In this post we point you to a couple of useful resources to help you make sure you ready to capitalise in Q4.
A few weeks ago we presented a session at Tamebay Live on how to define and execute ecommerce growth stategies. In the session we presented the findings of a survey we conducted into the biggest barriers to long term ecommerce growth. One of the questions asks respondents how far out they plan. The most popular answer was 6 months.
With that in mind, it’s about 6 months until mid-December, so it’s the perfect time to share with you some resources to help you make the kinds of decisions now that will best set you up for success in Q4. Your work for Amazon Prime Day on 21-22 June is probably mostly done, so why not wrench yourself away from the here and now and think about peak, if you haven’t already.
Your first thought should be around automation. Our customers have generally found that it’s the addition of a second online channel that gets them thinking about automation. Being present on multiple online channels is an excellent way to maximise revenues while also spreading your risk against uncertainty. The downside of being multichannel is that you have multiple places for monitoring listings, orders, stock levels and so on. And when you’re dealing with peak volumes, these issues are magnified.
Investing in a technology platform that will automate your business processes and streamline your productivity – or perhaps upgrading the system you have and ‘replatforming’ to something more robust and industrial – is probably one of your most important decisions, and it’s not a decision you should take lightly. Choosing a system over the summer months will ensure you’re fully up to speed before the madness of September and Q4 kick in.
We’ve produced a short ebook to help you through this process. It works for any provider and any system you go with. It’s called ‘Buying Multichannel Ecommerce Software – 7 Things for Brands and Merchants to Think About.’ Download the ebook here and if you cover the 7 things you’ll be well on your way towards a good decision and a great investment.
Your second thought should be around business intelligence, or BI for short. In the survey we referred to at the top of this post we found that “We need better visibility into how the business is performing” was the second most popular lesson learned for 2021 and beyond (the first was “We need to be able to diversify across more channels”, which we’ve already addressed with a system to automate your multichannel management).
BI tools give you easy access to accurate and recent data on how your business is doing, in a format that helps you with your decision-making rather than a format that requires more number-crunching. Good BI can help you with both the good and the bad. It can highlight products, channels or regions that are doing well for you, so that you can double down there. The better tools can also tell you where you’re making the most profit. On the flip side, BI can also tell you where you’re having credit, refunds or supplier problems, where your stock is running low or where you’re losing money or barely breaking even on every sale.
Early and accurate access to these kinds of insights allow you to act quickly. So what kinds of data should you be collecting and monitoring, and in what areas of your business? we’ve published another ebook on this, and it’s called ‘Know Your Data – A Guide to the Insights You Need from the Different Areas of Your Business.’ You can get the ebook here.
Let’s close this post on thinking 6 months ahead with some good news. You can combine automation and BI into one strategic project, since the best multichannel systems will also have good BI. In 6 months’ time you could be reaping the benefits of increased productivity and increased insight into performance during your most important quarter of the year. Good luck!
Whether it’s automation, BI or both, now is always a good time to get in touch and schedule a no obligation call.
