How does your e-commerce solution handle data? How should it handle data? The proverbial “it depends” just won’t cut it any more. There needs to be an effective and efficient way to handle data across all of your e-commerce channels, and now, thanks to ChainDrive, there is.
Before e-commerce came of age, retailers were struggling with how to handle customer data, product and price data, POS data, sales data, and all of the information collected and necessary to analyze business operations. In many cases, that data was decentralized, which made it difficult to collect into one analysis pool so that retailers could take a hard look at it and make profitable decisions. Not any more.
A good retail management solution focuses on end-to-end operations, which allows retailers to look at every aspect of the retail operation to determine its effectiveness. That requires an ability to roll all relevant data into one source for analysis.
What Kind of Data Do E-commerce Retailers Need to Collect?
Essentially, we’re talking about the following kinds of data:
- Product information – Which products are you selling, how much of each product is on hand, where is that product located, and where is it being sold?
- Pricing information – What is the retail price of each product? What are your sales and discount prices, and when?
- E-commerce Gateway – What third-party retailers are you selling through? How many websites, or sales channels, do you control?
- Customer relationship management – Who are your customers? Where do they buy? What do they buy?
- Inventory control – How do you monitor receipts, allocations, replenishments, etc.?
- Orders – Which products are selling the most, and where? Do you sell more of product X at third-party websites or on your own website?
Data is very important for an efficient retailing machine. If you want to be profitable and stay profitable, then you need to collect the right data, analyze that data, and act on that data so that you keep the retail machine running, and that includes everything from brick-and-mortar operations to e-commerce. You can’t afford to consider these separate parts of your operation any more. E-commerce is a part of your overall retail operation.