As a retail or eCommerce business entrepreneur, your idea is always to grow and expand your business for profit maximization and customer satisfaction. Right? Now, you’ve done all it takes, and your business is now blossoming.
The journey has been long and a bit tedious, as running a business is complex. You’ve been doing everything manually, from accounting, sales recording, tracking the sourcing processes, human resources, and all other activities in a business setup.
At a certain point, managing your business manually becomes hard. This is where savvy merchants implement ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). This system has become an essential part of all types of business out there. Most businesses have invested in the ERP system as a priority, and it’s worth it. Imagine performing all your business activities from a single database! It should be interesting.
Now, how do you tell when it’s time to shift things and implement ERP in your retail or eCommerce business? Here are a few insights from our eCommerce ERP handbook.
What Are the Key Signs That You Should Implement ERP?
Whether you’re running retail or an e-commerce business, you’ll reach a point when it becomes automatically hard to streamline all the processes manually. Some of the indications may include:
1) Too Many Diverse Processes
With any dynamic and agile business, several processes sprout daily. When you have different departments recording their information on separate software, your enterprise management becomes hard.
When your business gets to this point, it’s a clear indication you should make ERP implementation a priority.
2) Difficulty in Retrieving Information
If someone would want to know about your monthly growth, how long do you think it’ll take to give out the information? If searching it manually or using the traditional ERP takes too long to retrieve, your business is ready to embrace a new phase. You should consider implementing the right ERP immediately.
3) IT Management Becomes Complicated
When it becomes a nightmare for the IT department to streamline and manage all the processes while upgrading and customizing other software, you should think of a cloud-based ERP. This situation should be a red flag, and any delay might lead to losses.
4) Customers’ Complaints are Too Many
Business reputation is one of the key factors if you anticipate growth. It’s what brings more and more customers daily. Imagine every time a particular customer orders a product and finds a shortage; it’s frustrating.
With a grown business, running some things like ensuring all products are available can be a challenge. To safeguard your reputation, which stimulates growth, you should get a modern cloud-based ERP to enhance seamless flow of business processes.
At this point, you’ve noticed that you have to implement a cloud-based ERP, right? The question now becomes; how do you tell the right ERP for your business? Explore the points below
Retail or Ecommerce ERP Features to Look Out For
There are several features that you should look for when getting an ERP system for your retail business. These are some of the essential features;
1) Workflow Automation
A consistent shopping experience is what every customer desires. Whether a physical or an online shop, you need to keep a clear record of their day-to-today transitions to curb the unnecessary delays caused by lack of insight.
With ERP, this process is made easy. It automatically channels orders to the warehouse, keeping track of all orders’ statuses and all other information surrounding each order. As a result, you’ll receive all the warehouse inventory levels, the number of orders and their status updates, and sales on a central point, helping you make the right decisions.
2) Multi-location and Real-time Inventory Tracker
For a customized retail industry ERP, the inventory management functions must be present to help you monitor and maintain the right stock levels. This functionality will give you real-time insight into your stock to help you restock the fast-moving products and gradually weed out the slow-moving ones.
It’s designed to give you a real-time picture of your stock from the color, size, and other specs. It will prevent an over or understocking crisis.
When going for a retail or e-commerce ERP, ensure it has this functionality; it’s critical.
3) Diverse Channels Order Management
Being a retailer, you need a system that supports a smooth customer shopping experience, in whichever places sales occur. Whether in a mortar and brick shop or online, the ERP you implement should have a way to centralize all processes and help you maintain loyalty to your clients.
The ERP you adopt should have inbuilt integrations that will help you to download, and store sales data automatically within the system.
4) Integrated CRM
In any business, customer satisfaction is essential. Having the ideal ERP, you can have a 360-degree view of all your customers. You can also understand how to handle each one of them for a long-term and productive relationship. The go-to ERP should be integrated with a Customer Relationship Management tool to support you with the critical factors needed to manage the modern hybrid customer relationship.
The system should give you a peculiar way to record your customers’ particulars alongside their interactions and order history. This enables you to identify your loyal customers and keep personalized relationships with them.
5) Returns Management
In any retail business, whether online or offline, returns are inevitable. The ERP system you implement should have a way that supports how you want to handle returns.
It should allow you to bring back once sold items for reselling or keeping them in a special place for reviewing, in case they were damaged on transit. This process is critical, and the system you adopt should be flexible enough to accommodate it.
Learn How to Select the Perfect ERP Software in Our Handbook
In the Retail-Commerce ERP Handbook, you’ll find out how to select the best ERP software for your business. Download your copy now. In this handbook, you’ll discover:
- The six common selling models that can impact ERP needs.
- How a retail ERP can differ from an eCommerce ERP.
- Which standard features to expect no matter what.
- How vendors augment their systems with industry-specific functionality.
- Acumatica’s approach to Retail and eCommerce ERP.
Click here to download it now.
Retain customers for life with Acumatica’s Retail-Commerce Edition. Seamlessly integrate your eCommerce storefront or POS devices with your financials, warehouse, and distribution for complete real-time visibility and control from order acceptance to fulfillment. Robust accounting and connected project accounting, field service, and manufacturing extend the system for other business areas. Learn more about this solution here.
Managing a couple of business processes manually can be draining. The only way is to implement the right ERP system for your industry. It’s a game-changer, and you’ll never regret it. Talk to the industry experts to at MIBAR help you find the ideal ERP solutions for your business.
