Many suppliers and retailers refer to the 2020 holiday season as a peak on top of a peak, with ecommerce sales surging even more for the holiday season after growing at unprecedented levels for the majority of the year.  But the 2021 holiday season comes with its own set of challenges.  

Many states are open and vaccinated consumers are ready to shop, both online and in person, but the world is still struggling with reopening after this pandemic, causing many logistical nightmares as we approach this holiday. 

A recent survey shows that many suppliers and retailers have worked hard to secure inventory now, in the third quarter, by ordering additional quantities from current suppliers and roughly a third are venturing to order from new suppliers just to bulk up inventory to handle the holiday season.

As your ecommerce business approaches this holiday season, here are several challenges that are ahead.

Labor & Supply Chain

Unfortunately, most of us have felt the impact of labor shortages lately – whether ordering dinner at a local restaurant, standing in long lines at the grocery or retail store, or waiting an extraordinary amount of time for online purchases to arrive at home. This labor shortage continues to strain customer patience as well as suppliers and retailers’ ability to provide products and services today.

With consumer demand at an all-time high and labor shortages only continuing to increase, finding adequate help this busy holiday season may prove to be quite challenging.

Supply chain challenges also continue to grow.  Ports across the world have idle ships with containers waiting for shipment, but due to constraints at the port, whether covid or shortage of workers related, products are slow to move. In many cases, railways are the busiest they have been in decades and in many areas of the country infrastructure upgrades are required to handle additional demand.

Shipping & Surcharges

USPS and other small parcel carriers like FedEx and UPS have been at and above capacity since March of 2020.  The current normal shipping environment is already providing several challenges to get products from online suppliers to consumers.  

With everything from delays due to illness closing down a facility, to a shortage of truck drivers across country, to a shortage of delivery trucks and drivers, consumers and eCommerce are in for a bumpy ride this holiday season.

Availability of Products

News media is prepping consumers for massive shortages this holiday season and encouraged many to begin shopping early.  This extended holiday season will exhaust both inventory and people, but may make it borderline impossible for those last minute shoppers.

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 your eCommerce business looks to optimize fulfillment processes and excel this holiday season, OPAL is here to assist you in each of these constraints and challenges.

To learn more about how to make your eCommerce business scalable with OPAL, 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 the quest to simplify, many eCommerce businesses add process after process until the bottleneck quickly becomes the sheer volume of software solutions that have been implemented for each individual area of the business—negating the simplification of automation.

With the upcoming holiday season at the forefront of every eCommerce business’ mind, many of the make-or-break moments start with the decisions made today.  Consumers are eager to return to normal, but with the Delta variant cases spiking globally, this means another extended online shopping period to meet holiday demands with many shipping and distribution issues in sight.

If your software solutions are lacking an overarching system that allows everything to work and meet this upcoming holiday season of shoppers, where should your business start?

Simplify
As businesses continue to grow, it’s normal to implement one software application to support one area of the business.  As time goes on, however, you may find that you’ve grown to have an accounting software, shipping software, inventory management software, and many others that manage the critical components of your business – but nothing that helps tie it all together.

Similar to a supplier of pet greens and an OPAL fanatic, their system was cumbersome to use and expensive to maintain, but more importantly was not providing the results and simplicity they needed. 

By implementing one overarching system that integrated across multiple platforms, their business was able grow in a more cost-effective manner.  Not only were the reporting functions more robust, but EDI decreased, fulfillment errors decreased and the business grew exponentially because they were ready for the increased volume.

Reduce Bottlenecks
In this era of Covid, changes in eCommerce happen FAST and businesses that think ahead and are prepared for the bumps, are the ones who succeed.  In this small lull between end of summer, back to school and the upcoming holiday season – now’s the time to quickly review processes and identify slow points so that you may integrate solutions for success in the coming months.

Similar to a supplier of kitchen fixtures and OPAL fanatic, after assessing the processes in place the team identified the large backlog of orders at the end of the day was due to separate shipping and packing stations.  It was also difficult to identify data on the number of orders packed per packer or orders left unpacked at the end of the day because the data was not accurately captured in each of the siloed areas’ processes.

By streamlining with OPAL, they were able to increase productivity and reduce the bottlenecks in each of the siloed areas through automation with one software.  

Reduce Costs
In the shift over the past few years from pallet shipping to retailers to thousands upon thousands of shipments directly to individual consumers, eCommerce businesses have been left to foot the increased cost of EDI. 

Similar to a supplier of home furnishings and OPAL fanatic, time and cost were the two largest expenses with prior EDI services.  EDI is typically charged per transaction and a timely process if manual intervention is required, so finding a solution to reduce this was essential. 

In addition to free EDI, OPAL focuses on order management, warehouse management and shipping – all with the same software platform that allows businesses to reduce costs across all processes – not just EDI. To learn more about EDI and why it’s still relevant, click here.

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

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world 

Implementing OPAL software into your business will reduce the cost of multiple software packages needed and provide the overarching platform support needed to bring each of the individual processes together for success this upcoming holiday season.

