When we talk about economic downturns and ever-changing consumer trends, we often think about the manufacturing industry. Sure, supply chain shortages have been big news over the last few years, but manufacturing companies aren’t the only ones struggling right now. Watch and jewelry businesses are facing a few particular battles these days, including declining marriage rates, stiff competition from big-name stores, and indifferent consumers who aren’t necessarily loyal to a particular jewelry brand. This, of course, is on top of an economy that’s facing significant inflation where paychecks aren’t keeping up with the cost of living in many situations. As eCommerce stores have made a name for themselves in recent times, and global trade concerns continue to be an issue, small, local jewelers are finding themselves in the face of potential disaster if they don’t have the right tools in place.
This is where cloud-based ERP systems come into play. Thanks to the modernization of technology, jewelry manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors can leverage their resources in ways that improve processes, efficiency, and functionality within their organizations.
If you’re in the jewelry business and are looking for a way to stay competitive in this ever-challenging market, here are a few reasons you need to integrate a modern cloud ERP into your company’s structure:
1. Shaping Brand Identity
Modern cloud ERP tools allow small artisans and really any SMB to remain competitive by offering digital media and paid social media solutions within their platforms so you can easily share information and shape your brand identity across your digital footprint. In doing so, you’ll be able to build stronger customer relationships, which translates into brand loyalty, greater leads, and improved conversions.
2. Boosting Scalability
When your jewelry business is hosted on a cloud-based application, you can easily scale up or down to meet the various needs of your organization. A modern, scalable architecture ensures you can gain permissions as needed so your platform solution can grow as your business does. This flexibility and scalability paves the way for simple explanation and adaptation
3. Controlling Inventory
You never want to have too much—or worse, too little—inventory on hand. With a cloud-based ERP system, you can track and manage your inventory in real time, ensuring accuracy revolving around the purchasing, receiving, issuing, and return of every inventory item. With an ERP system, you can tailor the whole process through built-in workflows, which can also include approvals for requisitions.
4. Customizing to Your Company’s Needs
At times, customization is absolutely vital because your team needs to see certain modules or features that are relevant to specific departments or roles. Look for an ERP solution that provides an interface design and dashboards that can be customized to your unique needs. When you find the right platform, you’ll be able to map every feature to certain business processes, as well as gain a complete overview of everything happening in the organization. Ultimately, you want your company’s leadership to be able to control the details that are most important to them, so the facts and figures are available at the click or two of a link.
5. Integrating with Your POS Software
If you’re a jewelry retailer, it’s essential to find an ERP system that integrates smoothly with your point-of-sale system. You want a solution that’s reliable and focuses on inventory tracking, marketing, and sales. Plus, you want to be sure you can run reports related to all of these elements at a moment’s notice.
Make sure you look for a user-friendly interface that all of your staff can use. If it’s too complicated, employees who aren’t technically savvy will likely become frustrated and try to abandon use of the product—or worse, leave your company altogether. When you work to find a user-friendly ERP, it’ll reduce training time and help expedite the sales process, which improves customer satisfaction.
6. Improving Customer Management
Your chosen ERP system needs to enable you to easily manage your customers’ information while giving the ability to see their preferences, wish-list items, and prior orders. Look for an ERP product that lets you categorize your customers and set up pricing levels as part of an integrated system.
7. Accessibility On-Demand
Your jewelry business changes every moment of every day. You need an ERP system that lets leaders leverage essential customer and supplier data anytime, anywhere. When you find the right solution, you’ll be also be able to process necessary information so you can boost efficiency and profitability with data-backed decision-making.
8. Accelerating Supply Chain Processes
Cloud ERP gives you greater visibility across your entire operational processes, including your suppliers. This results in better data-driven decisions and can help result supply and demand imbalances as quickly as possible.
9. Reacting Quickly to Changing Trends
Consumers’ desires and needs change rapidly in today’s world. As a jewelry industry professional, this can be hard to keep up with if you don’t have the right tools. An ERP system, however, can help you react to changing trends quickly so you can reduce your product-development cycles because you’ll be able to easily collaborate with suppliers, designers, and logistics providers when you have the data necessary to pivot on a whim.
10. Reducing Cost
Cloud computing is significantly more affordable than onsite hardware, plus, it’s easier to maintain and doesn’t require technicians to visit you at your location, which usually comes with a hefty price tag, as well. With cloud ERP, you don’t have to worry about any additional hardware, such as a server infrastructure. The pricing model of SaaS solutions are typically far more affordable to small jewelry businesses than onsite alternatives.
Work with MIBAR to Find an ERP Solution for Your Jewelry Business
These are just 10 of the many reasons your jewelry business needs a great cloud-based ERP system in place to stay competitive.
If you’re ready to explore how a cloud ERP solution can enhance your business operations, our team at MIBAR is ready to show you how it’s done. Partner with us by scheduling your demo today!
Learn more in our article Maximizing Profitability with ERP Software for Jewelry Companies.
