How operations can drive your Amazon profits up
There is one basic question that every seller wants the answer to – “How can I be more profitable?” I’ll take a look at a number of ways that you can increase your Amazon profits by improving your workflows. I’ll help you grab a slice of eCommerce pie from your competitors!
Managing operations for an eCommerce business is a complex task. Where do you even start? The simple answer is automation and outsourcing wherever it makes sense to your company.
Let’s review some key considerations that will boost your Amazon business and your sales on all the eCommerce channels and marketplaces that you are selling on.
1. Payroll and employee costs
Typically eCommerce companies require a sizeable team to manage their store; from inventory managers, to the team on the floor who pick and pack the orders. Wages are a considerable overhead for a business of any size to sustain. Automation tools allow businesses to scale quickly and easily. It also reduces the chances of human error, which can prove costly to your profit margin and your reputation.
2. Order, inventory and fulfilment management
Every online seller knows they need to have an accurate grasp of their inventory to meet customer expectations of a perfect order. Skubana has the ability to track inventory and fulfilment patterns so that you can make intelligent business decisions by predicting shopping patterns. Remove the guesswork so that you never run out of stock – always be prepared to meet market demands.
Seasoned Amazon sellers know that running low on inventory can cause major difficulties – not only by losing the Buy Box, but low stock levels can also damage your reputation by lowering your feedback score and seller rating. To avoid running out of stock, you may need to raise your average prices.
Let’s not forget fulfilment. Aside from the paperwork, this is one of the most important and time consuming aspects of running an eCommerce business. If you’re the one overseeing fulfilment, then why not try automating this process to streamline your company and capitalize on every sales opportunity you have.
3. Management of third party software and companies
Many eCommerce companies manage their own warehouses. For those of you who don’t, outsourcing to a third party logistics (3PL) provider can be a lifesaver. 3PLs take a considerable load off your plate by managing your distribution and fulfilment services.
If you’re already utilizing a 3PL as part of your automation and streamlining efforts, that’s great!
4. The power of data
The retail industry moves at great speed. Consumer expectations are high, and evolving fast. Where consumers shop and on what device is ever-changing. Business insights and reports can help you make informed business decisions that will improve your business model. Forget guesswork, that is detrimental to any business – use advanced analytics for a full view of your business performance and identify any weaknesses in your processes.
5. Ratings and reputation
When your company is disorganized and inefficient, your performance will suffer. When your performance suffers, your customers are unhappy. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that your brand needs to be consistent, reliable and provide a top quality service in order to attract new customers and keep existing ones. Cracks in your performance can seriously damage your overall brand reputation.
Unhappy customers will share negative reviews, which will damage your brand and seller rating on Amazon. With poor ratings, new customers may never discover your brand and your business could be damaged irreparably. It’s a lot easier to boost your feedback score than to rebuild a damaged reputation.
What you may not realise is that these negative reviews are closely scrutinized by Amazon. Your reviews, seller rating and brand reputation on Amazon play a big part in competing for the Buy Box.
Stop juggling multiple channels and marketplaces
Every Amazon seller needs to focus on managing employees, orders, inventory, fulfillment, and reputation.
But what about multichannel marketplace sellers? These concerns are exponential when you have many orders and inventory to deal with. Multichannel sellers have much higher stakes, as any error can impact on operations, profit margins and your reputation. The problem is that these sellers are struggling to manage multiple software tools for each aspect of the business: warehouse management software, 3PL software, shipping and accounting software.
Skubana can help streamline your business and remove operational obstacles for multichannel marketplace sellers. Skubana was developed by high-volume sellers for high-volume sellers. It redefines multichannel selling by offering groundbreaking order management, inventory, ERP, shipping, and business intelligence features.
Don’t depreciate – automate
Automated software solutions allow you to make critical improvements to your operations. Your seller ratings will increase and your sales will skyrocket. Reap the benefits of lower asking prices, higher competitive potential, more sales, and ultimately, higher profit margins.
This is a guest post by Chad Rubin, CEO of Skubana. Skubana is an all-in-one ERP system and operations platform designed for high volume sellers to manage and automate their business. Skubana streamlines all your marketplaces on a single convenient dashboard.