It’s amusing to think that less than 20 years ago, seeing something desirable in a shop window meant that you’d have to step foot inside to purchase it. But in today’s world of digital commerce, we find a few leading eCommerce platforms capable of shipping any goods to your doorstep.
Powering this watershed shift is the direct-to-consumer model, whereby the end user visits your website and purchases a product that ships right to their doorstep. No middleman. Strictly click, buy and ship.
Behind the direct-to-consumer model, and providing that seamless order receipt and fulfillment process, is the eCommerce platform. Shopify and Magento are among the juggernauts in this space — and Amazon, who you may have heard of.
Whatever eCommerce platform you depend on, whether it’s Shopify, Magento, or Amazon, is better served with the integrative support we at SCS Cloud can offer through implementing NetSuite.
As the linchpin between orders and inventory, NetSuite provides the level of automation and functionality needed for seamless eCommerce operations — starting with orders.
Simply put, customer orders can come into NetSuite via your eCommerce platform, removing the need for a host of customer service concerns and instantly resolving questions such as:
Do I need to record a deposit?
How do I communicate this order to the warehouse for fulfillment?
Do I need to survey the inventory to see if we can ship the order?
By integrating eCommerce platforms into NetSuite, we sync your platform and its operations straight into the most sophisticated financial and inventory management systems available.
Here’s where we blow the door wide open for automation.
Orders can then be routed to the correct distribution center by zip code or by type of product, eliminating the hassle and any error-prone human decision to route that order to the correct ship-from-location. From there, you can communicate that order directly from NetSuite to any number of 3PLs.
But that’s just the start. Our focus goes beyond simply resolving how we integrate eCommerce operations into NetSuite, but how we take advantage of a truly unified platform to fully automate orders, recognize revenue and manage invoices.
In the final analysis, leveraging automation provides you with the one thing money can’t buy: The peace of mind it takes to invest more time in marketing, sales, and product development.
When product demand comes in from your eCommerce platform, NetSuite can reroute that information to the warehouse, whether that warehouse is NetSuite WMS, a more robust inventory management tool like RF Smart, or something as simple as ShipStation.
That said, here’s the bottom line: Inventory always depends on the rules you establish and the product you sell.
For an ERP implementation and consulting firm like SCS Cloud, that means capitalizing on the opportunity to help companies redesign these pivotal routes to better manage orders.
A common issue is defining the level of visibility that allows companies to understand where an order is in its lifecycle. Another is establishing real-time visibility into such orders as they’re being placed.
Our resolution tactics can easily identify and resolve such issues by integrating your eCommerce platforms into NetSuite and, in turn, plugging your tailored NetSuite setup into the distribution engine through syncing with 3PLs or distribution tools that serve your customers.
Another issue that we specialize in is helping companies, big or small, scale their eCommerce operations at a much faster rate.
By removing the inventory-related hassle and decision-making involved in marking a product as out of stock, or by removing the manual effort of communicating order status to customers, we have facilitated seamless management of many eCommerce operations for companies starting up or on the rise.
It’s hardly unusual to see our customers fully integrate their eCommerce platforms into NetSuite and experience an increase in sales volume — with no negative impact on customer service and an improved customer service experience.
In recent years, we’ve seen a seismic shift toward companies going all in on hooking their eCommerce, shipping platform, 3PLs and manufacturers directly into NetSuite.
As a trend that grows daily, we at SCS Cloud have proudly set ourselves at the forefront by working with hundreds of customers worldwide to successfully integrate their eCommerce platforms into NetSuite.
Are you looking for more than an ERP implementation? Well, you’ll probably find it somewhere on our SuperSync platform.
Contact us today about any of our SuperSync offerings.
About the author: Bobby Coffin, CPIM, is the VP of Operations at SCS Cloud. He is a certified NetSuite Consultant with extensive expertise in Manufacturing and Supply Chain operations. He has successfully implemented NetSuite for multiple clients with complex manufacturing processes and supply chains.