The two primary goals of developing a channel strategy are to have a plan to sell your product to the customer and to deliver a positive customer experience. Understanding the omnichannel approach, while streamlining the backend to keep up with increased sales may prove to be quite challenging in this era of supply chain issues and labor shortages.

Why It’s Necessary?

Diversifying your eCommerce channel strategy is critical with a few big players calling all of the shots. It’s dangerous to put all of your eggs (products) in one basket (marketplace) because if it goes down, it halts sales while your team scrambles to quickly find other channels.

Last year Apple made changes to its privacy policies for data collecting across apps. At that time, Facebook advertising and eCommerce stores were highly dependent on the data available through app collections to target and retarget ads to potential buyers. This change halted business as usual and left many scrambling to find work arounds to keep products moving for business.

Executing a strategy across multiple channels helps reduce the panic and allow for a more resilient business model in chaotic times of change.

What Are the Best-Performing Marketing Channels?

According to Statista, in 2020 there were 256 million digital buyers in the US alone, and as purchasing products online has become a common practice among consumers, it is expected to grow to more than 291 million by 2025. Even amidst the caution and global economic uncertainty, estimates show a steady increase in eCommerce.

Email Marketing

Founder and CEO of eCommerce today encourages businesses to leverage personalized emails to increase conversions and believes it is one of the best-performing channels that can help engage and convert potential clients through personalized emails, particularly if you rely on automation. Though it may be tedious to build and curate a CRM and lead generation, it is quite effective in dripping constant messaging to your leads to sell products when the time is right.

SEO- Driven Content Marketing

As people search for content online, having high quality marketing content with exact keywords will help consumers to organically find your product.

Paid and Organic Search

Finding the right mix between the two is an artform and one that requires constant monitoring. But when done well, this has a significant impact on revenue and products sold. Understanding google analytics is key to understanding what is underperforming and then use the data to strengthen online content. There are numerous online courses (some are even free) to help educate you on how to better market your business and if you’ve grown to the size of needing help, numerous agencies have full teams specializing in this.

Is the Positive Customer Experience Everything?

Even in spite of the supply chain chaos and global shipping delays, providing a positive customer experience never seems to fade in importance.

In fact, 84% of individuals state that the experience provided by a company is just as critical to them as the product they’ve purchased from that company.Even more alarmingly, one in three consumers will walk away from a brand they love after just ONE bad experience. Patience does not seem to be a virtue that many seem to have lately.

Understanding how to best diversity your channel strategies market to,acquire, and retain likeminded customers will become critical as the market continues to grow and become oversaturated.

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 your eCommerce business defines its channel strategy to better serve your customers, automation and streamlining of processes is absolutely critical to providing top notch service to your retailers and to customers.

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here.

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!

Constantly climbing inflation, increasing supply chain constraints, continued lockdowns due to Covid outbreaks and navigating the war in Ukraine have all lead toward a significant slowdown globally, but experts do not expect a return to the 1970s thankfully.

According to Seth Carpenter, Chief Global Economist at Morgan Stanley, “we are in the most chaotic, hard-to-predict macroeconomic time in decades.” In spite of the war and surging inflation, Morgan Stanley economists do not believe it indicates a worldwide recession is in our near future.

Not too long ago, economists were expecting 2022 to be “a period of strong economic rebound, where businesses would return to full operation post-covid.” It was expected to be the new era of the roaring twenties, where consumers would be free to spend their savings on activities and vacationsthat they were not able to do during the lockdowns of the pandemic.

Many headlines today are referencing “stagflation,” a term many are having to search in order to remember the 1970s referenceto a painful mix of high prices and low growth brought about when the Arab oil embargo mixed with double-digit inflation caused a prolonged period of global economic hardship.

So, with so much out of your control, getting back to the basics and making your current processes more efficient is critical.

The eCommerce Fulfillment Process

Software solutions and automation can impact your business drastically when seeking to simplify your fulfilment management needs – it increases your capacity for additional customer orders with little to no additional cost and without having to hire and train new team members. It is also critical to streamline each of the areas to achieve efficiency.

Stock Management

Knowing the quantity and quality of your inventory prior to processing orders is critical for success.Stock keeping units (SKUs) on products allows your team to keep track of inventory levels to know what is available to sell and know when to reorder.

