How Quickly Do You Fill Web Orders?
One of the biggest challenges for retailers today is integrating their e-commerce store with their traditional brick-and-mortar operations. If you think selling on the Web is an apples-to-apples comparative operation to brick and mortar, then you don’t understand e-commerce.
There are, of course, different ways to skin a cat. You can fulfill Web orders directly out of your warehouse, from a storefront, or you can create a special e-commerce fulfillment station. Many e-tailers with physical presences allow customers to order on the Web and pick up products in the store. It’s up to you how you do it, but you’ve got to have an efficient system in place.
Establish Your Own Web Order Fulfillment Rules
One of the hallmarks of a good Web fulfillment solution is its flexibility. ChainDrive allows you to set your own rules. You decide when, where, and how orders will be filled and what rules guide those decisions. You can also track the status of orders in real time.
Your customers don’t draw a distinction between brick-and-mortar, Web order e-commerce, and mobile interaction. They want a product and they want it now. You’re the brand. They expect consistency.
Only ChainDrive delivers on that consistency across all channels. Manage your customer preferences, know what they order and which devices they like to order on, and reward your preferred customers when they come back to you through the same channels. That’s what a good CRM solution does for your e-commerce operations.
Managing Products, Prices, and Vendors
Customers are not the only thing you need to manage in your Web store. You also have a load of products and vendors that deliver those products to you. Merchandising online is somewhat more challenging that brick-and-mortar merchandising. When and how you roll out promotions can make a big difference in your profitability.
You can set your prices well in advance with the right tools. Establish seasonal promotions months ahead of time and develop multi-tiered promotions based on real scenarios.
Another Web order fulfillment function you need to keep tabs on is which products from which vendors are selling the most. You should be able to track product by sizes, colors, and vendor. Automatically replenish product as you need to based on these categories.
Monitoring and reporting is very important. You’ll never be uninformed about the status of your merchandise when you have a solid Web fulfillment solution with robust features.