There is no denying that searching for ‘ERP’ brings up an overwhelming amount of information. These search results can also be confusing considering the fact that almost every website offers a different definition. However, as confusing as this can be, it does highlight the fact that an ERP, whichever way it is defined, is relatively flexible.
Techopedia defines mobile compatibility as a site that can be viewed and used on a mobile device, including mobile phones and tablets. This means that the functions of a website have been modified to accommodate the specifications of a smaller screen, including the command functions, interactive functions, the screen loading speed, the colours, and the size of the text. Due to the high number of mobile users in South Africa – more than 21 million – mobile compatibility is an imperative step in effective business strategy.
In March 2017, tracking firm Effective Measure released its Mobile in South Africa Report for 2017, revealing that almost 70% of South Africans use their mobile phones to browse the web. This means that many organisations are underestimating just how much time consumers are spending on their phones. CNBC has determined that, by 2018, Chinese consumers will spend more time on their mobile phones than they do watching television, and more consumers are using their mobile phones to purchase goods online.
Making business decisions are more informed when accurate data can be analysed and applied. Here are some inspirational quotes about data which will give great insight as to why having accurate date is crucial for your business.
Online based learning (e-Learning) is fast becoming a thriving industry in educational technology, with the number of companies using online learning, increasing every day.
Below is a guide to building a successful e-commerce self service environment, for your trade supplies customers.
In the retail industry today, it is not only your products, but your service, that keep customers coming back. Customer retention is an important part of any business strategy, why not improve what you have to offer with a robust solution for your business.
What can an ERP solution do for your retail environment?
ERP offers centralised data and functionality, so that you can improve the flow of data and facilitate business processes throughout the business. ERP enables you to streamline operations, diminish costs, increase productivity and improve overall customer service.
All in one solution
Many retailers still use multiple solutions that don’t fully communicate with each other for different aspects of their business. An ERP solution integrates all business functions, starting with your customer activity all the way to financial reporting, into a single system and allows them to communicate with each other. As a retailer that has multiple stores, you can have a view of all stores, assisting in better reporting and management, giving you the capability to better manage and identify the requirements for your retail store, based on actual customer needs. The Business Intelligence built into an ERP solution, allows you to derive real intelligence from your data, making it a powerful and effective sales tool to your business.
Stock management
With an Integrated ERP solution in place, management of stock becomes easier, with the added benefits of categorising and grouping new items, implementing special offer campaigns, stock counting, automated replenishment of inventory, with the convenience and accuracy of built in forecasting tools that takes the guess work away, as the projections are focused on actual calculations.
Service your customers effectively
With an ERP solution in place, you have much more customer information at your fingertips. Gain insight to your customer buying trends, so that you can build exclusive offers around customer needs and reward regular customers with relevant loyalty programs.
The festive season is just around the corner, follow some of the tips below to make sure your business gets the most out of the festive season:
Make sure your website is festive season ready by updating it with all your current and upcoming promotions.
Shoppers are doing their research well in advance of the festive season, searching online for the best deals, wanting to avoid the holiday rush and to allow for enough time when it comes to delivery schedules.
Are your servers, partners and employees festive season ready?
Test the server load capacity and make sure it can handle the surge of traffic, especially when running your promotions, to not lose out on the holiday rush sales. If you're hosted on-premises, review your past performance metrics and ensure that you have bandwidth and capacity for the expected spikes. Also consider the increase in demand you will experience over the holiday season and make sure you are able to keep up with the demand with contingency plans and having staff on hand to assist shoppers should they experience difficulties online. Make sure that your shipping partner is on board with your delivery expectations.
Is your website mobile responsive?
Shopping trends have adapted to move to mobile, with the majority of mobile shoppers abandoning a website if it's not mobile friendly.
Test your website speed
Web performance is key. Put tools in place to alert you to slow or low performing pages.