Implementing a standard receiving process helps to reduce inventory and purchase order discrepancies and helps to define your optimal level of inventory. Regular audits of inventory help to confirm your teams’ processes are accurately recording and updating inventory levels so that your ordering manager has accurate data for decisions and reorders.

Order Processing

eCommerce platforms automate order confirmations sent to customers and provide critical information such as order summary, tracking number, shipping information, etc. Any errors entered through this process can be caught quickly and cheaply, otherwise it may ship to incorrect addresses or a myriad of other issues that can arise.

It is critical that as your eCommerce business grows to include multiple sales channels, your software grows with you. Knowing your inventory across multiple sales channels is critical for the customer experience and automating this piece drastically simplifies it for your team. They are able to reserve inventory for those who pick, pack and ship the orders so inventory is not sold multiple times.

Pick, Pack & Ship

Software automates this intricate process – once orders are confirmed, the picking list is sent to the fulfillment warehouse to pull the required products to then pack and ship to the customer.

Establishing each phase of the system and working with the software will keep it accurate and efficient to help speed up the time to fulfill orders while reducing the costly errors.

An additional area that is often overlooked is branding – as many begin purchasing directly from eCommerce businesses, it will be important to develop that customer experience from the moment they select the product to purchase to delivery and opening the box. Branding the box and how the product arrives is just as much part of the customer journey.

Shipping is challenging area for all businesses right now – with supply chains down and expensive, it’s critical your team is constantly looking for the best price with the most reliable deliverability. Choosing fulfillment partners located close to your customers is another option to consider if you deliver product across the US and notice that it may make sense to have multiple warehouses instead of the time delay of shipping so far.

In Summary

Understanding your fulfillment strategies will help your eCommerce business streamline and cut costs through this time of stagflation, but also allow your business to have things in order and ready to go when business picks back up.

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 complications continue to arise around the world and supply chain issues continue to grow, it is time to enhance your systems through automation with OPAL to keep up with this competitive industry so that your eCommerce business is ready to grow.

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here.

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!

With supply chain issues at an all time high, it has never been more critical than now for eCommerce businesses to have a strong inventory management system to keep up with consumer demand and to be prepared for growth into new markets at a moment’s notice. 

To those who have found their inventory sweet spot, this not only ensures they have product for the high consumer demands, but also opens doors to a trend shift in financing – from a more traditional method to new opportunities focused in revenue-based and inventory financing.

Alternative financing is quickly gaining popularity among eCommerce companies as traditional bank loans are time-consuming and slow to attain.

How Does it Work?
Revenue-based financing is an alternative funding source where eCommerce businesses receive funding based on potential future revenue.  More importantly, it does not require collateral and the payments are flexible and typically a percentage of revenue to help with months with smaller cash flows. 

Pros & Cons
Traditional bank loans are more rigid with fixed monthly payments and typically require collateral – something that can be challenging in an economy struggling with inflation, supply chain issues with getting products to consumers, warehouse shortages and consumers purchasing an ongoing record number of products. 

If all of your inventory is stuck on a shipping container and you’re unable to sell product and bring in cash, with traditional funding you would have to find a way to make the payment.  Whereas, with the alternative financing, you would have the flexibility to adjust the payment on the low sales month.

Other Alternatives
Venture capitalists or angel investors are another way to leverage cash investments for growth in eCommerce. 77% of startups begin with personal savings and founders may not have opted for an infusion of capital that dilutes their percentage ownership. However, adding investors will help the business grow quickly through the cash infusion and could potentially come with expertise and advise for growth into new markets.

Though angel investors tend to be more relaxed and hands-off than venture capitalists, both will require repayment with interest and usually a piece of the profits. In this case, revenue-based financing would be an optimal choice because it will not dilute their investment, yet allow the business to grow through the infusion of capital.

Cryptocurrencies have seen a huge boom in Australia, with the largest bank allowing customers to trade them through its app as of November 2021.  As eCommerce business owners consider receiving crypto payments from consumers in markets outside of the US, the risks are less known. 

Risks of credit card fraud are well known and retailers are prepared for a predetermined level of chargebacks, but crypto is not subject to the same consumer protection measures that mainstream forms of payment have in place. 

