Brands Archives

Zafino

Mindi Chisholm, CEO of jewelry brand Zafino, found herself facing that exact question in the middle of a global pandemic. Fortunately, with the help of Cin7 and SMB Consultants, Mindi seamlessly transitioned her technology stack in a way that allowed her business to continue to flourish.

After finding and implementing the right solution, Mindi could get out of the day-to-day minutiae of her business, hire new team members, and focus her time on planning the brand’s future growth.

Starting over again

Before Mindi added a dedicated inventory solution to her tech stack, she managed the business herself and used her accounting software, Xero, to handle inventory. As sales grew, she realized that she needed software that could scale, so she turned to TradeGecko and worked with SMB Consultants to help her implement the new software.

Mindi worked closely with Jeff Atizado, CEO and co-founder of SMB Consultants to successfully implement TradeGecko and pivot from a wholesale business to a successful multichannel retailer.

Unfortunately, Mindi’s excitement about the newly configured inventory solution was cut short. In 2020, shortly after Mindi had set up TradeGecko (later QuickBooks Commerce) to run her inventory, she received the news that the software was going to be discontinued in 12 months.

“[It] was heartbreaking,” she says, “because I put a lot of time and money into that program and then [had to] start all over again.”

TradeGecko’s looming sunset date meant that Mindi now needed to figure out a way to keep her success going while replacing critical software. Still, she chose to look at the bright side: “In starting over again, I was in a better place of understanding what a business system was capable of.”

Given the success of their first implementation project together, Mindi turned to Jeff to help her figure out the best inventory solution for her growing business.

Making the switch to Cin7

SMB Consultants was familiar with Mindi’s business and knew she needed a reliable inventory solution that would enable her to maintain a multichannel business model, expand into new countries, and automate inventory so she could scale without adding excess manual work.

Given these requirements, Jeff recommended Cin7 to replace TradeGecko and began working with Mindi to get through the onboarding process.

Although switching to a new software provider can be daunting for any business owner — and a common excuse not to make desperately needed software changes — Mindi remembers it as a smooth ride:

“Because we’d done all the discovery, Jeff’s team knew all of the key things that I needed to tick off so that when we went and did the workshops, we had those lists all in place. It was very methodical, the way they approached the rollout and the education for me. I was grateful for that.”

Now, Mindi is grateful for something else: the fact that her business is in a position to grow, really grow, through a multichannel presence and that her five-year plan is in good hands.

Cin7 was an even better fit for Zafino, enabling her to reduce manual processes even more and use real-time data to better understand her business.

“[Cin7 has] taken a lot of workload off me because it’s now so systemized and running so beautifully.”

Since making the switch, Mindi’s been able to take on extra staff to manage the day-to-day, allowing her to focus on strategy and growth. With Cin7, Mindi gets real-time visibility into stock levels and sales trends across all her channels.

“I can now step away and go, let’s really climb into my stock, let’s really have a look at forecasting, let’s look at my obsolete stock that’s not moving.”

Instead of spending her time keeping orders flowing and managing the details of inventory work, Mindi says, “I’m working on my business now, not in it.”

Setting the stage for growth

For his part, Jeff considers Zafino a real success story:

“It’s like 10 years of innovation and disruption happened within a couple of years. Because Mindi was able to centralize her inventory, she’s retargeting to different markets and integrating into online marketplaces. Now she’s expanding and moving internationally.”

The guiding principle for SMB Consultants, he says, is to “make it easy for [business owners] to make sure the time they have is spent doing the right things.”

There were a lot of packages that had to work together. After switching from TradeGecko, Cin7 became the central platform keeping Zafino running, along with Pinch payments and Airwallex.

Xero handled the accounting, while Shopify and Starshipit did orders and shipping. With nine stores and an ambition to roll out in other marketplaces, Zafino is now on Shopify Plus.

“If you’ve got a really well-running machine, a well-running system, it just means that when growth comes, you can cope,” says Mindi.

For Zafino, Cin7 is more than just an inventory system. With the help of Cin7’s seamless integrations and Jeff’s implementation insights, Mindi now has a solution that serves as the nucleus of her business. “Literally, every part of my business plugs into Cin7. It’s the hub.”

Now that Mindi’s found an inventory solution that she can rely on, she’s free to look forward and work towards continuing the growth she started during the pandemic. She says, “I know that my five-year plan will be in good hands with the systems that we’ve got currently.”

Discover what connected inventory can do for your brand. Explore Cin7 today.

B2B Online Stores Inventory Management Software

Best Cloud-Based Inventory Management Software

What is the B2B2C model? What should you consider in setting up a B2B2C model for your business?

Posted on February 27, 2023 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

The U.S. Census Bureau News reported that the retail ecommerce sales for the first quarter of 2022 crossed $250 billion, an increase of 2.4% from the fourth quarter of 2021. It represented 14.3% of the total retail sales. The B2B2C model is the latest addition to the ecommerce scene. Let’s learn some more about the B2B2C model.

You have seen businesses that operate on the business-to-business (B2B) model. You have also seen companies that work on the business-to-customer (BTC or B2C) model. Both the models have been successful in their own ways. Now, a new model is creating waves in the ecommerce market – business-to-business-to-customer (B2B2C). If the B2B and B2C models were successful, why should you involve another business between you and the customer? Let’s talk some more and find out about the B2B2C model.

What is a B2B2C commerce model?

A B2B2C commerce model is where one business (B1) involves another business (B2) to sell goods or services to its customers (C). If any of the involved companies use the internet to sell goods or services, it is called the B2B2C ecommerces model. In the B2B model, the businesses sell their goods or services to other companies. And in B2C, the organizations sell their wares directly to the end consumers. The B2B2C commerce model is the culmination of both these models.

So, what was the need to involve another business in the channel?

The market was limited when business was done mainly through physical channels. But with the development of ecommerce, suddenly, the markets became wider and the possibilities for business unlimited. However, it was not possible to have it all without a little bit of assistance. If one company had the product and the other company had the means to reach the consumers, they could join hands to increase the business multifold.

The following figure shows the concept of the B2B2C commerce model:

Figure 1: A visual representation of the B2B2C ecommerce model

The first company provides the goods under its brand name, whereas the other company provides additional services, including lead generation, transport, credit, maintenance, and digital payment services.

In Figure 1, you can observe the following steps happening:

The manufacturer provides goods to the network seller to sell.
The network seller provides customer information and sales platform to the manufacturer in return for annual fees.
The network seller uses the services of a payment gateway to receive payment securely.
The customer buys the goods from the network seller, fully aware that the seller is not the manufacturer.
The customer makes payment and receives goods from the network seller.
The network seller makes the payment to the manufacturer.

This is a classic example of the B2B2C ecommerce model. You might have gone through a similar process when buying goods from sellers, including Amazon, Flipkart, or eBay.

How are B2B2C and white-labelling different?

