment. This would ensure a seamless shipping experience for your customers. Payment integration Payment integration is another critical BigCommerce extension to maximize your conversion rate. Hence you always need to provide customers with a suitable payment method. You don’t want a situation where a customer adds items to their cart only to find out they can’t make payment. It can be a big turnoff and might drive your customer away. Analytics integration A big benefit of having an online store is that you can easily track your customer behavior such as the pages they visit most, what they buy, and what page they leave. This information enables you to make changes to optimize your customer experience and increase conversion. What’s more, all can be done by analytics tools. This kind of BigCommerce integration helps keep track of your customer and understand them better. Inventory integration Although eCommerce platforms come with inventory management features, their system is not enough for complex tasks. Therefore, you might need a third-party inventory management system to improve your store for complex stores. Atom8 is the first workflow automation platform on BigCommerce. The app allows for converting repetitive tasks into workflows that execute whenever needed. Some of the app features are: Auto-publish products Auto-categorize orders according to value, locations, etc Auto-segment customer based on demographics, spending, the total number of order, etc Auto-tag customers on CRM, email marketing, and delivery platforms Auto-generate reports & lists on Google Sheet Auto-notify of low-stock items, abandoned cart, or high-value orders Auto-detect and halt high-risk orders Within a year of release, Atom8 has helped hundreds of BigCommerce merchants to leverage their store performance. While Atom8‘s taking over repetitive tasks, merchants have more time and resources to invest in important business activities. Email and marketing integration Marketing might not be a focus at the beginning of an online business. However, once your website is working optimally, you need to have a well-designed marketing strategy to get more traffic. Therefore, you have to take advantage of email and marketing integration to reach customers and inform them of your new products. This integration enables you to improve your brand awareness and boost sales and revenue. CRM integration Customer management is a critical aspect of any business. The more traffic you get from your email marketing strategy, the more you build a solid customer base. Thus you need to add CRM integration to manage your current and potential customers. This will ultimately improve conversion rate and drive sales and revenue upward.
Best eCommerce Delivery Strategies
eCommerce and digital technologies have dramatically altered the customer’s buying pattern. People are expecting a seamless experience across channels as well as from ordering to receiving. That’s why it is important to have effective eCommerce delivery strategies. Offering freeship for orders above your AOV One of the simplest eCommerce delivery strategies is to offer free shipping. Research has shown that 73% of people are more likely to buy a product if it includes free shipping. However, you must calculate the impact, whether it makes sense to cover this cost yourself without hurting your profit margins. You can use it as a promotional tool, but otherwise, you cannot. Offering free shipping helps build a bigger customer base or even incentivize higher order volume. One thing to take into account is the average order value (AOV). Before deciding on free shipping, go through the product’s price. If your price is relatively acceptable, then you can offer freeship for the orders that are about the average order value. Make it easy to find the shipping rate page Table rate shipping is different from flat rate shipping in the sense that it allows customizing shipping solutions. Customers can find costs related to their delivery such as product size, weight, and receiver destination. It also includes the number of items in the calculation. On filling or clicking the columns, they should get the shipping rate without any delay. This transparency is helpful to increase customer satisfaction. Provide tracking numbers An important strategy is to provide your customers with a tracking number. Everyone is afraid of fraud. Thus offering tracking information gives a sense of authenticity and professionalism associated with your company. With this, customers are well informed of the package location as well as any delay and arrival. Another way is to set up a workflow to send an email to your customers whenever the delivery status is changed. You can also tell the system to alert your staff about this so as to keep track of your package. Show delivery estimation (by regions, orders, etc.) The expected delivery date is one of the determining factors while ordering online. Estimated delivery date allows e-commerce stores to manage the time when a package reaches the customer. Some merchants even allow customers to set a custom delivery period. Your estimation should take into consideration all the factors such as the transit time and distance. Create a clear and easy to access shipping policy A shipping policy that is easy to access and clear to understand is the key to your eCommerce delivery strategies. It should contain all essential information, expected delivery times, shipping methods, shipping costs, shipping restrictions, payment and tracking information, and international shipping. Furthermore, you should always include the service types you’re offering, such as overnight, same day, standard, and pricing. A coherent return policy should also be visible for the customers.