Cryptocurrency is also highly volatile and prices fluctuate wildly and quickly.  If your company accepts payment and does not exchange quickly enough, the value could plummet overnight leaving you with pennies to cover inventory expenses.

Are Your Processes in Place?
No matter which path you select for financing, traditional and alternative funding require your business to have systems in place to automate and reduce human error so your business is ultimately as efficient as possible.

In an economy where eCommerce businesses are having to grow into new global markets overnight due to supply chains, more traditional bank loans prove to be quite challenging.

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 complications continue to arise around the world and supply chain issues continue to grow, it is time to enhance your systems through automation with OPAL to keep up with this competitive industry so that your eCommerce business is ready to grow through alternative financing options and move into new markets.

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here.

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!

Experts are warning China’s recent string of tight lockdown restrictions are about to send another shock through global supply chains—possibly worse than Wuhan’s lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. China’s President has not budged on his “zero-Covid approach,” which has many residents in tight lockdown conditions and desperate for food and basics. 

While ports remain open and full of trucks struggling to unload cargo, shipping containers continue to stack due to strict permit regulations that prevent workers from leaving home to work if there’s even just one positive case in their high-rise home. 

In many cases, Shanghai’s port is running out of capacity for many types of cargo as importers cannot collect their goods and with the recent outbreak in Guangzhou, export volumes out of China will begin to increase drastically.

This is disappointing and frustrating for eCommerce businesses trying to get products to American consumers, given that it imports more goods from China than anywhere else in the world. Once lockdowns end (or more likely just lessen), there will be an “overwhelming movement of goods that cripples supply chains” similar to the last reopening in 2021.  

So, what’s ahead and how do you plan accordingly?

Landscape is More Competitive
According to a recent industry report, eCommerce will account for 20.4% of global retail sales by the end of 2022— up from only 10% five years ago – confirming the eCommerce space is becoming more crowded. Covid definitely helped to expedite this shift, but the race to gain customers’ attention through online advertising propelled it as well.

Recent changes to Apple’s privacy updates in iOS 14.5 now prohibit cross-app data sharing unless users opt-in, halting this gravy train of constant lead generation and impressions drastically.  Ramifications from this shift have been felt immediately across Instagram and Facebook advertising platforms and are much less effective for digital ads, shifting eCommerce businesses to focus more on newer advertising channels like TikTok and Snapchat.

With market saturation from the influx of new eCommerce businesses and less effective marketing channels, customer retention is another way to reduce customer acquisition costs.  Creating and implementing a differentiated customer experience has never bene more critical for eCommerce businesses before, as many seek options other than large-scale retailers with empty shelves and out of stock inventories online.

Global Expansion
As businesses continue to see impacts of lockdowns throughout the world, it is important to continue to expand into new markets and provide products to and purchase products from areas of the world that are untapped and open.

A recent survey showed that 76% of online shoppers have made purchases on a site outside their own countries, a shift that is likely due to continued supply chain issues with major retailers.  Consumers are tired of empty shelves and out of stock options online, so they are going directly to eCommerce business sites to purchase goods—making marketing and the need for automation of backend fulfillment and shipment absolutely critical without the support and lead of larger retailer processes. Cross-borders business will also require adjustments to eCommerce business operations as governments seek to protect shoppers and online retailers from fraud.  

There has never been a more critical need to shift to automation as there is now.  Little to no room for error and a steep increase in competitors offering identical or closely similar products requires efficiencies in an economy where supply chains are halted and consumers want their products.

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

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

As complications continue to arise around the world and supply chain issues continue to grow, it is time to enhance your systems through automation with OPAL to keep up with this competitive industry. 

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here.

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!

No one could have predicted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to have such a long duration, and consequently has set off a series of new supply-chain bottlenecks around the world. 

Though they are not responsible for producing computer chips used by global automakers, Ukraine is the world’s leading source of neon, a gas needed for the lasers used in the chip-making process.  Fortunately, many chipmakers stockpiled neon ahead of the invasion and sanctions blocking trade, however there are serious concerns for the long-term availability of the gas.  

