Why Web Order Fulfillment is Essential in 2019
In 2019, web order fulfillment is so essential to retail operations that any retail store or chain that isn’t at least on the way to implementing it will soon breathe its last. In every industry, buyers start their shopping online. Even if they don’t make the purchase online, they research products online. But, more and more, consumers are making purchases online too.
If you have a brick-and-mortar retail store or chain, here are five reasons you should implement web order fulfillment for your reatil operations:
- Better customer service – Let’s face it, every customer is different. Some will want to walk into your physical stores and touch the product before they buy. Some will prefer to buy at a physical location. Many consumers, however, especially younger ones, are comfortable making purchases online. The more channels you have available, the better the customer service you can provide.
- Expand your customer base – With web orders, a customer does not have to be in your geographically targeted area to make a purchase. If they can find your store online, they can make a purchase and have it drop shipped to their home. In many cases, it’s even less expensive to do so.
- Increase profits – Because you can expand your customer base and provide better customer service, you can sell more product and make your retail operations more profitable.
- Real-time product visibility – Web fulfillment tools are very robust. With modern software, you can get eyes on your product situation in real-time all the time. ChainDrive’s web fulfillment solution makes this possible.
- Stay in control – A web fulfillment solution allows you to stay in control of your budget, product management, customer relationship management, and cross-channel promotions. You can centralize your operations easily, or run your e-commerce division separately from your brick-and-mortar stores. Either way, you can have more control over the factors that influence both operations.
If your retail chain is to stay competitive, you’ve got to have a web presence. That means being able to fulfill orders online.