One shouldn’t confuse B2B2C with white labelling. White-labeling is a process where the company manufactures the goods without its brand name and sells them to other businesses. These companies sell the goods under their own brand names. So, basically, the consumers are unaware of the origin of the goods. On the other hand, in B2B2C, the customers know the goods’ origins well.

For instance, some drug manufacturers provide generic medicines to other organizations. These organizations pack the drugs under their own brand name and sell them to consumers. Consumers are unaware that the drugs of two or more brand names come from the same manufacturer. They purchase goods trusting the brand name. This is called white-labelling. And in turn, the brand holder ensures the quality of the goods. On the contrary, if you are buying Nike sneakers from Amazon, you know that Nike is the manufacturer, not Amazon. This process is called B2B2C ecommerce.

Examples of real-life B2B2C commerce models

If you think that B2B2C is a concept in its initial stage, you might want to rethink it. Many organizations use B2B2C ecommerce in today’s market. Here are some of the examples:

Intel Inside

Intel manufactures computer processors. Intel has teamed up with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Dell, HP, and Lenovo, for marketing/branding purposes. The synergy brings trustworthiness among the customers and thus increases sales.

Amazon

Amazon is an online platform for trading any type of goods. The sellers can retain their brand name while using the network base, logistic facilities, and payment gateways provided by Amazon. This increases their turnover. In return, Amazon gets fees for the facilities they provide.

App Store

Apple has devised a plan to help its customers download reliable applications and games from an Apple-approved space. It is called the App Store. It ultimately allows Apple to earn more revenue.

Affirm

The US giant Affirm is a financial organization that facilitates the customers in buying goods at present and paying later. Affirm collaborates with men’s and women’s fashion, sports and fitness goods, jewellery, electronics, and furniture brands to assist consumers in buying.

UberEats

UberEats partners with the local restaurants to deliver food to the customers. The customers can enjoy the food served by any restaurant from their homes. The restaurants make more sales than they can do remotely. Uber Eats gets a commission from every delivery they make.

What are the advantages of the B2B2C commerce model?

Many companies are morphing their businesses with others to reap the benefits of the B2B2C commerce model. Every organization has something to offer to the other and two organizations would merge depending on their strengths and weaknesses. Although the advantages of the B2B2C model vary in every synergy, here are some of the common ones:

Scaling

The primary goal of any business is to maximize profits, and scalability is a way in which they can achieve their goal. Scalability represents the ability of an organization to increase the output by adding resources. Instead of trying to do everything on their own, companies can adopt the B2B2C model to achieve scalability. They can partner with an existing company already providing the given services to increase growth.

Digitalization

Digitalization is the way to scale your business. You can widen your customer base by taking your business online. However, going online needs additional setup and management capabilities that are not available to everyone. Partnering with other companies specializing in these fields is a way to go forward. For example, instead of selling on your website, you can start selling on ecommerce platforms like Amazon or eBay to test whether you receive a good response. They can give you access to a client base you didn’t have before.

Brand recognition

In the B2B2C commerce model, you can sell your goods with your brand name. As your customer base grows, your brand image grows too. More and more people will recognize your products, and their reviews can bring in more customers. You can take on any competition when your brand value increases.

Cost control

Scaling begs for massive investment. Instead of starting an in-house unit, if you collaborate with another team to provide the facilities you require, you can save on setup and maintenance costs. Moreover, the cost of consumer data collection can be shared by all the relevant parties. Start-up costs, marketing costs, distribution costs, and customer acquisition costs can be controlled drastically by employing the B2B2C model.

Time management

When the manufacturers team up with the maintenance companies, the customers can get faster services. This will encourage the customers to buy from a company that provides faster after-sale services. The same principle applies to the companies that can deliver the products faster.

Customer satisfaction

The customers benefit significantly from the B2B2C models financially and otherwise. The companies can transfer some of the cost-saving to the customers as discounts. The customers also get the facility of dealing with just one company for their multiple needs. So, it becomes more accessible and more straightforward for them. For example, if a customer buys a television from a store and gets the facility of paying in installments from the same store, they would prefer it. Some banks and financial companies provide such facilities to customers in association with the stores or manufacturing companies.

What are the challenges to set up a B2B2C commerce model?

If you are a B2B business or a B2C business transitioning to the B2B2C model might take some time and effort. However, once you are done, the benefits are numerous. Marc Benioff, the chairman, and CEO of Salesforce.com Inc. said, “We really see every B2B company and every B2C company becoming a B2B2C company.” Some of the challenges faced by the businesses in setting up B2B2C commerce or B2B2C ecommerce model are as follows:

Identification of area for B2B2C partnership

As a business owner, you should know whether you can benefit from the B2B2C model. Some products are not suited for such models. Secondly, you should determine whether you can cope with increased demand. If you cannot produce more to keep up with the increased demand, you might face embarrassment in your business circle.

There are mainly two types of business integrations – horizontal and vertical integrations. Horizontal integrations mean increasing the capacity of the pre-existing unit and producing more of what you are already manufacturing. On the other hand, vertical integrations involve taking up one or more stages of the supply chain in addition to the existing one.

One of the significant decisions you should be making is the area where the other business can help you. You should identify the area in which your organization needs support. For instance, if you can sell your product with an extra warranty, or you can sell more if you have a logistic partner, or if you need access to customer databases to identify your customers. By identifying a particular niche, you can narrow down on potential organizations that can help you achieve your goals.

Management of inventory

When you sell on multiple channels, it becomes cumbersome to manage inventory in real-time. Imagine a scenario where you have a brick-and-mortar store and sell your goods on multiple ecommerce platforms. If you run out of stock while simultaneously operating on all, and the stock on ecommerce platforms is not updated, you might find yourself in some soup. You might actually sell more goods than you have on hand. Therefore, inventory management is one of the crucial challenge areas of the B2B2C ecommerce model.

The solution – adopt a reliable inventory management software that will help you maintain real-time inventory of all your products. An inventory management software can help you keep real-time stock of all your goods in your locations.

Brand credit

Sharing the advantages always comes with sharing the limitations. When you adopt the brand name, it might also lead to the issues it faces. And, you don’t want yourself marked ‘guilty by association.’ It is advisable to check every aspect of the company before entering into a contract for B2B2C. If the company’s goals are not in sync with yours, you might want to reconsider the association as your brand image is online.

Software compatibility

When two businesses merge, they both must have IT systems compatible with each other to transition without any hindrance. If not, you should hire an IT expert who can assist you in morphing the two systems seamlessly.

Individual contributions

Both the companies should agree on and lay out clear boundaries of contributions towards the achievement of the common goal. The agreements should be reached with mutual consent and followed by all the parties involved.

Legal agreements

In the case of B2B2C commerce, the businesses involved getting access to private information about the other business. There should be clearly defined legal agreements to protect the stakeholders’ privacy and sensitive information. Legal teams representing both parties can work out solutions that are to be adopted for more robust security.

