By Eric Graf, Senior Partner Marketing Manager
Take a step up from conventional software and spreadsheets and scale your business with an enterprise resource planning system.
As any business begins to scale, they often experience growing pains that make it clear it’s time to upgrade to more sophisticated systems and tools to manage and streamline operations. When systems start to falter and teams are stretched thin with operational work, it’s often a sign to explore more robust solutions.
For retailers in particular, conventional software and homegrown spreadsheets bog down teams and often have a negative impact on customer experiences.
So where’s a good place to start when looking to upgrade ecommerce systems and operations? Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
ERPs help manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations – all of which are integral to delivering superior consumer experiences. Here are five salient features of an ERP system that help expedite corporate growth without compromising operational efficiency:
5 ways an ERP helps scale your ecommerce business
- Financial management: An ERP consolidates financial data from disparate sources, enabling real-time monitoring and analysis of financial performance, cash flow, and budgeting. This facilitates more informed decision-making and supports long-term financial planning.
- Inventory tracking: ERPs provide end-to-end visibility into inventory levels, allowing businesses to optimize stock levels, reduce carrying costs, and minimize stockouts. This enhances customer satisfaction and promotes revenue growth.
- Quality control: According to a study by ShipStation, many ecommerce companies are suffering from quality control issues post-COVID. ERP systems streamline quality control processes, ensuring you can adapt quickly to changes in the market, as well as adhere to industry standards and compliance requirements. It also supports the identification and remediation of quality issues, minimizing the risk of product recalls and reputational damage.
- Process automation: ERPs automate repetitive, manual tasks, reducing the likelihood of errors and enabling staff to focus on higher-value activities. This leads to improved productivity, cost savings, and superior operational efficiency.
- Security: ERP systems incorporate robust security protocols to protect sensitive business data and maintain compliance with stringent data protection regulations.
Integrating an ERP with your existing technology stack is critical for unlocking its full potential. For instance, connecting ShipStation with your ERP, along with other key applications, will eliminate manual processes and data entry errors that can hamper customer experiences and slow your team’s productivity. Seamless integration ensures that relevant order and shipping information is automatically routed to your inventory and shipping teams, warehouse, or third-party logistics (3PL) provider.
To achieve this level of automation, integration experts Jitterbit – a trusted ShipStation partner – can help establish automated workflows within your tech stack, empowering you to maximize profitability on every sale.
