As retailers move into the final months of the year, the pressure begins to build. Winter demand, seasonal promotions and the run-up to Christmas can all bring increased activity both in-store and online. For hardware retailers, this is also the time when inefficiencies that are manageable during quieter periods can quickly become much bigger problems.
The question isn’t simply whether your website can handle more visitors. It’s whether your entire commerce operation is connected and ready to handle increased demand.
When More Orders Mean More Admin
Growth in online sales should be good news. But if every additional order creates additional manual work for your team, increased sales can quickly expose weaknesses in your systems.
When an eCommerce platform operates separately from your ERP or ePOS system, staff may find themselves checking stock manually, re-entering orders, updating prices across different systems or resolving discrepancies between what the customer sees online and what is actually available.
During peak periods, when staff are already under pressure, these additional tasks become particularly costly.
A connected commerce approach changes this. By integrating your eCommerce platform with the systems already at the heart of your business, information can flow automatically between online and offline operations.
Give Customers Confidence in What They See
Stock availability becomes increasingly important when demand rises. A customer who sees an item available online expects that information to be accurate, whether the product is sitting in one location or across a network of branches.
Integration allows stock information to be synchronised between your ERP/ ePOS and eCommerce platform, helping customers make informed purchasing decisions while reducing the need for staff to manually confirm availability.
The same applies to pricing. Promotions, product updates and customer-specific pricing can become difficult to manage when information has to be maintained in multiple places.
This is particularly important for hardware retailers serving both trade and retail customers. Trade customers expect to see their agreed pricing and account information when they log in, while retail customers need a simple, seamless online shopping experience.
One Business, Not Separate Channels Customers increasingly move between online and offline channels without thinking of them as separate experiences. They might research a product online before visiting a branch, check availability from their phone or place an order online with a retailer they have dealt with for years.
For the retailer, delivering that experience depends on having connected systems behind the scenes. The objective should be simple: your website shouldn’t operate as a separate business. It should be an extension of the business you already run.
Prepare Before the Pressure Arrives
Peak trading isn’t the time to discover that systems don’t communicate effectively. September and October provide an opportunity for retailers to examine where unnecessary manual processes remain and identify where better integration could remove friction for both customers and staff.
Paul Montwill, CEO, Magico says “At Magico, we have spent years working with Irish hardware retailers and understanding the complexities of the sector. Through the AB Commerce platform, we have developed mature integrations with ERP and ePOS systems including GenetiQ (formally Intact) Agility, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics Navision”.
“As peak and winter trading approaches, the retailers best prepared for increased demand won’t necessarily be those with the most technology. They’ll be the ones whose technology works together, allowing their people to spend less time managing systems and more time serving customers and growing the business”.
Visit www.magico.com for further information.