Final thoughts on B2B2C commerce model

B2B2C commerce models are the way forward in today’s economy. If the businesses want to tackle competition by expanding their prowess, B2B2C models are the perfect solutions. These models provide customer satisfaction akin to B2C models and growth like B2B models. B2B2C ecommerce models can help you elevate your profitability and margins by combining the best of both worlds.

Automating the B2B2C ecommerce model on Cin7 can help you maneuver the process in a simple way. You can click here to know more about the Cin7 software.

Lockabox®

Like a lot of the best product ideas, Lockabox® grew out of a simple day-to-day frustration.

When he was living with hungry roommates, founder Peter Morris found himself asking that question a lot more than he’d have liked. After a long night, Peter would wake up and shuffle to the refrigerator looking for a slice of last night’s pizza for breakfast — only to find that someone had gotten there before him.

“Who stole my lunch?”

The solution Peter came up with was simple: a combination of a simple three-digit combination lock with strong polycarbonate construction. In short, a lockable storage container. Manufactured in the UK, these portable, lightweight boxes are today used for much more than food storage. Their primary product, Lockabox One®, is used by elder care facilities to store patient medications, and office admins are putting desk sensors in Lockaboxes® to gauge office traffic and optimize floor plans.

With annual sales of £2M GBP, Lockabox® expects to grow from a small product seller into a major player by investing in R&D over the next 12 months and expanding the Lockabox® product range. They’re moving from success to success — all with the help of Cin7.

Cin7 and Xero provide a single source of truth

Lockabox® Operations Specialist Rory Fitz-Gerald says he’s “relieved” to have put Cin7 into action in early 2021, especially as the company creates new SKUs and sales increase. Their old system, Rory, says, simply wasn’t up to the task.

“Our previous system was very inaccurate. We could never really trust the information we were working with,” Rory says. “I feel like we can trust what Cin7 is telling us on stock. Which obviously, for a small business like ours, is quite a big advantage.”

Lockabox® relies on Cin7 to help them to reconcile their weekly inventory counts (stocktakes). Without Cin7, coordinating stock between 10 warehouses across the globe could be an incredibly complex task. Luckily, Cin7 makes everything much simpler. Rory easily runs weekly stock and sales reports from Cin7 to facilitate stock audits and reconcile any discrepancies. He says the software acts as the single source of truth against which he can compare manual counts, and that Cin7 on side, Lockabox® needs far fewer people than it would otherwise need to manage operations.

The efficiency boost from Cin7 is multiplied by its powerful integration with Xero accounting software, with invoicing and sales data shared between Xero and Cin7 in real-time.

“Cin7 gives us that extra accountability because all sales go through it,” Rory says. “With the reporting coming out of it too, we know where stock has gone, and we can better manage distribution.”

On the B2B side of the business, Rory credits Cin7 for expediting wholesale orders. Once a quote is generated, “having the ‘accept now’ button on the quote automatically flips the quote to a sales order, so our wholesale customer can make immediate payment.”

Cin7 helps avoid financial setbacks

Lockabox® leverages Cin7 to manage their multiple Amazon and WooCommerce sales channels, as well as third-party logistics (3PL) and fourth-party logistics (4PL) partners who are directly integrated with Cin7. The system proved its value when the operations team suffered a mishap that could easily have become a costly catastrophe.

One of Lockabox’s® 4PL partners failed to log a shipment of 700 units with a retail value of £30,000. Fortunately, Cin7 exposed the discrepancy during a weekly reconciliation, and Rory was able to investigate and determine what had happened.

Without Cin7, Rory explains, the operations team would have assumed that the warehouse had 700 more SKUs of one particular product than was actually being held. The warehouse would have run out of stock prematurely and Lockabox® would have suffered a temporary outage of product to sell.

“Cin7 is our failsafe system,” says Rory. “We were able to pin the 3PL to the wall and say ‘no, our stock numbers are correct – you have made the mistake.’ Having Cin7 alongside gives us the ability to keep accurate branch transfer data to catch human errors.”

Cin7 is the key to product business growth

Lockabox® says that Cin7’s flexibility is key to the future growth of the brand, and they’re already gearing up for expansion, with the introduction of a new and improved version of Lockabox One™ Shelf Packs which help to organize and partition contents. With their expansion into accessories, Rory says the team is looking forward to leveraging Cin7’s ability to support product bundles.

Here at Cin7, we’re excited to have Lockabox® join a family of over 8,000 businesses that rely on Cin7 to manage their inventory and online sales. Lockabox® is currently building a manufacturing facility in the US, and with Cin7 as their foundation, we’re going to enjoy watching them grow.

If your business could benefit from the extraordinary inventory visibility and increased efficiency that Cin7 brings, don’t miss out — book a demo with one of our brilliant sales staff today.

"Cin7 is our failsafe system"

Rory Fitz-Gerald, Operations Specialist, Lockabox®

Small Business Inventory Management Software

Cath Kidston

Cath Kidston is known for an extensive product line of nostalgic, hand-painted floral print fashion, bags, kids wear, and home furnishings. Founded by fashion designer Cath Kidston and headquartered in the British Isles style capital of London, the company began by selling its unique and distinctive prints in their first retail store in 1993.

The company grew from success to success, and by 2011, there were 41 physical Cath Kidston shops and franchisees, selling vintage and British-influenced fashion apparel and accessories. On top of their own branded outlets, they also sold wholesale to high-end retailers like John Lewis. In 2010, a majority stake in the company was sold to private equity investors, and the company grew even further. In 2014, there were 136 Cath Kidston retail outlets all over the world.

But the last few years have been challenging for Cath Kidston, as they have for so many businesses. By early 2020, facing several commercial challenges including the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cath Kidston closed 60 of their UK and Japanese retail locations. For most brick-and-mortar businesses, that would mean the end. But for Cath Kidston, it was a new beginning.

What made Cath Kidston’s story different? They credit their successful pivot to ecommerce – powered by Cin7 inventory management software.

Replacing an incumbent solution

Sébastien Poinçon is the Head of IT at Cath Kidston. His long list of responsibilities include evaluating third party software and maintaining the various app integrations that keep Cath Kidston’s retail business running. He oversees corporate and business systems, operations, support, network infrastructure, and store systems, and generously agreed to share with us the remarkable journey the company has been on.

After closing their physical locations, and letting the waters calm, Cath Kidston took stock, and made the decision to relaunch the brand – this time as a direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce business whilst still maintaining its B2B franchise and wholesale operations.

“It was a massive shift for us, to operate on a smaller scale,” Sébastien says.

With this change in focus, Cath Kidston had to find an alternative to the complex and expensive enterprise resource planning software (ERP) they’d been using.