Shoppers who purchase online expect faster page loading times and research shows that delayed loading times have resulted in shoppers cancelling their online purchase mid-way during the final checkout.
Stock up
Ensure that you have adequate stock to meet shopper’s demands. Always have a contingency offer available, should you sell out.
Test your checkout
Test payment processes from product selection to check-out to ensure that shoppers have a fast and efficient purchasing experience.
Online product imagery
Image quality is key when making an online purchase decision. Shoppers are not able to test or touch your products. It is essential to have imagery of your products that gives the shopper a sense of feeling, seeing and holding your product. It always helps to have product photos taken from different angles and product descriptions that sell, not just describe.
Run marketing campaigns
It is advisable to keep a shopper database with email addresses and a mobile contact number on hand. Emails and SMS campaigns are a cost effective and easy way of keeping shoppers connected and aware of trading hours and special promotions over the festive season. Consider offering free shipping over the festive season to further incentivise shoppers to shop with you.
Kerridge Commercial Systems (http://www.kerridgecs.com) has been assisting the international distribution sector for many years with the provision of integrated software solutions. Its flagship product is K8, business intelligence software which has found particular success as builders, plumbers and timber merchant software. K8 is much more than distribution software, however, as companies around the world rely on it during every step of the business cycle.
The varied functionality of the K8 system is behind its business intelligence capability. Use K8 as warehouse management software and your company can ensure this vital foundation of the supply chain is organised. Also used as stock management software, K8 helps companies avoid holding too much costly stock while always being able to fulfil customer orders. Leverage K8 as distributor software, as it is arguably best known for within the industry, and the entire supply chain is streamlined.
The point of sale is another area where K8 can assist, acting as highly advanced EPOS software and enhancing the customer experience. Finally, K8 helps all levels of management to analyse essential business data and utilise it in its advanced reporting tools. Acting as business intelligence software, K8 can provide management with a greater insight into both individual areas of the business and an overview of the organisation as a whole.
Kerridge Commercial Systems continues to develop the K8 system, always building on its impressive functionality with every new version released. Every version of K8 is designed to be inherently intuitive to use, but Kerridge Commercial Systems also ensures that a training team is always on hand to answer any questions that may arise.
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the term used to describe the data and systems a company uses to track and monitor the interaction you have with your clients, and their purchasing practices. This data is designed to enable you to target more effectively the brand experience and messages you send to your customers with a view to establishing and maintaining a positive rapport with your clients.
In any given day your workforce is engaging with customers, new, old or potential. Being able to tailor your message or give an answer to your clients is of great importance to ensure your marketing spend is put to its optimum use. So how do you know what is the right message to send to your clients? By analysing the figures you can identify accurate purchasing trends and what works on the day to day front line of your own business and making sure that the results of the analysis can make a real and positive difference to streamlining the efficiencies of the business.
It is essential that the focus of the business shifts from product to purchaser. Maximising the potential in any business opportunity comes down to understanding what makes your customer want or need to buy your product or service and to this end CRM software can quantify the knowledge you have harboured in more general terms regarding what gets your target audience to commit to purchase and moreover to repeat the transaction. CRM Software plays an intrinsic part in efficiently engaging with the target market and ensuring contact can be made when you have a message to impart.
CRM can also help you with future forecasting. Staying that one step ahead of your customers’ evolving needs is essential. With Customer relationship management software such as the K8 modular system you will be able to read the purchasing patterns of your customers and ensure supply chain is in a position to deliver more of what your customers want in the future.
It’s particularly important to engage your customers with excellent service which is fast, secure and convenient to ensure a positive experience and increase the possibility of recommendation and repeat purchasing behaviours. Working SMART becomes infinitely easier by identifying what you need to support your key functions. A CRM modular system such as the Kerridge CS K8 can provide timely and usable data allowing insights into improved customer service by improved customer profiling and targeting, adding cross-sell and upsell opportunities, reducing costs, and increasing share of customer and overall profitability amongst many other things.
