Online, your business doesn’t have the same home-field advantage it has in the brick-and-mortar world. Customers are always just a click away from abandoning their cart or comparing products from another seller. That means it’s up to you to create a compelling reason to get them to the finish line.

So where is it that your ecommerce operation might be losing you money? Let’s take a look at our top 6 reasons:

1. You’re not using the latest in automation.

Do you keep selling out of your hottest products? Congratulations—maybe. It’s one thing to show off demand and encourage sales of your other products. It’s another though to sell through without a larger plan. Use new automation technology like inventory software that automatically syncs to your ecommerce platform to showcase only what’s in stock and available to your online customers. The software integration does all the work, but your customers will get fewer “Out of Stock” emails after purchasing, and you’ll be able to fulfill orders seamlessly.

2. You don’t know what you need.

It’s 2020 and best guesses aren’t enough anymore. Now is the time to move to a system that can analyze trends and look into the future. Using sales demand forecasting, your business can see exactly which styles, colorways, or SKUs have performed the best in the past and up to the present, creating a trend line and telling you exactly how they are expected to perform in the future. That means you’ll be able to respond ahead of time and make your purchasing decisions in time to meet demand online!

3. You’re not taking the reins on manufacturing and production.

For many consumers, online shopping is where they turn when they’re looking for the best price. How can you deliver the lowest price while keeping an eye on margins? Do just that when you take a granular view on your manufacturing. Integrating your ecommerce store with a solution that includes production management will allow you to take a deep dive into every decision that goes into making your product. Are you being overcharged on material costs? Are labor-intensive processes eating into your bottom line? There’s only one way to find out, and when you make production management a priority, you’ll be saving money with each product you sell.

4. You’re wasting your team’s time on inefficient workflows.

There’s a reason the leading companies have moved beyond spreadsheets. With rampant errors, disorderly data, and inconsistent usage, homegrown spreadsheet “solutions” always end in chaos experienced from the back office all the way to the end consumer. Choosing a purpose-built software that handles everything through the product’s lifecycle and beyond gives your team one constantly synced and integrated space to work. Save time and improve accuracy when there’s no data reentry required and no switching back and forth between multiple programs and systems.

5. You’re not following up with past customers.

Do you know who your online customer is? Not just a rough outline, but their actual tastes, buying history, and preferences? Use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to activate your client loyalty. Otherwise, you’re leaving money on the table. After all, the easiest sales to make are to whom you’ve already sold. Accurate records give you the ability to promote best-loved products, reward repeat customers, and create brand evangelists who will help get out the word. Turn one sale into a relationship, and turn those relationships into a following.

6. You’re paying for lost packages out of pocket.

This is the easy one. There was a time in ecommerce when you could only sigh and eat the cost of resending lost and stolen packages. Not any longer for ecommerce businesses who use Route! Customers can elect package protection from Route at checkout, and should anything happen to their order along its way, Route will take care of it, going as far as reordering lost, stolen, or damaged orders with no effort on your part!

About ApparelMagic

ApparelMagic is an inventory and business management solution purpose-built for fashion, footwear, accessories brands. Encompassing PLM, ERP, inventory, sales tools, manufacturing management, logistics, accounting, and more, the web app functions as a one-stop-shop for the industry’s leading and fastest-growing brands. ApparelMagic connects to popular services like Route, Shopify, Amazon, JOOR, and Shipstation among many others for a complete, fully-integrated workflow.