In addition to being costly and cumbersome, the ERP system lacked any technical documentation which made integration difficult. “It resulted in low user adoption across the organization,” Sébastien explains. “We needed a product that was more flexible and that was specifically built to support multichannel online sellers.”

He began searching for an inventory and order management solution that could help guarantee a successful transformation into a full-fledged ecommerce business – and they found it in Cin7.

Leveraging Cin7 to transform a business model

Cin7 was critical to Cath Kidston’s ability to rebound and transition into ecommerce, which today accounts for 85 percent of their sales.

After Sébastien and his team compared Cin7’s cloud-based feature set to competitor offerings, Cath Kidston implemented the software in April 2020. They chose Cin7’s powerful feature set to manage the company’s sales, inventory, and fulfillment, both for ecommerce, and in its remaining global brick-and-mortar locations.

Cin7’s wide array of over 700 built-in integrations to other applications specific to retail and fulfillment were the secret ingredient in Cath Kidston’s remarkable transformation. “The ease with which Cin7 connects to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform is the most beneficial aspect of the software for us,” Sébastien says.

The move to Cin7 has also allowed the Cath Kidston team to do cross-channel stock reconciliations, making sure that the inventory count across retail, wholesale and online outlets stays consistent. Cin7 has also allowed them to connect to their main fulfillment warehouses in the UK and Hong Kong, for true end-to-end visibility.

What’s more, Cin7 has given the business something every product seller needs – a trustworthy source of inventory truth. With their previous ERP software, Cath Kidston could never be truly confident in the integrity of their inventory data.

“It was one of the major challenges we had with our previous vendor,” Sébastien explains. “But Cin7 has significantly improved our stock accuracy and has really helped us to consolidate our visibility into stock levels. Now that we have a handle on inventory management, we have seen improved process efficiencies.”

The path to future growth

Cath Kidston’s future plans include expanding their online marketplace presence, and increasing their wholesale business to include a drop-ship model with UK retail powerhouse John Lewis. They plan to adopt additional Cin7 features such as built-in EDI connections to start selling to wholesale customers like Marks and Spencer.

Perhaps most exciting is Cath Kidston’s plans to begin opening new brick-and-mortar stores again, with Cin7’s proprietary point of sale (POS) module in use across all of their stores.

Cath Kidston’s smart approach has paid dividends. The market no longer sees them as a discount fashion retailer, and their mission to upgrade their products and offer more innovative selections has been well-received by customers. With increasing revenue, and Cin7 on their side, Cath Kidston’s future looks bright.

“Cin7 has really helped us,“ says Sébastien.

Don’t miss out on the extraordinary inventory visibility and increased efficiency that Cin7 brings — schedule a demo today with one of our experienced sales consultants.

Cin7 has significantly improved our stock accuracy and has really helped us to consolidate our visibility into stock levels. Cin7 has really helped us.

How consumerization in B2B is driving growth in sales

Posted on August 3, 2022 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

In today’s crowded space, businesses are doing what they can to grab and keep their customer’s attention. As a result, marketing has gotten much more personal. This trend began with B2C companies creating personalized, relatable content for their audiences, and is known as consumerization.

However, a popular myth associated with consumerization is that it only applies to B2C companies. This simply isn’t true. Consumerization is visible today in the marketing strategies of most B2B companies as well.

In this blog, we’ll try to understand the phenomenon of B2B consumerization and how it impacts sales.

What is B2B consumerization?

In simple words, B2B consumerization is the result of companies using more technology to engage with their clients. As in the B2C space, where consumers expect to be able to immediately access information and purchase products through digital means, B2B buyers now expect such options from the companies they do business with.

The shift towards B2B ecommerce is widespread. According to 2020 Gartner research, 80% of total B2B sales interactions will be digital by the year 2025. What’s in it for the B2B Sellers?

Makes sales more efficient

Any B2B marketer will tell you that, conventionally, B2B sales have relied heavily on personal relationships with clients. The biggest investment is the time put in to close a sale.

However, with digital products, companies are able to save their sales teams valuable time. By developing deeper insights into the targeted audience’s behavior before approaching the sale, sales teams can curate personalized sales strategies and offerings for their potential clients. This makes it easier to close more deals faster.

Leverage multiple access points

An access point, or a customer touchpoint, is any point through which the customer comes in contact with your brand. That includes radio ads, pay-per-click (PPC) banners, or elevator pitches.

Today, your business most likely interacts with your target audience using multiple touchpoints. Some of the most commonly used channels for B2B marketing are:

Blogs/articles,
Emails and newsletters,
Push notifications,
Digital and conventional advertising, and
Social media.

Using multichannel selling, your clients become familiar with your products or services while you have the opportunity to directly interact with potential customers.

Naturally, you’ll want to reach your target market using as many touchpoints as possible. By collecting data from your customers, and with a bit of computing prowess, you can monitor and predict how your target market will react to your products or services.

And the result?

A much more efficient sales strategy with higher sales numbers. If you wish to scale your B2B business, try Cin7. Cin7 not only makes it effortless to manage your B2B orders but also helps in creating an online B2B store. Use it to showcase your product portfolio and boost your sales. Cin7 also comes with built-in inventory management features, so you efficiently manage your stock and prevent stockouts.

To learn more about how Cin7 can help in boosting your B2B business, book a demo with our experts.

Top 10 technologies driving ecommerce growth in 2022

Posted on July 29, 2022 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

New technologies continue to drive innovation in the ecommerce world. How is your site keeping up? Check out our predictions for the top 10 technologies that will drive ecommerce growth in 2022.

1. Voice and image search

Increasingly, consumers are using their voice and images to search online. As a result, businesses that want search bots to find them should incorporate text that mimics spoken questions into their sites along with high quality images.

2. AI chatbots

AI chatbots may be the future for the ecommerce industry. Their sophisticated programming allows the AI chatbot to respond to customers as if the chatbot were a real human being.

Unlike rule-based chatbots, AI chatbots are constantly learning from their conversations and can develop unscripted responses to queries. They are designed to read tone and emotion as well as help customers get the best recommendations for the products and services they are seeking.

3. Smarter mobile shopping tools

Brick-and-mortar retailers do not like seeing customers looking at their phone screens, for it indicates that the customer is price shopping or using their store as a showroom for a later online purchase elsewhere.

Therefore, savvy retailers offer their own GPS-enabled mobile shopping experiences to help customers buy in-store or anywhere else. For any retailer, a mobile-optimized site and store is a fundamental element of a positive ecommerce experience.

4. Omnichannel presence and support

The term omnichannel refers to the integration of multiple channels for ecommerce, such as an online storefront, website, or social media page. When you offer omnichannel support, your customers can enter information in one channel, and you can access it in another, providing a more seamless customer experience across channels.

5. Fast and secure e-wallet functionality

Speedy and secure e-wallet technology allows customers to store all of their payment information digitally in one place. This increases efficiency when shopping online because instead of having to enter information for each purchase, customers can check out of a site with just one or two clicks of a button.

