Digital marketing is becoming an important part of any business’s overall marketing strategy. And this means it’s not enough for your eCommerce website to just look bright and shiny. Looking fantastic isn’t enough to drive your sales over the long term. What you need is a website that is plugged into your backend systems that offers a very seamless, personalised and easy experience for your customers. Here we outline the benefits of harmonising your eCommerce website with your Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) to really drive your sales.

Digital marketing is often considered to be the tactics through which you direct customers to your eCommerce website. And until recently, site visits and sales has been the only goals of a digital marketing plan. But in this day and age, customers have grown tech-savvy, and convenience and instant gratification are the key drivers of an experience that drives loyalty.

Businesses with an eCommerce focus need to provide customers with a personal, accurate and timely experience from start to finish. Not only when they purchase your product, but when they’re browsing or researching, asking questions, or expecting delivery. This requires a site that is properly integrated into back end systems like customer support, warehouses and logistics.

What can an integrated eCommerce website do for you?

Saves you valuable resource and time

Integrating your systems will save time sending data from one source and putting it into another. The savings on administration costs and time you will make by integrating your systems will help your bottom line. It will also allow your staff to focus on income-generating tasks. This has the added benefit of offering staff more interesting jobs that help them feel connected with your business strategy. If you align your staff on business objectives it’s a good way to drive employee engagement.

Enhances your customer experience

In days gone by, a customer would walk into a store, make a purchase and leave, and that would be the end of their interaction with your business. Nowadays customers interact with your brand all the time, across a number of platforms. They might Google the category, peek at your website, and ask a question on your Facebook page before making a purchase.

These touchpoints all leave a lot of valuable customer data. You can use this data to understand their journey, and the problems and frustrations associated with these journeys. This allows you to offer them a truly personalised and accurate customer experience. Having a single source of collated information for each customer allows every interaction to be meaningful, which is more likely to end in a sale. If you don’t secure the sale this time, positive word of mouth is just as valuable.

Increases the accuracy of your information

You can lose a customer in many ways, and there’s often no easier way than offering them wrong information. For example, a customer loves one of your products featured on your eCommerce website, puts it in their cart, and pays. They are then told that the product is not in stock. Refund please. Perhaps they arrange to collect a product from their local store through your website, arrive to be met with blank looks from the salesperson.

Integrating inventory, pricing and customer information can help ensure that what your customers see on your site is accurate and they can trust your brand. Nobody likes surprises, and in the age of social media a single poor customer experience can result in a very public and very negative review on your Facebook page. This can be damaging and disappointing when it isn’t a representation of your customer service standards.

Allows customers to track orders

When making a purchase online a customer likes to see where it is and exactly when they can expect it. Integrate your eCommerce website with external services like Australia Post and you will be able to notify customers of when their product has shipped, and allow customers to see their order’s journey in real time. This will give them the security of knowing it’s on its way and help build the anticipation of receiving their product.

Saves money on upgrades

If you have an existing ERP System, you may be used to the process of upgrading it every 1 to 3 years. Software creators are continuously improving functionality and keeping up with ever-changing technology. The cost of upgrading an ERP is simply a cost of business. This cost can start hurting profitability though when you need to upgrade multiple systems housing different information. Integrating your systems can save money on the upgrades, and the time and resource spent implementing them. You also get back downtime of these systems while the upgrade occurs. One integrated system means one upgrade and more simplified financial and resource planning to implement this.

All this means that while having an eye-catching and easy to navigate eCommerce website is essential, it does not standalone as part of your digital strategy. The point of any marketing strategy is to maximise sales. A pure digital marketing agency can sometimes focus on the content and appearance of websites, while overlooking or not properly understanding backend requirements.

The systems that support a website are what delivers on the promise the website makes to its consumers. An eCommerce website that effectively talks to your ERP and other systems means that your customers will experience accurate, personalised and timely information on their purchases. It will ensure their customer experience is on point at every interaction, enhancing their trust in your brand. If this doesn’t drive sales directly, the positive word of mouth that comes from positive experiences surely will.

We’ve just realised that it’s our last blog for the year! Where did 2016 go? On behalf of the entire team here at Pronto Woven, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! We’ll see you in 2017!