In this ever-evolving world of eCommerce, we find ourselves quickly approaching a unique retail landscape this holiday season. Economic challenges have transformed this era into what economists are calling the “Richcession,” a time where shoppers are discerning and price-sensitive– driving them to scour the internet for the best deals and exclusive offers. 

Holiday shopping will undoubtedly cost more for consumers this year.  The National Retail Federation reported an increase in shopping spend of 8% in 2022, however it was equal to the estimated inflation increase. And with the economy mirroring several challenges of last year, it is estimated that the increase in spending for this holiday season may also reflect the increase in inflation. However, most shoppers seem to be looking ahead to the holiday season and planning to travel and celebrate together, meaning an increase is likely in both food and travel.

There are quite a few shoppers that start as early as now to begin preparing for the holiday season. Surprisingly, many holiday shoppers across the world had on average 20% of their holiday shopping complete as of mid-October in 2022, according to a Google survey. Which means that the remaining gift purchasing season occurs over the remaining eight weeks across the holidays and requires businesses to be prepared and efficient.

A recent survey also showed that more than 36% of consumers spent additional time researching online before purchasing compared to prior years – and we expect this to only increase as we look ahead to this holiday season. With money tight and needing to stretch further than ever, shoppers will be looking for the best prices from marketplaces they trust to deliver accurate, timely deliveries.

This presents an exciting opportunity to enhance your fulfillment strategies so that you are ready to cater to last-minute shoppers through your in-stock inventory and lightning-fast shipping. 

Real-Time Inventory Management:

To navigate the unpredictable seas of those who wait until November or December for a little late-season shopping, suppliers should invest in inventory management software. This provides real-time insights into stock levels, allowing businesses to identify trending products and restock them swiftly to avoid running out of inventory across multiple retailers and marketplaces. 

This data-driven decision-making also empowers suppliers to better allocate resources and optimize inventory, effectively cutting carrying costs while ensuring they’re stocked up and ready to meet demand—all in real-time. 

Even though shoppers are eager to get back to shopping in-person, many still choose to buy online  to easily compare prices and the comfort of guaranteed inventory in-stock. 

Efficiency Through Automation:

Streamlined order processing and fulfillment strategies through software automation is the backbone to success in an online world. This technology streamlines the entire order fulfillment process, reducing the risk of human errors and accelerating the picking, packing, and shipping of products and translates to speedy delivery times, even during peak holiday seasons. Most of the time – implementation is quick and able to help your team improve efficiencies immediately.

Strategic Partnerships and Diverse Shipping Solutions:

In this “Richcession” era, forging strategic alliances with reliable shipping carriers and offering an array of shipping options is paramount. By collaborating with carriers capable of providing expedited shipping services, eCommerce suppliers can ensure timely deliveries. Presenting customers with same-day or next-day shipping choices caters to the need for speed and convenience, but to capture on discounts and supplier rates you will be required to operate at standards set by the carriers.  Having an automation software solution in place is critical to meet the data needs for success.

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is your innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

As you are looking to improve your inventory management and fulfillment processes for this upcoming holiday season — OPAL is here to partner with you and automate and simplify your processes for success.

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive, click here!

The UPS delivery driver strike has shown us just how much jobs have changed over the past few years as companies continue to scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience. The pandemic accelerated changes, pushing every business into ecommerce to survive and provide consumers with everything from services and virtual healthcare appointments, to streaming tv shows and zoom meetings for business, to consumables like dog food and toilet paper. All under the already created two-day shipping right to the front door.

Unfortunately, overworked and underpaid employees took the brunt of this and describe 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning as the continued norm, since many industries never really returned to the pre-pandemic normal. 

It was also described as “Christmas on steroids for two straight years, while being forced to work six days a week to meet the delivery demands.” So as consumers continue to desire instant gratification and push delivery drivers to the brink of burnout, what does this mean for the economy?

“Richcession” or a Rolling Recession?

For the past year we have all been warned of the potential upcoming recession. However, it seems that in spite of all the factors and the Federal Reserve continually increasing interest rates to spike the cost of borrowing— the economy has remained resilient.  

Consumers continue to spend and employers continue to hire, and that coupled with inflation reaching its lowest level in two years helps consumers to stretch their paychecks for this back to school and upcoming holiday season. This typically leads to a “soft landing,” where growth slows and inflation falls without a full-blown recession.

Many economists consider this era a rolling recession, while others attribute the characteristics to a “richcession.”  Rolling recessions are when some industries shrink while the overall economy manages to proceed successfully.  

