Investing in technology is an effective way to increase productivity and profitability within your business. Wholesale Software with integration abilities allows you to focus on the more important goals of your business such as generating more sales, reducing labor costs, and building trust with your customers. In this post, we cover functionality that you should look for in your next system to help your business scale.
Generate More Sales
As you grow as a business, you are constantly looking for ways to generate more sales. First thoughts may go towards hiring an additional salesperson or updating your website and social media to attract more leads. We’ve compared the benefits and disadvantages of hiring a salesperson versus investing in software before and we concluded that software can help you achieve the same goals – if not more. When you’re implementing wholesale software, it might be a good idea to start exploring other selling channels. Blue Link’s robust wholesale ERP software allows you to seamlessly integrate with your eCommerce website. Integration is available for many eCommerce platforms like Magento and Shopify, as well as marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay all while having your inventory be up to date in real-time. If your wholesale distribution business specializes in B2B sales, Blue Link offers a B2B Online Order Portal for customers to place their orders through a self-service portal. Since the order portal is synced in real-time with your Blue Link ERP system, inventory and pricing information will always be accurate and in real-time. Both customers and sales reps can use the tool to submit an order through the portal which will automatically create a sales order in Blue Link. Your customers will now be able to place an order whenever they want. Other selling channels include brick-and-mortar where a POS (Point-of-Sale) may be required. Your POS system and ERP system should be fully integrated so any new orders from the POS are automatically uploaded into your backend ERP.
Reduce Labor Costs
Investing in new technology reduces manual processes and allows your employees to complete tasks quicker with fewer steps and allows them to focus on more high-value tasks. For example, think about Accounts Receivable (A/R). Instead of manually finding accounts that are overdue and then one-by-one contacting the customer to get them to pay, Blue Link will create a report with this information and then automatically email customers that have an account overdue x amount of dollars. Above we talk about the B2B Online Order Portal which is another perfect example of minimizing task time. Since the online order automatically creates a sales order in Blue Link, it avoids the need to re-key the same information. Your sales reps can now spend more time on customer one-on-one interactions, building relationships and upselling products.
Another great way to automate processes in your warehouse is by implementing Blue Link’s Mobile Scanning Application that automates the picking, packing, shipping and receiving process. Some wholesale distribution businesses have their employees manually search the warehouse for products but what happens when you go from 10 orders a day to 100? Improve your warehouse operations by eliminating the need for paper in the warehouse, reducing human error, and making searching for inventory easier.
Build Trust
When we think about building trust with our customers we tend to think that a CRM System (Customer Relationship Management) is necessary. But, did you know that Wholesale ERP Software will also have contact management features available plus additional functionality that can take a customer's experience from good to great?
Protection: With the acceleration of eCommerce, we see more people shopping online now more than ever before which means that being PCI compliant is more important now than ever before. It’s necessary to store your customers' credit card information with an encrypted credit card storage vault. All merchants who accept credit cards need to be compliant with PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) in order to protect the cardholder’s data. When customers know there is little risk for their personal information to be stolen, they are more trusting and likely to shop with you.
Shipping: As we see many online orders being placed because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, we also see a lot of distribution within the shipping industry. While there isn’t much you can do about shipping delays, you can choose the best shipping method that works for you and your customers and integrate shipping carriers directly into your ERP, again avoiding the need to re-key the same information. When communicating accurate shipping times whether the product arrives in 3 days or 3 weeks, if the shipping timeline is accurate, the customers' expectations are met.
Recalls: If you work in an industry such as food distribution or medical supplies, you should be tracking lot numbers that are coming in and out of your warehouse and your wholesale software should have the ability to do this for you. Product recalls are a harsh reality and an inconvenience that businesses need to face swiftly. Blue Link’s ERP Software allows you to create lot recall reports, if you have a product recall on a lot number, you will be given all the information you will need to handle it appropriately. Being able to handle business disruptions and communicating with your customers is necessary for building trust. Things happen and customers know this, but they want to know your business can handle the issue timely and effectively.
