Guest blog post by Dhwani from Orderhive
Businesses around the globe are having a tough time in employing a single consolidated platform to automate their unique workflow and leverage their core business resources. Despite dealing within the same industry, two organisations may have vast differences in operational practices. And this is when business-process-automation requirements also start to differ.
When it comes to online selling, businesses face a similar type of challenges. Especially for sellers, when it comes to the backend, pertaining to inventory management, stock keeping, shipping etc., ‘one suit fits all’ strategy does not work very well.
This is where the idea of a customised inventory and shipping management SaaS springs up to fill up this latent void. Let’s understand it better with a look at two scenarios.
Workflow Complexity and Third-Party Custom Integration
Big retailers like Zara, Wal-Mart and others operate through multiple distribution centres and fulfil orders through shipping carriers. However, when it comes to companies such as SharkNinja, they prefer to outsource their fulfilment service to Amazon FBA or other third-party fulfilment providers.
In both cases, the seller needs to check the availability of the stock against the order & make sure that the customer receives the order on time. However, a generic inventory management software is not a fit for these companies as their Workflow automation requirement is different.
With third-party applications serving exclusive problem-solving capabilities, hybrid architecture has become more a necessity, this is where custom integration solution is a must for enterprises to run different third-party applications from a single consolidated platform and allows easy data synchronisation.
Implementing New Selling Strategies
It has not been long since retailers have adopted the multi-channel strategy, where they offer their product across multiple channels like eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Magento etc.
With omnichannel retailing coming into the picture, the retailer can provide multiple selling points across various customer engagement points.
However, providing a seamless omnichannel experience to the customers requires data synchronisation across multiple channels & customer-facing system which enables smooth alignment between core operations like inventory management, order management and fulfilment management.
Only a customised solution rapidly deploys workflows in response to changing business need. Improve your responsiveness by enabling continual tracking of various steps involved in a business process.
These are the challenges which we are trying to solve with Orderhive Plus.
Related: 6 Amazon Repricing Strategies Every Seller Needs to Know
Benefits of a Customised Inventory Management System
1. The Ability to Automate Unique Workflow
Taking a real-life scenario—SharkNinja was operating its business through multiple selling channels including Amazon, eBay & WooCommerce, as a result, they were loaded with orders at the end of the day. It’s a tiring process to pick every order individually, check for stock availability & assign shipments accordingly.
They were in need of an “automatic order allocation scheduler” which automatically assign orders on the basis stock availability and fulfilment strategy, such requirements can only be taken care of by a customised inventory management system.
Where custom features can be implemented without interrupting the current workflow & system.
Similarly, Essential livin, an online seller that supply health products across 250 retail stores in Singapore.
A significant portion of their product was of perishable nature, the company has to give manual instructions to their warehouse team to dispatch items on the basis of FIFO methodology, so items which are closer to the expiry date is dispatched first, with a customized solution, the company automatically generates “Pick List” on the basis of FIFO methodology by tracking the batch no and expiry date.”
The customised solution provides an industry-specific solution which easily incorporates new functionality which eases your back-end operations.
2. Custom Reports, a Much-Required Business Intelligence Tool
Custom reports are a much-required tool for a wide variety of business verticals, as data can be filtered according to specific criteria. Custom-built reports are a point-to-click tool which indicates the areas of concerns that the company needs to focus on.
An empirical example with a customised solution, RobeMart was able to calculate the net profit they have made per SKU (product), this makes it easier for RobeMart to plan production and focus on products that are worth their time & money.
Customised stock valuation reports can be equally significant as it states the stock that is recorded in your books of account and matches that up with the physical value in your warehouse.
3. 24/7 Technical Ongoing Support with Proper Analysis of Business Requirements
Keeping your business secure and operating at peak performance demands compliance expertise, ongoing business analysis and professional guidance on which businesses can rely.
The customised solution provides an enterprise-level experience to businesses, where dedicated technical resource analyses the unique requirements of a business and comes up with a feasible solution, which is backed by a highly secure and responsive support management system.
4. High-Speed Private Cloud Solution
If your solution is hosted on a private cloud, it offers better control, extendable bandwidth, security and superior performance in terms of speed and connectivity.
A custom solution is designed to automate the complex business functionality of large enterprises. However, it is equally important that businesses should choose the right custom inventory management solution. It is very important that the modules developed in a customised solution are scalable and tightly integrated and should ease inter-process communication.
Customised Inventory Management from Orderhive
There has been an overwhelming response from sellers for customised inventory management software. Orderhive Plus works wonders and custom solutions for inventory may become an industry standard for inventory management in future. Orderhive love to hear about your challenges in detail to gain insights and help you out at the best we can. If you want to have a look at the software, you can opt for a free trial.
Interested in Customising and Automating your Amazon Prices?
Check out the free 15-day trial of RepricerExpress, no credit card needed and get access to all these great features.
- Win sales and the Amazon Buy Box at the best possible price.
- Grow your Amazon business with automated instant repricing.
- Decide who you want to compete against with customised pricing rules.
- Control your pricing strategies by setting minimum and maximum prices for each listing.
- Auto-detect long-term storage fees, price wars and low stock on Buy Box winners.
- Easily link your Amazon and eBay prices.
- Integrate with your favourite ecommerce tools such as SKU Grid, E-com Solutions and OA Genius.
- Top customer support via phone, email and live chat.
Related: Top 10 Amazon Inventory Management Tools for Sellers