Businesses equipped to accept e-wallet payments can level themselves up in the ecommerce market with better scalability of services and reciprocal security to attract even more customers.

6. Metaverse and other gaming platforms to facilitate sales

The concept of the Metaverse is still evolving, and it isn’t ready as an advertising platform. However, it represents a potent potential marketing channel for various ecommerce brands. Global brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Vans, and Gucci are already gearing up to treat their customers with virtual products.

Various gaming systems have also opened their platforms to ecommerce brands. For instance, leading fashion brand Balenciaga recently teamed up with Epic Games to launch its Fortnight clothing line. Nike turned to Roblox to launch Nikeland for purchasing virtual Nike gear for the gaming avatars.

7. Livestream commerce

Remember TV shopping channels? Livestream commerce or Livestream shopping is almost like that. It is a video streamed on a commercial platform where the host shows viewers various goods in real-time. Thus, the audience can easily buy products directly from the shopping site.

This type of ecommerce is very popular in China. For instance, in 2020, during the Global Shopping Festival on the Taobao platform, live broadcast generated sales of about $6 billion. Companies in the US have also noticed a tendency toward this upgraded version of ‘shoptainment.’

This approach to online retail lets you present items in every dynamic and develop client interest by creating urgency with limited-quantity or limited-time offers.

8. Headless and API-driven ecommerce

Headless commerce is a solution that lets an online store’s ecommerce platform de-couple from the front-end presentation layer. More ecommerce businesses have adopted headless technology due to its flexibility on the backend, added SEO and digital experience capabilities, and content marketing.

9. Progressive web apps

The progressive web app is a technology that lets you create web applications that look like native mobile apps. While building these solutions, developers use web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.

Retail giants like Walmart and Alibaba have used PWA to generate more revenue and increase conversion rates. Progressive web apps are perfectly suitable for any small and medium-sized organization.

PWA’s primary functions include:

Offline application access
Application access via the smartphone’s home screen
Push notifications

10. Cin7 inventory management

Popular brands know that the bigger your business, the more crucial it is to have a scalable infrastructure. Cin7’s flexible, future-proofed and hyper-scalable inventory management software is purposely built for retail businesses.

It offers various integrations with a speedy, expert-led implementation having a success rate of 97%.

Wrapping up

More innovations in ecommerce technology are likely to evolve in 2022. As you evaluate whether a new technology is worth incorporating in your business, consider magnitude, relevancy, and functionality. While some may provide a huge value, others might be out of touch with your particular customer demographic or be too costly. One technology we certainly recommend is Cin7 inventory management software.

Cin7 inventory management software makes all your business operations, like purchasing, selling, warehousing, accounting, and shipping, hassle-free and virtually effortless in order for you and your management team to focus more on other aspects of your business.

Book your demo now!

Top 20 B2B apps to boost sales in 2022

Posted on July 25, 2022 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

To increase sales and beat competitors, you need the right technology. Apps that improve efficiency, like sales rep management tools, can boost your bottom line.

But it can be a challenge to determine which sales apps are the best for you and your team. So, we’ve done the research for you. We have compiled a list of the best sales apps that can improve your business performance.

Here’s the list of the top 20 proven sales apps to boost productivity.

1. Slack – team communication

Connect your remote teams and centralize communication with this best-in-class messaging app. Communicate seamlessly with your team and boost collaborative productivity using Slack. It’s one of the most reliable sales team tools.

You can discuss projects, share files, and maintain transparency within the team. Plus, Slack integrates with other CRM tools to manage sales efficiently.

Work with external contacts, adding them as guests.
Create channels for different topics.
Engage with team members to share vital messages quickly.
Set reminders to complete tasks on-time.

2. LinkedIn – lead development

While technically LinkedIn is a social platform, our clients still rank it as one of the top tools for lead development. LinkedIn is an excellent place to find leads and nurture sales prospects – especially when selling to companies. You can search profiles of key decision-makers and even contact them through LinkedIn messages.

Knowing the key players saves sales reps from navigating multiple gatekeepers before reaching decision-makers.

3. MailChimp – email marketing automation

MailChimp is a cost-effective way to manage your email subscribers. With over nine million users, MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms.

Their tools allow you to send well-designed emails to targeted audiences. MailChimp has advanced analytics to measure the effectiveness of outbound emails. MailChimp integrates with numerous third-party apps to sync customer data and streamline workflows.

4. Saleslion – sales proposal creation

With Saleslion, you can create interactive proposals and sales materials online which will help in closing more deals faster. The platform allows you to optimize every step of your sales process – be it clarifying audience motivation or comprehending the sales message.

Ultimately, you can design smarter processes and sales strategies to close deals with prospects. Be prepared for any sales objections and confidently handle sales calls with Saleslion.

5. Snov.io – outreach and lead generation

Snov.io is a CRM that saves you time. Snov.io’s toolset is easy to navigate so you can spend more time nurturing and converting leads than searching for them. The app uses personalized automation for email campaigns designed to engage and convert, including follow-up.

Snov.io has over 2000 integrations to boost efficiency. Connect with customer service platforms, multi-channel marketing apps, and productivity tools.

6. Hunter – email hunter

Hunter connects you with professionals who matter to your business. Search first and last names or company websites to find the email address of the person you want to reach – provided the company has a verified domain that’s publicly available.

It’s one of the best apps for finding business emails for sales prospecting.

7. Badger Maps – route planner for sales

Badger Maps is a multi-stop route planner designed for in-the-field salespeople. With Badger Maps, you can meet the right prospects at the right time, using the fastest route with over 100 stops.

With features like check-ins, lead generation, and follow-up reminders, Badger would streamline every aspect of a field salesperson’s job. Badger Maps is one of the best sales route planners for sales reps and their teams, with the selling capabilities of a CRM and a prospecting tool.

Badger Maps is available for iPhone, Mac, PC, and Android. It also syncs seamlessly with multiple CRMs to keep important customer information in one place.

8. Zoom – video conferencing

Cut down the travel expenses and save time by holding conferences, meetings, and webinars online with Zoom. It’s a leader in modern enterprise video communications and a perfect solution to conduct distance meetings.

With this advanced sales productivity tool, you can easily share screens with prospects and give effective sales presentations from anywhere at any time of the day – it’s a perfect solution for today’s global marketplace.

9. MakerMove – tools and resources

MakerMove is a special platform for makers and founders to discover useful resources and tools. There are numerous curated lists of resources available, but MakerMove puts them all together in a nice interface. This allows you to quickly discover innovative products to help you succeed.

Get inspired by the best podcasts and books to help you grow. Find journalists to get press coverage or connect with the best investors to fund your startup. Discover anything you need to boost your project – all in one place.

