When we think about consumer purchases, especially those made online, a forgotten piece of the puzzle is often the warehouse. From a sales perspective the warehouse may not enter into the equation. Of course, who can blame people. The warehouse is often unseen from both the sales side and customer’s point of view. Their interaction with a warehouse can be quite limited. For example, customers interact with an online store and carriers for the most part. Yet, the products they want or need sit in and are sent from a warehouse. So, a warehouse has a big part to play, however unseen, in the perceived reliability and trustworthiness of your businesses brand and products. An organized and efficient warehouse can have a big part to play in generating revenue, keeping costs low, and promoting repeat business.
This being the case sales can leverage a warehouse by analyzing data from a WMS. In this article we’ll discuss a few ways that a reliable WMS can support your business’ sales efforts and actually help to strength them.
As ecommerce continues to grow as the shopping and purchasing method of choice for consumers real-time data becomes imperative. A WMS offers this type of data visibility. For example, it can give information about how much inventory you have for certain products, or which products have lingered in inventory for a longer than expected period. This can help sales and marketing to create close out or sales promotions. It can also help to avoid backorders on popular products.
Beyond simply tracking stock levels a WMS, like Akatia’s WAM for Salesforce, can track these levels automatically and set re-order stock minimums. The system can then send an automatic alert of which product needs to be re-plenished, so you’ll always have those best sellers in stock, thus avoiding missed sales opportunities.
As well most ecommerce platforms support integrations with other systems like a WMS. Akatia for example has integrated WAM with online ecommerce platforms like Shopify to help support inventory and order processes. By integrating your WMS to your online sales channel, inventory information can be pushed to your site when inventory is either depleted by an order or increased when you re-stock. Keeping everything up to date in real-time.
Repeat business always plays a big role in repeat customers. Acquiring new customers is always harder from an adverting and marketing perspective, but repeat client’s already have an existing relationship with your brand and products. A WMS is part of the way you can keep your new customers happy, as well as those who are returning to place new orders. WMS’s ensure that you’re efficiently fulfilling on orders on time. With Akaita’s WAM you can introduce checks and balances to make sure that you are fulfilling orders accurately while reducing processing turnaround times. Not only that but WAM can automatically retrieve carrier rates so that you can choose the best rates for you and your customers, print shipping labels, and share tracking information.
Your inventory comes at a cost to you as well. Each product that you store in your warehouse has an inherent cost to it beyond the price you paid for it. Overhead such as salaries, utility bills, property rent, packaging materials, the list goes on. If a product isn’t selling well it inherently costs you more the longer it sits on a shelf. A WMS can help you with this by keeping track of these costs based on the length of time it has been sitting on that shelf. These analytics can then help sales and marketing to target these products for either promotion or close out. It will also help promote better buying decisions and if you need to perhaps cut a product loose from your offerings in the future.
A good WMS can have a major impact on your sales. From generating growth and promoting high demand products, tracking and sustaining inventory levels, integrating with your sales channel, keeping customers happy, and keeping track of costs. This type of inventory management can thus help you to take better business decisions, improve your bottom-line, and help support your business goals.