Causes And Impacts Of Dead Stock
What is deadstock? Any unsold inventory piling up leads to the accumulation of stock, which later becomes the dead stock. An inventory without sellable value may be due to low quality, expiration, or off-season. It may include items that are returned. Accumulating dead stock is not healthy for your business operation. Therefore, offloading them is a must to maintain profit margins. Yet optimizing the inventory levels is not easy. It is the lack of effective inventory management processes and systems that cause this inflation. Thus to retain sustainable growth, businesses should look into addressing this issue. Causes of dead stock It is crucial to avoid deadstock. You need to know what leads to the stock accumulation at first and why they keep piling up. Some common causes for deadstock are: Over-ordering Placing orders without understanding is the quickest way of accumulating dead stock. It is a challenge to know the exact amount of stock required to fulfill future orders. Implementing an inventory management system to track important metrics would help estimate the inventory turnover ratio. It ensures better decision-making, thereby avoid over-ordering. Forecasting Inaccurate demand Miscalculation takes place when you fail to track the right data. Thoroughly analyzing past order data would increase the accuracy of your forecast. One way to avoid errors in data storage is to utilize an automation app that auto-adjusts the stock level whenever a new order is placed. This ensures that you’re better informed of real-time changes within your inventory to decide on reordering. Poor marketing/sales efforts Ineffective marketing and sales strategies lower customer awareness and purchasing intention. The same goes with technical aspects such as slow loading speed. Failure to convert leads into customers results in piling up products, which leads to deadstock in the long run. Defective products There’re also cases where your products fail to meet the customers’ expectations in terms of quality. You don’t want any incidents to happen with your customers. Otherwise, your reputation would be massively damaged. Therefore, it is important to ensure quality control. This will contribute to building up a good relationship with your customers. Is dead stock bad for your business? A warehouse shelved with dead stock is of no use to your business. In fact, it costs the business money in three subtle ways. Unsold inventory This is when initially purchased inventory which is expected to be sold out becomes the dead stock. If an item doesn’t bring in profit, then you should probably stop investing in it. Lower profit margins There is a sizable impact when the stocks stay around for a longer time. The dead stock chips the profit margin away. High inventory storage fees Stock-up items also take up space in your warehouse that should be spent on more valuable products. Hence it is important to remove unsellable inventory. 3 ways to avoid dead stock Offloading dead stock is challenging, but you can get rid of them by following these practices. Put them on sale A unique opportunity appealing to shoppers is clearance sales. Market the dead stock with a discount price, even deep sales, and see it be sold quickly. Free gift You may delight customers by offering a freebie consisting of unsellable products. This expresses your care towards your customers while you’re getting rid of low-demand items. You hit two birds with one stone. Donate There’re businesses that donate inventory and write-off. It is an excellent way of appreciating businesses and giving back to communities.
How To Improve The Purchase Order Process
The purchase order process is often mistaken for an invoice. This concept refers to the relationship between a retailer and its suppliers. In this write-up, we’ll go through what it is and why it is so important when running an online business. What is a purchase order (PO)? A purchase order is an official document that authorizes a transaction for the purchase of services or goods from a supplier. This paper is often requested by retailers and plays an important role in business management. In detail, the purchase orders bear the name of the company providing the goods or services, the PO number, the date, the number of items, the product description, price, and payment information. Purchase Order Process The purchase order process is a broader procurement including specifying and confirming the need for services or goods before processing the order. Step 1: Creating a Purchase Requisition (PR) It is to create a document and to get permission for placing a purchase. However, there might be little amendment before it is approved or canceled. Step 2: Issuing the purchase order (PO) After the approval of this PR, both sides have to agree on the delivery, prices, terms, and conditions. Then your staff needs to prepare a PO. In large purchases, there may be a request for a proposal issued to their suppliers. However, before this, it’s a must to sign a financial authority acceptance. The PO is issued electronically to the supplier. Step 3: The supplier approves the purchase order In case of incorrect or unacceptable details, the supplier requests amendments. The supplier approves the amended PO via email or through an e-procurement platform. Step 4: Purchaser records the PO and files, awaiting delivery. Within the delivery, the organization reviews the purchase to qualify the standards. Specifically, a Goods Received Note deals with tangible products while services are signed off as a guarantee. Step 5: Approval and payment. The invoice makes sure that the PO is acceptable. If there’s nothing wrong, the invoice payment is complete as per the agreed payment terms. Best PO process practices Easy as it may sound, it takes a lot of effort to process a purchase order. In other words, a small mistake along the way would damage your business. As a result, we’ve outlined the best purchase order process practices as followed. Establish a panel of up-to-date preferred suppliers providing reasonable prices, quality products, and reliable delivery services. It allows comparing supply terms and prices with minimum delay. Ensure all the involved employees in the purchase order process understand the procedures, policy, and approval methods to adhere to. Engage with regular key suppliers through a Master Agreement defining pricing, terms, and conditions, with catalogs. Purchasing information, if possible should be accessible and user-centric. Hence try to streamline the PO process. Maintain good relationships with reliable suppliers to solve problems, if any, quickly. Problems to watch out for Now you know how to deal with purchase order processes. However, there remain some issues you should be aware of. PO issued verbally or in writing without financial authority may face consequences for the budget and the issuer. Inflexible suppliers do not offer discounts. Thus they might deny paying delivery costs. Correct any error on orders such as wrong sizes, quantities, or delivery dates before sending out.