10. Track-POD – route planner software

Track-POD is the emerging leader in contactless and paperless delivery solutions. It’s more than proof of delivery.

The app provides route planning and optimization, real-time driver tracking, fleet management, customer portal and notifications, e-sign, and paperless proof of delivery. You can level up and scale your delivery management with Track-POD.

11. CircleBack – address book management

Good communication is crucial to building long-lasting relationships. But it isn’t easy to maintain meaningful connections when the contacts are outdated, or worse, scattered on post-its or other places. Avoid clutter and manage contacts with ease using CircleBack.

CircleBack is one of the best sales productivity tools to keep your information up-to-date and organized.

Scan business cards to add new contacts instantly.
Remove duplicate entries to keep your address book clean.
Connect multiple networks in one unified address book.
Integrate with CRM tools to ensure your contacts and deals are updated.

12. Feedly – news aggregator application

Don’t miss important news related to your industry. Now you can stay updated with the latest trends in the global marketplace with Feedly. Find news, content, and articles you like on a single platform.

Track what you read using Feedly’s history option. As well, receive suggestions for new blogs that may interest you.

13. Evernote – note taking app

Take the market research beyond bookmarks and eliminate scrap paper with Evernote. It’s a digital storage facility for vital data. Not only can you maintain a wide range of content but also store images, record notes, and upload PDF files using this smart note-taking application.

Tag the notes for quick reference.
Manage content from any internet-connected device.
Attach pictures and audio directly to notes.
Create shortcuts to frequently accessed files.
Set reminders for projects and tasks.

14. Tripit – itinerary and travel planner

Streamline travel plans in one place to stay organized with Tripit. Everything from flight details to hotel bookings are easily available within this app. Tripit offers a master itinerary for all your trips to ensure seamless and hassle-free traveling.

15. Basecamp – project management

Complete sales tasks on-time and collaborate with your team using Basecamp. Basecamp is a project management app and one of the best sales team tools. Eliminate complexity and keep projects and communications centralized. Basecamp organizes the who, what, where, and why for company projects.

Receive an email notification when new tasks are assigned or old ones are due.
Keep everyone in the loop with real-time project discussions.
View each detail related to a project in one place.
See deadlines, tasks, and events in one view using Basecamp Calendar.
Share large files hassle-free.

16. Doodle – meeting scheduling

Simplify the process of setting meetings and finding convenient times to meet with potential prospects using Doodle. Stay away from conflicting bookings and stay on track with this amazing daily sales app.

Whether you’re coordinating with 30 volunteers for a huge event or a small team for a monthly meeting, Doodle keeps everyone on the same page by seamlessly scheduling meetings and events.

17. Leadfeeder – website visitor tracking

Keep an eye on website visitors using Leadfeeder. Know who visits your site and what pages they look at with this high-end marketing tool. It is one of the best ways to convert site visitors into leads.

Leadfeeder integrates with numerous marketing tools to capture and manage leads.

18. Expensify – expense management

Tracking expenses is a necessity for business travel. Expensify is the easiest way to simplify and streamline expense management. Expensify is one of the best expense management apps, with more than 2.5 million users worldwide.

Create expense reports by clicking a photo of trip receipts.
Link credit and/or debit cards with your Expensify account to automatically place charges in expense reports.
Convert expense reports into customized invoices with just one click.

19. Chorus – conversation intelligence platform

Chorus uses artificial intelligence to record and transcribe sales calls into notes in real-time. This enables sales teams to store valuable information from phone conversations quickly and efficiently.

Chorus extracts insights from sales calls, which can help you fine-tune your communication strategies with clients.

Analyze sales calls and meeting recordings.
Discover top performing sales reps.
Create a playlist of great calls for training new sales reps.
Track performance and compare it with teammates by viewing the leaderboard.
Share recordings with the sales team.

20. Lastpass – password manager

This list would not be complete without a password manager. Our customers rely on LastPass as their password management app. LastPass stores your passwords in one location that you can access from anywhere.

LastPass syncs with multiple devices and is easy to use.

App integration with Cin7

As a small business owner, part of your job is staying one step ahead of your competitors. One way to do that is to streamline your processes – which is exactly what these sales apps do. Explore the extensive features of all these popular apps and leverage their benefits to improve your business’s bottom line.

Speaking of integrations, Cin7 integrates with 700+ business tools that your sales team can use to boost your business. Cin7 integrates with sales and marketing apps, 3PL providers, payment gateways, EDI suppliers, and a lot more. You can access the full list of our integrations from here.

Use integrations to increase sales and reorders and win new customers.

How to successfully launch your ecommerce brand

Posted on June 28, 2022 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

The pandemic era and a massive shift to digital experiences have made the prospect of launching an ecommerce business very tempting. However, starting and sustaining an ecommerce business is easier said than done. You need the right business idea, suitable ecommerce solutions, a well-planned strategy, and more.

Still, if you’re thinking about starting an ecommerce business, you’ve come to the right place. This blog post will provide you with a step-by-step guide to start and run your online business. We’ll go through idea generation, technology options, online store management, maintenance, and more.

Here’s what you need to know to start and run your online business.

How profitable is ecommerce?

Trends show ecommerce business is becoming increasingly profitable. For established businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, ecommerce is a profitable model as both the sole focus of a business and an additional selling channel.

Data shows that in three months, a new ecommerce store can make more than $63,000 in monthly revenue. In just one year, a successful ecommerce store can average $127,000 in monthly revenue. After three years, a successful ecommerce store can earn an average monthly revenue of $352,000, which is an increase of about 175% between years one and three. On average, your successful ecommerce company can make as much as $39,000 of revenue in the first month in business, and some jump up to $6.5 million in total after three years.

A step-by-step guide to starting your ecommerce business

The ecommerce business journey begins well before you launch your business. A successful ecommerce business demands tremendous research early — whether you’re starting an online store or doing an ecommerce integration.

Thanks in large part to the pandemic, there’s more competition than ever. To succeed in this market, you need to think strategically and act methodically.

Step #1: Research your business model

An online business is a big investment, and you need to take it seriously. Your ecommerce business isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition— you must have a unique online business model. You need to map out marketing, manage inventory, coordinate shipping, and more. Because of all of these factors, research is extremely important. You should make sure to talk to an ecommerce consultant to ensure you have a viable plan. Look for an ecommerce development company as soon as you have a rough plan.

Step #2: Validate your target market

It’s time to identify your target market and the type of products you want to sell. Before finalizing your offerings, it’s essential to understand buyer personas. Begin with a few, well-defined product ideas. You can always expand gradually from there. Before you invest in products, you must evaluate them and think about leveraging low-cost methods like drop-shipping.

Step #3: Know your competition

Competitor analysis is crucial in any business. When you analyze your competition, try to understand them categorically. The presence of competition validates the niche you have selected.

