The Software Necessary to Run Your Ecommerce Business
When you start an ecommerce store, you only need a basic set of tools and skills. The catch, though, is that as your business expands, you need tools and skills that will grow with it. That’s why it’s very helpful to invest in an ecommerce software. It’ll save you lots of time by making various jobs easier while aiding skilled workers via automation, accounting, and inventory management, just to name a few things. We’ve taken the liberty of selecting some of the top software solutions that will grow as a company does, too.
Software Needed for Ecommerce
Ecommerce platforms
This software can either be a program or a cloud-based platform that’ll let you sell straight on your site. You’ll find that some have multi-channel support or even have their own store. Many of them differ in price and value due to the broad range of features that can be offered, so it’s crucial to take some time to figure out what it is that you’re looking for and why it would benefit you. In fact, you should write a list of all of the things that you would like to get out of the website. Take into consideration the functions that you’d like to be built in. As soon as you’ve got everything mapped out, you can figure out which platforms cater to your needs, compare them, and then give your top picks a try. Definitely look into those that offer a free trial, too.
A few things that you should look into when making the choice is the budget, what the maximum inventory is, which solutions they offer, what the payment options are, how is it hosted, the integrations that it offers, as well as the technology. A few key solutions include product management, pricing, promotions, search, shipping, and inventory management. Some payment options include credit card and PayPal. You also need to ask yourself whether you’d like it to be self-hosted or cloud-hosted, which often depends on your budget. Also, look into whether it integrates with Amazon or offers logistics. On the technology side, see if it’s got an application programming interface, data models, and integration framework for starters.
ERP
An enterprise resource planning software is what will help with centralizing all of the main ecommerce tools in areas such as marketing, human resources, logistics, customer service, as well as inventory management. A solid ERP will automate all of the main processes to help you save time and make both data collection and storage much more effective for every part of your company. It can either be integrated into your ecommerce solution, or it could be an add-on.
It may not be for everyone, but it has proven to be very effective for ecommerce. For instance, it can integrate all of the processes starting from marketing and all the way down to shipping, enabling automation from the cart to shipping since it can check if the items are in stock while automating receipts of order emails, notices to the warehouse, as well as shipping email notifications. This will also immensely help customer service since the whole order is located on one program.
Inventory Management
The more inventory that you have and the faster that it grows, it obviously becomes more difficult of a task to look after. A good inventory management software lets companies automate inventory management by monitoring sales, automating orders and notifications, as well as looking after expenses. You also want to look into something that offers multichannel inventory, therefore your entire inventory will be monitored, preventing a stock out from occurring, which your sales and customer relations would benefit immensely from.
A few features that you should definitely look out for is inventory tracking, automation, supply chain, planning, and forecasting, as well as analytics.
Automation
With your ERP and inventory management tools, there’s a really big chance that you’ll get automation tools with it, too. However, should you not integrate those tools, automation is very useful as it lets you utilize scripts in order to automate those repetitive manual jobs like looking at the stock prior to confirming an order, sending out order confirmations, altering inventory levels, sending the supplier orders, or repricing items on Amazon, for instance. Lots of time would be saved on those tasks that need your attention on a daily basis. Some aspects that would benefit from automation include inventory management, payment processes, customer service, social media, and email marketing for things like order and shipping confirmation as well as shopping cart abandonment.
Marketing and Merchandising
Marketing tools can assist by boosting both visibility and SEO while increasing sales since items are made visible whenever users are trying to find them. You’ll be able to manage who, how, and the time that customers get access to your items that way you can enhance customer engagement while decreasing the rate of shopping cart abandonment. Customer satisfaction will also increase. A few of the features that you should definitely keep a look out for include integration with ecommerce platforms, inventory management, and CRM systems as they are all intertwined. Data collection, real-time data, and search are also all useful features.
Data and analytics
Accurate data helps you get the best analytics to make decisions that will positively impact you in the future, regardless of the business area. The majority of the time, ERP, marketing, as well as website management tools will provide just the right amount of information for both a data and analytics collection. It may, however, be beneficial to utilize complimentary tools such as Google Analytics.
Shopping Cart Elite
A platform that holds each one of the software is Shopping Cart Elite. This cloud-hosted complete ecommerce solution will assist you with the creation of a customized website, while keeping all of your inventory updated, regardless of the number of channels. It’s got numerous integrations including Amazon and offers all of the key solutions. Your business will be automated, you’ll get help with SEO and social media, you’ll boost your visitor conversion rate while optimizing your employee processes at the same time.