To learn more about how OPAL can improve your business, 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 the global rise of Covid cases and social distancing mandates again, or in some cases as extreme as lockdowns, many companies are planning for this next surge in eCommerce dependency. 

The first few months of global lockdowns in 2020 when some businesses were left holding excess inventory they couldn’t ship and others were at a standstill because the shipments were not coming in, have led businesses to adjust to challenges and make less lean-business focused decisions.  

The “logistical imbalance” as it’s called, has seen the cost of shipping containers climb five-fold and take an additional week to two weeks to deliver to businesses. If they have the ability, many businesses now have additional inventory on hand with the longer shipping times to ensure they have product to sell at peak times this fall and winter.  

This constant growth over the last two years has also left business owners with little to no other option than to upgrade manual processes to more efficient automated processes. Automation of processes ensures the business keeps up with the ever-increasing volume and makes profit. It also ensures employees can pick, pack and ship faster, at much higher volumes and with fewer errors in packing or shipping.

As your business approaches the upcoming holiday season, is your warehouse prepared for the challenges ahead?

Ongoing Social Distancing:  Safety of employees is a key concern of most businesses and it now looks like workers spaced out, sanitization stations throughout, one-way traffic aisles and area wipe downs to help ensure the safety of employees as Covid cases may rise in your area.

Increasing Use of Automation Software: Gaining popularity in recent years, Covid has helped to escalate the priority of simplifying through automation.  Warehouses are coping with additional inventory on hand with longer and less reliable shipping timeframes, as well as increased orders with more online shopping than ever.  

Increasing Warehouse Capacity: With inventory shortages and sporadic global lockdowns, most businesses are choosing to keep excess inventory on hand to meet the increased need and requires additional space.  In addition to inventory, social distancing requires that employees are spread out and common areas like packing and shipping provide enough space for everyone to work safely.

Relying on 3PL Distribution Networks and Decentralizing Warehouses: With so many challenges around the transportation of products, many businesses are looking to leverage the existing distribution networks of 3PLs. Many are automated and efficient, allowing businesses an additional alternative for growth.

Another option some are considering is more local or decentralized warehouses, preventing operations from halting completely if one warehouse has an outbreak.  This also could benefit shipping time to consumers with ever-increasing USPS and other carrier delivery times. 

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

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world 

Implementing OPAL software into your businesses’ warehouse is proven to increase productivity by as much as 50%, significantly improving your chances for keeping up with the ever-increases demand for eCommerce products and this upcoming holiday season. 

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  To learn more, 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!

Running a business in an era of labor shortages where employees are willing to quit instead of giving up working from home is challenging.  

Employees have grown to appreciate the many perks and flexibility that come with remote work – no commute, reduced Covid exposure, accessibility to family or pets, and reductions in cost of child care and gas bills. According to Bloomberg, a recent survey showed that 49% of people polled would consider quitting if their employers were not flexible about remote work.  That puts a lot of pressure on employers to remain competitive, especially during a time with labor shortages.

As a small business, you may relate to the 77% of professionals who believe they’re equally if not more effective when remote, and that 86% of employers plan to continue remote work in some form or fashion after the pandemic ends. 

A Hybrid Work Environment Approach

The eCommerce business model is unique and has a somewhat hybrid approach already. In this Covid- era, most eCommerce businesses have had to work on balancing incredible growth with scaling back employees in the office or warehouse to minimize exposure and risk of them getting sick.

Some employees can work from home for the majority of the process, whether its accounting or marketing with website updates, or sales positions.  This comes with the added benefit of limiting exposure to Covid for your teams and possibly still abiding by state mandates where there’s staff limitations in offices – also possible with this next wave of pandemic shutdowns.  

However, when it comes time to pick, pack and ship – a team member will need to be present in your warehouse or facility.  How you choose to structure it will hopefully help you to keep your team safe with reduced exposure and provide some level of flexibility so that you can retain your top talent.

A Comprehensive Software Approach in a Hybrid Work Environment

A critical component to success with balancing the hybrid approach, with some remote and others present in the office or warehouse, is a comprehensive software solution that optimizes processes and syncs everything efficiently – reducing the friction, complexity and errors that occur because not everyone is working in close proximity to one another.

Self-Driving Automation
One, self-driving, automated software solution for your EDI, order management, warehouse management and shipping processes allows your employees to be synced, efficient and working together, even when they’re apart.  It also reduces costs by consolidating multiple software packages into one, as well as driving labor costs down to fulfill growing order volumes immediately without ever again having to hire and train new staff.

Pick, Pack & Ship
Pick, pack and ship still requires someone to be present in the warehouse.  However, optimized pick, pack and shipping processes increases warehouse productivity, enabling you to increase the number of shipments per day and meet those ever shorter delivery deadlines that your retailers are asking of you.  

Strengthening Relationships

One self-driving automated software solution also proves to your retailers that your eCommerce business is accurate and efficient so they come to view you are a trusted supplier on their platform.  

As retailers continue to pursue new avenues of reaching consumers online, automation allows your business to grow with them and be ready to go for various opportunities like live branding that require automatically updated and accurate inventory levels, as well as consistent shipping on time to customers. 