For example, you must know all direct competitors and top players in the market. You will learn a lot from your competitors. Hence, analyze them and observe them closely. Take note of things you like and dislike about them. It’s also important to understand the kind of ecommerce platforms they use. For instance, if a competitor uses Magento ecommerce development, you should understand all the pros and cons that went into that decision.

Step #4: Create a brand name and register your business

It’s crucial to develop a brand name and logo that reflects your business model. In a world dominated by ruthless competition and brand identities, it’s impossible to succeed without a brand name. Make sure you’re sending the right message to your target audience through your brand image.

Register your business name and company name to get tax benefits, legal protection, and more. Make sure to apply for a business license, permits, and other certifications to operate without legal obstacles.

Step #5: Build your online store

The kind of online store you build determines a lot about your long-term strategy. If you want to build a customized online store, you need to make sure to choose the right ecommerce development company.

There’s a large number of ecommerce solutions out there, and it can be overwhelming. The ecommerce platform you pick will impact your store’s performance and profit. It’s important to make an informed decision based on both comparison and research. Choose an ecommerce platform that suits your business needs. For example, smaller companies might find that Shopify solutions are the perfect selection.

For fully customized B2C and B2B ecommerce, we recommend Magento, which is popular among medium to large companies. While building your online store, you should think about mobile-optimized design, SEO, and secure payment gateways.

Step #6: Showcase your products

It’s important to display your products properly and professionally. You need to include well-written product descriptions and visually captivating images to entice your customers. Product pages should be custom-built and create an immersive experience for shoppers. Reviews and testimonials are essential elements of your product pages, and you need to be strategic about displaying prices, too.

Step #7: Attract customers with great UX and marketing

Competition is more intense than ever, so you need to stand out and attract the right audience to your store. SEO plays a vital role in attracting the customers you want. The most successful ecommerce operators meticulously manage their brand and digital marketing strategies.

You can use paid marketing like pay-per-click or free marketing like content curation. Social media marketing is also huge for online store visibility. In order to be successful, you need to develop a loyal base of customers. Make sure to take advantage of loyalty programs, gift cards, coupons, and more. It’s important to keep your customers as engaged and loyal as possible.

How to launch a successful ecommerce business

The ecommerce economy is poised for significant growth in the coming years, but you can only expect to see results if you approach your launch the right way. The following tips are critical for a successful ecommerce launch.

Don’t rush the launch

One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce entrepreneurs make is rushing or forcing the launch of a website. You only get one shot to launch your website, so you shouldn’t mess it up.

It’s okay to purchase your domain name and throw up some sort of “coming soon” page, but you should avoid the big reveal until you lay some substantial groundwork (content marketing, SEO, social media, paid advertising, etc.).

Focus on your customers

Many ecommerce businesses fail because potential customers can’t touch, smell, feel, and see (firsthand) products before making a decision. Obviously, there’s no perfect solution to solve this problem. But you need to compensate for the lack of real-life experience in other ways.

Make sure you price your products well, offer free shipping, and make the checkout process as simple as possible. You need to make customers comfortable online if you expect to make sales.

Test everything

Invest in testing and analytics before, during, and after launching your ecommerce business. Think like a potential customer and figure out what works, what doesn’t, and the “why” behind those answers.

Leverage social media

An ecommerce entrepreneur who completely outsources social media is going to have trouble succeeding in ecommerce. Social media is the heartbeat of the business. It offers you an uninterrupted glance into the lives of your customers. While it’s okay to have a social media manager, it’s pertinent that you are involved with it, too.

Use testimonials and product reviews

Testimonials, product reviews, follow buttons, and social login options are huge in the world we live in. You need to leverage your customers, as well as their positive experiences, to make other customers feel comfortable enough to shop at your ecommerce store.

Make sure your mobile experience is seamless

Bill Siwicki of Goldman Sachs says, “Tablets will play an important role, as worldwide consumer spending via mobile jumped from $204 billion in 2014 to $626 billion in 2018.”

Those are huge numbers. And when you factor in the growth of the post-pandemic era, mobile is becoming even more popular. Simply put, you need to make sure that you are thinking about mobile shopping in every single decision you make.

Leverage SEO

As the ecommerce economy grows, more and more businesses will enter an increasingly crowded space. That means it will be increasingly important to stay on top of SEO and stand out from your competition. Connecting with a skilled SEO company can pay huge dividends in the long run.

Collect as much customer information as possible

Unless you plan to launch a single site and step away, you must collect as much customer information as possible. They will help with customer satisfaction, repeat business, and even future launches. Start building your customer database today.

Be flexible and adaptable

Never stop evolving. Technology, customer tastes, and trends all change. You must do the same if you want to succeed in such a fast-moving market.

Be creative with your brand

As you visualize your brand, try to be creative as possible and think out of the box. Mood boards, for example, are a fun and creative exercise that can help you visualize your brand’s overall direction.

Creativity helps keep you inspired and on track. Think about your brand’s fonts, images, and colors. What does it say about your brand? What will your customers think? It’s important to work with a designer to create a professional logo and other branding elements to use on the website and packaging.

If you’re consistent and focused, you will succeed

A lot goes into starting an online business, The process may be intimidating, but you can make it happen. Work through it step by step, and never worry about making things perfect right out of the gate. Most importantly, you need to learn by doing.

Success requires a lot of time, patience, and research. However, it’s also very important to have help along the way. Cin7’s inventory management software will make your ecommerce brand’s launch a lot easier and allow you to leverage useful integrations. Ultimately, we can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches. If you have any questions, or are curious about how we can help, book your demo today.

How to perfectly execute the 2022 holiday shipping season

Posted on June 28, 2022 | by Cin7 team | Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for shipping and retail industries. In fact, It’s the most important time of the year for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. With increases in technology, ecommerce has become the driving force behind the yearly surge in sales. Shoppers spent $122 billion with online retailers alone in the past year. To keep up with the surge in demand in a short span of time, you need to have a streamlined shipping strategy and fulfillment process in place for the holidays.

These days, customers have high expectations when shopping online. They want free and fast shipping, free returns, and share-worthy unboxing moments. Businesses that are able to keep up logistically both bring in more customers and retain them better.

In this article, we will go through common challenges that DTC brands face during the holiday shipping season, and how you can streamline your shipping process for your online store’s success.

What is considered the holiday shipping season?

The holiday shipping season refers to the time of the year (Q4, or October through December) when order and shipment volume spikes, leading to more orders to fulfill and more returns to process. The holiday shopping season includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and general gift-giving that leads into Christmas.

In this period, supply chain management can get disrupted as online brands rush to keep up with demand, manage inventory, and fulfill a massive amount of orders. Shipping carriers get busier than usual and work harder to deliver packages on time.

When does the holiday shipping season start?

The holiday shipping season starts earlier than many people think. The shipping industry and eCommerce sales ramp up as early as October, and high demand continues until the new year. Here is an overview of major milestones and holidays that occur during the holiday shipping season.