Others will argue this is more like a “richcession” where the industries impacted were higher-paying industries like technology and finance.  Typically, these have professional workers with financial cushions to withstand the impacts of layoffs and job cuts are less likely to sink the overall economy. 

The threat for a full-blown recession is still there, as the interest rate is the highest level in 22 years and the Fed still threatens to raise it again before the end of the year to fix inflation, impacting consumers and businesses looking to borrow money.

Benefits & Challenges in eCommerce

eCommerce business owners are facing issues like reduced consumer spending and changing preferences, which leads to cash flow constraints as suppliers are left with excess inventory that’s not selling and potentially the inability to purchase products that may sell quicker. With decreased consumer spending, there will also be increased competition amongst suppliers as they duke it out over who can capture market share. 

Though there are challenges, there are still numerous benefits to this type of market. Automation streamlines processes and allows you to know your data so that you can make informed decisions as the market continues to shift.

Agility & Flexibility:
eCommerce businesses have the opportunity to capitalize on changing market dynamics and can adjust quicker than its huge retail competitors.  This competitive advantage henges on the ability to quickly adjust pricing, placement and advertising within a matter of minutes– decisions that typically take days in larger organizations.

Price Sensitive Consumers:
Consumers are savvy and when times are tough and cash is limited, most are price sensitive and prefer online shopping for the ease of price comparison.  Automation allows you to know your inventory, know the price you paid, and confidently manipulate the pricing to remain competitive and profitable.

Supplier Negotiations:
When times are tough for consumers, it usually impacts through the entire chain.  Understanding your products and what is selling or sitting on the shelf will help you to better negotiate prices with your wholesalers, as well as rates with warehouses and shipping.  Software will help you to know your data so that you’re able to make informed decisions and appropriately negotiate new rates that benefit your business.

Overcoming the challenges can be overwhelming, but implementing a software solution can enhance operational efficiency, optimize inventory management, streamline logistics, and provide valuable insights through data analytics, empowering your small businesses to adapt swiftly, reduce costs, and maintain a competitive edge amidst economic uncertainties.

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

As you gear up for this back to school season, we are here to help you know your data and make your processes more efficient – OPAL is here to partner with you on this journey. 

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive this year, click here!

With Amazon Prime Day just passed and several other summer extravaganza sales just around the corner, ecommerce businesses are gearing up to make the most of this season. 

Prime Day started in 2015 a celebration of Amazon’s 20th anniversary, with the goal to offer a volume of deals greater than Black Friday and encourage consumers to spend money outside of the typical end of year holiday season. It has since ballooned into one of the largest sales globally and most markets now have their own branded version, like Wayfair’s Way Days in the spring. 

Typically, Amazon promotes its own products, but last year’s push to boost its marketplace sellers resulted in more than $3 billion spent on more than 100 million small and medium-sized business products across both days. Although Amazon has not released its total sales for both Prime Days this year, the event drove total ecommerce business for those two days to a record $12.7 billion in sales.

Back to school items like Chromebooks and other tablets, as well as apparel and dorm room items will continue to be featured in sales events. Consumers are watching their spend, but they are still comparing prices and hopping on necessities when there is a solid deal.

As we move through this summer sale extravaganza season, have you used the spring to streamline your operations and are you ready?

Inventory Management:

By integrating robust software, you can effortlessly track, analyze, and optimize your inventory. This is the quickest area for improvement and reduces so many opportunities for human error, such as misjudging a product that may or may not be selling and sinking cash into inventory or losing sales because you aren’t stocked properly or miscounting items on hand and being short when someone has placed a sale.

With automation, you gain valuable insight from real-time data and can streamline the entire inventory management process, ensuring you have the right products available to meet consumer demand.

Order Processing and Fulfillment:

Efficiency is paramount when it comes to order processing and fulfillment. Opal LLC’s automation solutions simplify these crucial aspects of ecommerce operations. Seamlessly connect your ecommerce platform with their order management software to automate order processing, reducing manual errors and accelerating fulfillment. Real-time order tracking ensures visibility into each stage of the fulfillment process, providing customers with timely updates and enhancing their experience. By automating order processing and fulfillment, you can handle the increased volume of orders efficiently during Prime Day.

Data Integration and Analytics:

Harnessing the power of data is essential for making informed business decisions. Your automation solution should seamlessly integrate with various data sources, enabling you to gather and analyze critical information. A data-driven approach empowers you to respond quickly to optimize pricing, inventory levels, and marketing strategies for maximum summer sales success.

Streamlined Workflow and Efficiency:

By focusing on your end-to-end flow, automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks can significantly reduce manual efforts and increase overall efficiency. 