Germany is heavily reliant upon Russian energy and suppliers across Eastern Europe, and has posted the steepest one-month drop on record. Factories are facing diesel and parts shortages, as well as delays moving cargo through key North Sea gateways as their traditional travel paths have been extended to avoid off-limit zones.

In addition, Covid surges across China have led to temporary lockdowns, as the country sees it’s worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.  With factories closed, and only truly essential workers able to leave home, the disruption of production of finished goods is monumental.

China is home to close to one-third of global manufacturing and produce goods like Toyota and Volkswagen cars, Apple’s iPhones and components like circuit boards and computer cables.  Unfortunately, the global supply chain is paying the price as the country as chosen a zero-tolerance approach to outbreaks that call for stringent lockdowns and mass testing to eventually resume production.  

As global supply chain challenges continue to rise, nearly 80% of leading supply chain players surveyed said they’re accelerating their digital transformation due to the disruption of the pandemic.

Digital Transformation

As companies were prepared for the supply chain challenges of the past few years to continue, they were not however prepared for this current environment and short-term recovery is always a painful process.

Nearly 64% of supply chain leaders are increasing tech investment in technologies – including AI, predictive analytics, inventory and network optimization, and many, many more. All around, this will help elevate the industry but now is the time increase tech investment in your eCommerce business.

Automation

One comprehensive software solution reduces the cost of multiple software packages needed for your order processing and fulfillment needs, so that you can keep up with increasing consumer demand.

It improves order accuracy to 99% as well as drives labor costs down so that you can fulfill additional orders immediately without the added expense of hiring, training and retaining (the even trickier part in a labor shortage).

Pick, pack and ship becomes the primary focus of the team, as well as inventory optimization through automation. This allows you to have real-time data to make decisions, know your products and make informed decisions as this volatile market continues to shift.

Reduce Expenses

One comprehensive solution drastically reduces EDI expenses. As connection to all retailers, supplier and warehouses continue to increase, finding a software that includes the expense and simplifies the process is critical.

Strengthen Relationships with Retailers

Consumers are patient, but it is critical for eCommerce businesses to optimize delivery time as best as possible. Improved technology and automation provides real-time data on inventory and delivery details that provide a transparent communication between suppliers and retailers and customers.  Everyone is aware of the numerous supply chain issues, but communication is key to better set expectations of delivery.

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 complications continue to arise around the world and supply chain issues continue to grow, it is time to enhance your systems through automation with OPAL to keep up with this competitive industry.  

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here!

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!

In a world where consumers expect online retailers to “meet or beat competitors’ pricing,” this year will prove challenging with inflation.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Product Price Index for February 2022, reporting wholesale prices had jumped up 0.8% for the month and in the past year have increased by 10%. Raw materials, finished goods, gas and transportation prices all continue to increase and will ultimately impact and increase the end price of products for consumers.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 79% of American retailers surveyed last month reported price increases.  Though price hikes are not surprising at this time of global unrest with the supply chain, there are several factors you should complete before changing the price. 

Update the Product Offering:

Reducing underperforming SKUs, adding private label products, bundling items to provide additional value and reducing quantities (think 8-ounce packaging instead of 10-12 ounces) will all help keep the price stable for consumers

Boost productivity:

Making your business much more efficient from automation with software solutions that reduce the need to hire additional workers to ship more product.  It also allows you to have a clean read on which inventory is performing and which is not to make accurate decisions in streamlining products on hand.  

Outsourcing:

Selecting a third-party fulfillment service to position products nearer to customers and cut down on shipping time and costs may make more business sense to overcome inflated prices throughout the supply chain.

A new concept that’s rising across the country – dark stores.  They’re local micro-fulfillment centers strategically placed in old store fronts and warehouses that allow for cheaper fulfillment of online orders, but are “dark” to the public. To read more click here.

Consumers are well educated after the last few years of online shopping.  Many larger retailers can match or beat prices, but getting to the point of uniformity is challenging.  “Online competition is a force for price uniformity, and therefor also inflation equalization” in this era of constant supply chain issues.

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 inflation continues to impact prices and your profit margins, partner with OPAL to increase efficiencies through automation.  

To learn more about how OPAL has partnered with many to scale their business to new levels of success, click here!

Click here to book your customized demo today.  We are here to support you through this time of change and are here to help you innovate and thrive!