Halloween (October 31)

Even if it’s an American holiday, Halloween is popular among consumers in Europe, too. Whether you’re selling “spooky” decorations, costumes, or other items, sales opportunities increase during this time. Many brands will try to capitalize on the holiday by running special promotions.

Thanksgiving (November 24)

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. You have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Small Business Saturday all occurring over the same long weekend. That’s when holiday shoppers begin to search for the best deals and try to purchase their holiday gifts early.

Christmas (December 25)

Holiday shoppers expect to get gifts delivered before Christmas Day (or even Christmas Eve). You must take note of your carriers’ holiday cutoff dates and communicate those with customers. They want to know when they’ll have to place orders for on-time delivery.

New Year’s Day (January 1)

Although the holiday shopping season starts to slow down by this time, return volume is at an all-time high around January 1. This often requires more from customer service and logistics operations teams for smooth returns and exchanges.

Other important dates

Black Friday: November 25,
Small Business Saturday: November 26,
Cyber Monday: November 28,
Free Shipping Day*: December 14,
Super Saturday**: December 17.

*Participating merchants provide free shipping on all orders, with promised delivery by Christmas Eve.

**The last Saturday before Christmas is a huge shopping day for brick-and-mortar retailers.

Common challenges during holiday shipping season

Expected or unexpected, whenever there’s a major change in the supply chain, it can throw off inventory management, shipping, and more. That’s why it’s essential to find ways to build supply chain resilience and ensure a successful holiday shipping season — even if there are delays and disruptions. To prepare your supply chain for Q4, here are a few holiday shipping season challenges to be aware of.

Black Friday sales

One of the biggest challenges to growing eCommerce businesses is managing an increase in order volume. Obviously, this is most apparent during the holidays. Black Friday sales add even more chaos to the mix.

Partnering with the right 3PL can take fulfillment challenges off your plate and put it into the hands of experts (even if the volume increases by 1,200% in a couple of weeks). This is a great way to avoid making common holiday season mistakes.

If you decide to keep fulfillment in-house, you must prepare to hire more packers (and be ready to ask family and friends to step in as required). You should also plan your holidays around running promotions and fulfilling orders on time.

Supplier holidays and factory shutdowns

Many brands partner with multiple suppliers and manufacturers to ensure they are not at risk if a primary supplier can’t deliver during shortages or shutdowns. Whether it’s a planned shutdown like Chinese New Year, or an unplanned one like what happened during the pandemic, manufacturers can go through shutdowns at any time.

Unfortunately, this means that receiving and replenishing inventory can be significantly delayed or disrupted — which could affect your entire eCommerce supply chain. As part of your business contingency or continuity plan, partnering with various suppliers can help reduce the risk of the inventory shortage. You can even get ahead by ordering surplus inventory. This helps avoid stockouts and gives you some wiggle room for the holiday shipping season.

Inexperienced 3PLs

If you want to partner with a 3PL, make sure they have the expertise, technology, and experience to deal with the increased volume that comes with the holiday shipping season. The wrong 3PL partner can cause major disruptions in your fulfillment process and lead to mispicks, slower deliveries, and inaccurate inventory levels.

The right 3PL, on the other hand, will always offer visibility and transparency into the supply chain. That includes real-time inventory data, information on shipping and fulfillment performance, and much more.

How to perfectly execute the holiday shipping season

If you are curious about how you can perfect your shipping strategy during the holidays, here are a few things to try.

Break the shipping process down into smaller steps

How long does it take you to fulfill an order? If you can get accurate data on each element, you’ll be able to better answer this question. You can break things down into the following:

Time to pack a product,
Time to take out the packaging material,
Time to collect all items in one place,
Time to print shipping labels.

Once you know where every second of your time is going, you can streamline some of the processes and add some minutes back to your day. Small changes can lead to big improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Communicate effectively

Effective communication with customers is a huge part of your relationship with them. As you ship orders you should make sure they receive updates, shipping times, delivery notifications, and more. This practice keeps customers in the loop and makes them feel as though they know what’s going on with their shipment.

Give your customers multiple payment options

Allowing your customers to pay in multiple ways gives you an edge and provides your customers with the flexibility they want. Since many customers use wallet payment options, accepting payment via wallets can simplify your customers’ shopping experience.

Save time with labels

Did you know you can save a significant amount of time by printing shipping labels in bulk? You can also integrate orders with Cin7 to print your labels in seconds.

Keep an eye on your supply

Each seller predicts how many sales they will make during a holiday season. Suppose you offer 50% off on apparel. You’ll need to make sure you have adequate stock lined up to cater to urgent requirements. Print labels in advance and stock your supplies for shipping. Most importantly, make sure you don’t get stopped midway during the peak season. Purchasing supplies in bulk quantities saves you the cost and headache that comes with last minute sourcing and production.

Display a shipping rate calculator

If you don’t offer free shipping, you should provide your customers the exact cost they’ll pay while ordering any given product. You can do this by offering a shipping rate calculator. This is usually based on factors like the customer’s delivery location and is a very important part of the checkout process. In fact, 44% of customers abandon carts due to high shipping costs.

Set a free shipping threshold

Many eCommerce sellers offer free shipping during the holiday season. This can help increase sales, but it can also burden you with higher shipping costs. Instead, try the following:

Set a threshold order value before providing free shipping.
Set a countdown for free shipping.
Send coupon codes for free shipping.

Setting a threshold on orders may help increase your average order value and encourage customers to buy items they might not have previously. Plus, opting for lower-cost regional couriers might be a smart option, too.

Offer international shipping

Scaling your business to ship internationally could be an excellent opportunity for sellers during peak season. Even if you haven’t shipped internationally before, there is no reason why you should not ship internationally this holiday season.

Seasonal peaks are an excellent opportunity to expand your options — especially when audiences look forward to shopping outside their borders for holidays. There are many low-cost global shipping options from Cin7, so you can quickly ship with premium carriers like FedEx, Aramex, and DHL.

Partner with an experienced 3PL

Partnering with an experienced 3PL company can help make the chaotic holiday season more manageable, especially for businesses that are:

Transitioning fulfillment from in-house to third party,
Preparing to launch a new brand,
Looking for new inventory management options or a hybrid approach.

Fulfilling holiday demands by your own can be challenging, and leasing a warehouse can be time-consuming and expensive. The sooner you start with a 3PL, the easier the process becomes. Cin7 can help you get onboarded quickly to start preparing for the busy holiday season that’s right around the corner!

Conclusion

One of the best ways to improve customer satisfaction during the holiday season is by making sure your shipping is quick, organized, and transparent. If you want to build your brand, stand out from your competition, and win repeated business — shipping times is a great place to start. Cin7 can help you manage your supply chain and help you reach your goals. Our inventory management software makes the process easy, painless, and profitable. Book a demo now to get started today.