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. 

With OPAL, automating your order processing will allow you to not only reach additional customers to sell more product, but prosper well through this labor shortage.

To learn more about how OPAL can help your business simplify your order processing, 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!

Since walking around the store has been limited, life at home over the past year has forced marketers to get creative in educating consumers about products. Many retailers are experimenting with live streams and partnerships with social influencers, and it is projected to generate more than $11 billion in US sales this year.

What is the draw to this new “QVC style” of shopping online from home?  It’s both entertainment and advertising in a way that draws both young and old.  Retailers can partner with influencers who will draw in crowds with similar demographics matching to products and generate sales in real-time during the live stream.  

As retailers seek out trustworthy and knowledgeable suppliers for upcoming live streams, is your business prepared and ready for the volume and speed required to keep up with demand?

Nurture Your Relationship with Retailers
If you want to be a valued and trusted supplier and considered for opportunities like live streams, it is important to show your reliability and consistency in performance. 

Retailers are concerned about quick shipments, minimal late or missed shipments, reduced invalid tracking information and late deliveries to the consumer because ultimately it is the retailer that will pay the consequences and their brand suffers.

In order to nurture your relationship with retailers, you should focus on:

• Compliance with retailer’s business processes.
• Upward scalability of your business, delivering more on-time orders each day.
• Maximizing your warehouse’s efficiency.

To learn more about building trust with retailers through your reliable relationships and the importance of the score card, click here.

Benefits of Order Processing Software:
The most successful suppliers work to quicken their order processing and warehouse efficiencies, so that when new trends like live streaming arise, they are ready for the challenge and opportunities.

Selecting effective software is the quickest and most cost-efficient way to do more with less.  Benefits include:

• Save time processing orders: a shift from manual steps to autonomous processes will increase your capacity for additional and accurate orders without the need to hire additional staff.
• Reduce overhead costs: it takes time to enter data manually and then transfer information into the accounting system, but when automated it happens within a matter of seconds.
• Increase data control: human error is inevitable, no matter how careful your team is during data entry. Automation significantly reduces the number of opportunities for error.
• Faster shipping: automation allows you to quickly send orders straight to your warehouse for shipping with all of the needed paperwork.
• Build stronger relationships with retailers: Retailers expect accurate and timely communication and business processes, and automation provides real time data across all inventory, processing, shipping documentation, etc. so that your eCommerce business reflects its dependability and accuracy.

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

If you want to be a valued and trusted supplier to your retailers so that your company will have opportunities to partner on opportunities like live streaming, it is important to be responsive and meet the expectations clearly communicated.

The bottom line is that OPAL addresses all of this for you and so much more.  It combines all of your order management, warehouse management and shipping solution activities into one autonomous software platform without the need for all of the multiple software systems.  AND without the cost of EDI transactions.

OPAL is the innovative solution to simplify your business fulfillment needs in today’s rapidly transforming retail world.  To learn more, 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!

As people begin to return to pre-pandemic normal lives, many stores like Walgreens are reporting it has seen discretionary spending pick up online and in local stores with makeup, passport and vaccine purchases. 

Summer sales season would echo that discretionary spending has risen, as suppliers who planned ahead to have product in stock have experienced its top grossing summer sales season yet.  According to Bank of America, it is estimated that Amazon alone sold more than 255 million items during its recent prime days, making it the largest global e-commerce two-day period in history. 

As a supplier, depending on who you work with, EDI transactions alone could eat up profit margins on this massive volume of sales and may require that you hire additional staff to handle the peak shipping days.  Both issues could be easily resolved with the selection of the right software solution.

Meet a Supplier of Home Furnishings and OPAL Fanatic

He and his team transitioned to Opal after working with a well-known EDI third party company. There were lots of issues, as they had a cumbersome system to process orders, all of which differed by partner.  

The worst problem he had was that whenever there was a snag in the system, they could not reach anyone on their vendor’s team — they had to create a case and wait until they responded. Many times, the vendor’s response was that their team was not responsible for a particular aspect (integration with accounting software, shipping vendors, or sales partner setup, etc.) and the case was referred to that other team. In the meantime, they lost valuable time and many times were penalized by their sales partners for not receiving the information on time.

Why Was Opal a Good Fit for You?

I have always been able to reach someone at Opal to help if there are issues related to orders, errors, etc.  The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable and generally resolve the issues right away. To me that is the most important quality I look for in a partner processor.

What Results Have You Achieved with OPAL?

Our process has been streamlined to a very user-friendly system. We have been able to add partners and customization is available if the need arises.  

We have grown our business tremendously without having to add staff to process orders.

What Would You Say to Someone Who is Considering OPAL?

I would definitely recommend Opal. I think their strength is the personal approach with the customer that makes you feel they value you as a customer.

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. 

With OPAL, not only is every EDI transaction included and free, but most suppliers are able to reach additional customers to sell more product with their current teams. 

To learn more about how OPAL can help your business simplify your order processing, 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!