From inventory management to order processing, automation frees up valuable time and resources, allowing you to focus on strategic business growth initiatives. By automating essential processes, you can operate more efficiently and effectively, maximizing your chances of success.

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

As you gear up for this summer season, it’s crucial to leverage automation to stay ahead of the competition and maximize your sales opportunities – and OPAL is here to partner with you on this journey.

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive this year, click here!

It’s difficult to turn on the news and not have concerns about shipping lately.  As a consumer – am I going to be able to receive the items I order? And as an eCommerce business owner – will I be able to get those ordered items to the consumer for a cost that will not bankrupt either of us?

Covid has taught us that many rise to the occasion and when they do not, innovation prevails.  As shipping demands continue to rise, who will rise to this occasion?

USPS is Making Changes

In the wake of the UPS strike, USPS has decided now is the time to step up and stake its claim that it would like to become the backbone of the eCommerce industry.

The Postmaster General is looking to transform the aging agency as the demand for parcel service continues to increase. He estimates a 50% increase in deliveries since last year with more Americans than ever wanting everyday items delivered directly to their homes.

As many airlines are cutting flights due to decreased demand of consumer goods that are typically shipped as cargo, many other shipping providers will be forced to increase prices as costs to deliver to small towns further away from hubs continue to rise. This is where the USPS shines – they already deliver to every home and business, whether small town or large city. 

With a fleet of more than 300,000 vehicles, their infrastructure is built to reach every house and business across the US and are able to shift to meet this ever-increasing demand much quicker than many of the other larger carriers that rely on flights and hubs. 

UPS Employees are Hoping for Changes

As the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents employees of UPS, they are hoping the threat of a repeat of the strike in the late 1990s will provide some leverage.  

At the time, more than 185,000 workers walked and operations came to a standstill.  The 15-day strike overwhelmed USPS and FedEx and ultimately impacted businesses across the US for months. Their threat is that the current strike could do so much worse, since the demand for deliveries is so much more than it was 25 years ago.  

UPS workers are hoping the talk of strikes will encourage UPS to improve working conditions (such as AC in the delivery trucks), increase the number of full-time workers with benefits, and increase wages after years of no increases.

Thankfully there are several more alternatives for shipping today than there were in the late 90s and experts predict this strike may not be as devastating as the UPS strike of 1997, but it will still impact many. Most eCommerce businesses are used to supply chain issues after the last few years since Covid, however one of the largest carriers striking will still cause a ripple.

eCommerce Prepares for More Changes

This strike comes right at the beginning of the back-to school season and as many begin preparing for the peak holiday season in a few months. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the importance of diversification and tightening the efficiency of processes to be ready for whatever may lie ahead.

Shipping processes are critical as you may need to switch carriers quickly, plan for delays, increased costs, and challenges getting packages to consumers to meet their expectations. There will most likely be inventory challenges with supply chain issues as we have seen over the past few years.

As packages are waiting to for a carrier to distribute them, that is product that you show as inventory but are not able to sell to consumers because it’s sitting on a truck waiting to get to your warehouse to then be shipped to a customer. Managing customer expectations through this will be critical, so as not to tarnish your brand or the retailer or marketplace where you partner and sell products.

As USPS and others begin to make the shift to evolve, unfortunately the cost will ultimately impact eCommerce businesses and be passed along to consumers. The Postmaster General does warn consumers that this upgrade to the agency will require price hikes over time, but should be relatively lower than the other shipping carriers due to how many restrictions they will have with freight on flights and increased transportation costs to smaller towns.

As the shipping industry continues to evolve, we will have to wait and see how it impacts demand for the eCommerce industry as a whole.

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is your innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

As you are assessing your shipping and inventory processes to prepare for the supply chain issues ahead — OPAL is here to partner with you and automate and simplify your processes for success.

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive, click here!

Whether you’re a newcomer venturing into the world of eCommerce or an experienced player looking to refine your strategies, understanding the fundamentals is the key to success. 

eCommerce tends to focus on three main areas — business-to-business (B2B) with suppliers to their sales channels, business-to-consumer (B2C) with marketplaces like Amazon, or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) with markets like eBay, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for your business to thrive in this quickly changing economy.

A recent survey in Digital Commerce 360 reported that of 403 companies with annual revenue of at least $20 million located in the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden found that 78% of organizations have an ecommerce site or digital self-service portals.  An addition 64% of those companies plan to increase their ecommerce investment this year. 

Even amidst the talk of recession and wavering consumer demand, companies are still growing eCommerce opportunities and it’s an exciting time to grow or start your business!

