It’s true what they say – hindsight is 20/20. But what if hindsight is providing you clues right now? If your business is growing, orders keep coming in, and you’re contemplating expanding to new sales channels, you’re probably already seeing many of these signs. And in case you’re still on the fence about implementing drop ship and marketplace automation for your multichannel retail business, let us help you out! Here are 10 clues that it’s time for you to start automating:
1. Manual Data Entry Causing Too Many Errors
This should be enough of a clue to move on to drop ship and marketplace automation. Manually entering all your data into various systems is tedious and time-consuming – leading to human error. If you’re seeing too many errors popping up and spending way too much time fixing them, it’s definitely time to move forward!
2. Overselling or Out-of-Stock Products
Overselling products ultimately results in a system shut-down or chaotic environment. If systems aren’t connected, inventory updates fail. And that’s a huge problem! Customers (and retailers) can’t rely on your brand and will begin to complain or stop buying and possibly lead to being banned from selling on that retailer. Don’t let missed sales opportunities ruin your business because of a lack of automation.
3. Overworked Employees & Wasted Time
If you find yourself forced to hire an in-house team – with them spending hours upon hours manually inputting online order invoices into ERP, accounting, or POS systems, you’re doing it wrong. This can result in overworked employees and wasted time. The writing’s on the wall – or invoices – here!
4. Growing the Business Has Been Put Aside
When your employees spend more than half of their time manually entering data between systems, it takes away from tasks required to grow your business. You should be focusing on growing your company, not just trying to “keep up” with current orders.
5. System Crash Failures
Systems crashing can lead to devastating losses, including all order data. This is a MAJOR issue that can cost up to thousands of dollars and hundreds of work hours. To avoid working double-time to enter and process online orders, automate drop ship and marketplace operations.
6. Shipping Order Errors
This is another huge clue that it’s time to ditch the manual input and switch to automation. Not only do these small errors hurt the business, but you’ll also reap the percussion of angry customers for late or unreceived shipments. Simply put – manually entering the data slows down your shipping and delivery process.
7. Lower Customer Satisfaction
We brushed the surface with this one already, but it’s worth saying again because it’s that important! Customer Satisfaction should be priority #1. When customer satisfaction lowers due to shipping, delivery, and inaccurate order information, it can drastically hurt your brand and your relationships with retailers. Shoppers today expect quick and easy – not slow and difficult. If you don’t deliver, they’ll find someone else who can!
8. Losing to Your Competitors
If you aren’t sold where your customers shop, then your competition will be. Don’t lose customers and brand strength because you are unable to efficiently manage your retail connections. If you are losing customers to your competitors because you just can’t keep up – then this is a sure sign that you need to implement drop ship and marketplace automation.It’s time to rise up and become the business others are losing customers to!
9. Incomplete Product Descriptions & SKUs
When data is not properly managed across sales channels, product information and SKUs are affected. Any change in product information will need to be updated and pulled regularly to combat gaps in product information, including sale prices and inventory amounts. It becomes difficult to track and leaves customers with less than desired product information. Cymbio’s platform automatically adjusts the descriptions and titles to meet retailer specifications, including required colors, bullets, material care and instructions.
10. Connecting & Selling on Different Systems Becomes Too Difficult
Our last clue is fairly obvious, but it’s a doozy! If it’s becoming too hard to connect and sell on retailers with different systems, data sets, and protocols, you NEED to use Cymbio! There’s no other way to put it. If it sometimes takes between 4-9 months to go LIVE on various retailers, resulting in a loss of sales for you; it’s time! One connection to Cymbio handles the complete retail set-up from A-Z for marketplaces, drop ship programs and boutiques.
Cymbio’s Simple Integration Solution
We’ve just laid out 10 clues for you, and let’s be honest – experiencing only one or two of them is not ideal. So if you’re ready for a seamless and easy retail connection process, Cymbio can help! By eliminating manual processes, you’ll be up and running quickly and ready to watch those sales soar!