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WAREHOUSING, HANDLING & STORAGE S
tarting up as a retailer is easy – it’s managing growth that’s tricky. Entrepreneurial individuals can leverage any one of over 400 marketplaces to build up a brand
and access global customers. Stock can be stored in a single location and orders quickly fulfilled by hand. But that’s just the start. Successful business expansion depends upon the ability to sustain customer experience and brand value irrespective of the number of additional customers, channels, or product lines. And that is where a great business – and business owner - can start to unravel. Identifying the right time to invest and scale up the business to the next level is difficult. But there are often signs the current model is beginning to creak. Whether it is spending evenings and weekends trying to keep up with orders, making mistakes in order processing and inventory that are leading to customer service issues, or feeling overwhelmed by a spiralling cost base, it is time to invest in technology before growth risks derailing the business.
EXPANDING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES The number of UK retail companies is on the rise, with a 14 per cent increase in five years, resulting in an additional 27,445 new companies in the sector. Many of these companies have exploited the power of online marketplaces to take an idea from the kitchen table to potentially a global audience. Entrepreneurs have mastered product design, sourcing, and marketing; they have leveraged small start-up capital investments to build inventory, create the right pricing model, and curate a brand. All of this typically uses basic tools such as spreadsheets. But what happens next? When customers
like the product, sales soar and feedback is great, how does a business take the next step? Multi-channel retail is really important – with 70 per cent of customer searches originating
Chris Timmer, CEO of Linnworks explains why an e-commerce platform that seamlessly manages inventory and order fulfilment across multiple marketplaces, third-party logistics, and couriers, as well as providing a real-time view of business performance, is essential to safeguarding both customers' and owners' retail experiences.
on marketplaces and social media- but each additional marketplace adds complexity and risk. How can the order process be managed effectively? Where should stock be located? Are third-party logistics (3PL) providers the best option? Which courier’s price and service delivery model provides the best fit for customer expectations? And is it possible to provide customers with the full visibility of order status throughout? These decisions are daunting – and it can be
tempting to stay small in order to control. But realistically, is the business really under control? Or is the business owner working 7 days a week simply to keep the wheels turning? Any growing small business will hit a point when change is inevitable. But what needs to change and where should the investment be focused? Adding people is expensive, inflexible, and higher risk, especially when sales can be cyclical at best, and volatile at worst. Extending the number of marketplaces the business sells through is simple on paper but can be a nightmare in practice, especially if a retailer is still trying to handle the entire process manually and can be a fast track to losing hard-won customer loyalty.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING To scale without adding unnecessary risk or unacceptable cost, a retailer needs to connect
and automate every aspect of the e-commerce process. With a flexible pricing model that aligns cost to value, dedicated Connected CommerceOps software affordably provides a level of cross-marketplace efficiency with inventory management and fulfilment excellence that cannot be achieved using multiple spreadsheets or home-grown databases. By operationalising the entire e-commerce
process, a small retailer can seamlessly scale up while sustaining a high-quality customer experience. With a single, reconciled view of inventory across warehouses and third-party logistics providers, the risk associated with expanding across multiple marketplaces is mitigated by enabling efficient order fulfilment processes that truly meet each customer’s expectations. Leveraging an ecosystem of integrated solutions to include pricing, listing capabilities, or shipping to provide customers with full visibility of order status and delivery, with access to marketplace channels, the entire e- commerce process can be executed holistically. The retailer’s reach is extended while safeguarding the quality of experience that is at the heart of successful, profitable growth.
RETAIN FOCUS WITH INTELLIGENCE Furthermore, Connected CommerceOps delivers new levels of insight into every part of
COMBATTING GROWING PAINS WITHIN SMALL RETAILERS
26 FEBRUARY 2024 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
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