Identify Your Niche:

To thrive in the competitive eCommerce space, it’s essential to identify a niche market that aligns with your passion and expertise. Conduct thorough market research to understand customer needs, preferences, and existing competitors. 

By leveraging software, you can streamline product research, gain real-time market insights, and optimize inventory management to meet the demands of your niche market effectively.

Build a Strong Online Presence:

Creating a compelling online presence is crucial for attracting and retaining customers. Develop a visually appealing and user-friendly website that reflects your brand’s identity. Or choose to only provide product to your sales channels and provide the top-notch user experience to maintain the brand’s customer engagement. 

Building trust with your sales channels will build your online presence. This simplifies your need to overextend your operations through multiple channels, across websites and marketplaces, until you’re ready to do so.

Streamline Operations with Automation:

Embracing automation software is a vital component to streamlining operations and maximizing efficiency. 

By automating processes such as inventory management, order processing, and customer support, you can minimize errors, reduce manual workload, and deliver a seamless shopping experience. 

OPAL seamlessly integrates across all of your platforms, providing real-time inventory updates, automated order fulfillment, and serves as an extension to your ERP and accounting systems so that you can automate accounting transactions and connect directly with trading partners, shopping carts, shippers and warehouses. This ultimately ensures a smooth and hassle-free customer journey.

Prioritize Customer Experience:

In the eCommerce realm, providing an exceptional customer experience is a differentiator. Prioritizing customer satisfaction through personalized communication and responsive support is an important piece customers expect today. 

Automated order confirmations, shipping notifications, and personalized follow-ups can ensure timely and proactive customer service. Gaining valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, enables you to optimize your offerings and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Embrace Scalability and Adaptability:

eCommerce businesses must be prepared for growth and adapt to changing market dynamics – something everyone has experienced since the beginning of the pandemic. Automation through software provides scalable solutions that enable you to automate repetitive tasks, expand your product catalog, and seamlessly integrate with multiple sales channels. 

Through advanced analytics and reporting features, you can better analyze sales data, monitor market trends based on inventory data, and adapt your strategies to stay ahead of the competition.

As eCommerce continues to thrive and evolve, new entrepreneurs must arm themselves with the foundational knowledge required to succeed in this dynamic landscape. 

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is your innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

Harnessing the power of software and embrace the unique benefits automation offers — like streamlined operations, enhanced customer experience, and scalability — OPAL is here to partner with you and unlock your true potential.

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive this year, click here!

The way consumers shop has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. Personalized shopping experiences have become the new standard, and businesses must adapt to meet these evolving consumer demands. 

It’s now more critical than ever for eCommerce business owners to automate their processes to enhance operational efficiency, streamline inventory management, and enable businesses to deliver the personalized experiences that consumers crave.

Understanding the Shift in Consumer Behavior

According to a recent article by CMSWire, the retail landscape has been greatly influenced by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in ecommerce and 58% of consumers expect personalized experiences when shopping online. 

Whether it’s following a favorite influencer and watching videos on social or scrolling and clicking on targeted sponsored ads, consumers are consuming and shopping in personalized innovative ways.

Aligning your business strategies with current consumer behavior trends is now a necessity to remain competitive in this competitive, and constantly shifting, market.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency 

AI-powered automation can reduce operational costs by up to 30% and plays a pivotal role in streamlining operations for ecommerce businesses. By automating inventory management and order fulfillment processes, businesses will essentially eliminate manual errors and save valuable time so that small business owners and their teams can focus on core business activities while ensuring seamless operations. 

Accuracy and efficiency also builds trust with your multiple retailers and marketplaces, as well as have a better understanding of which products are selling and which are growing cold so that you don’t have to sink cash into stagnant inventory.

Delivering Personalized Experiences

Personalization has become a cornerstone of modern shopping experiences, and automation software allows businesses to keep up with this ever-growing expectation. 

As AI-driven personalization algorithms constantly improve and increase conversion rates by up to 50%, businesses of all sizes are now able to get your product in front of your targeted consumer with great ease. 

You’re able to analyze customer data, such as purchase history and browsing behavior, to provide tailored product recommendations. By leveraging this technology, businesses can deliver a personalized and engaging shopping experience, ultimately driving sales and customer loyalty across your multiple platforms.

Simplify with OPAL’s 4-in-1 Software Solution
EDI | Order Management | Warehouse Management | Shipping

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your small to mid-sized to enterprise business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  

In the era of personalized shopping experiences, automation software has become an indispensable tool needed in order to thrive in today’s competitive market. Embracing automation is crucial to streamline your operations and meet the ever-evolving demands of the modern shopper and OPAL is here to partner with you.

To learn more about how your eCommerce business can thrive this year, click here!