How can operations improve your Amazon profits?
Every seller wants the answer to a fundamental question: “How can I make more profit?” I will look at a number of ways to increase your profits on Amazon by improving your workflow. I'll help you grab a piece of the eCommerce pie from your competitors!
Managing the operations of an e-commerce business is a complex task. Where do you even start? The simple answer is to automate and outsource wherever your company sees fit.
Let’s review some of the key factors that will boost sales for your Amazon business and across all eCommerce channels and marketplaces you sell on.
1. Wages and staff costs
Typically, e-commerce companies require a large team to manage their stores. From the inventory manager to the team on the floor picking and packing the orders. Payroll is a significant expense for any size business. Automation tools allow businesses to scale quickly and easily. It also reduces the chance of human error, which can increase your profit margins and reputation.
2. Order, Inventory and Fulfillment Management
Every online seller knows they need to have an accurate picture of their inventory in order to meet their customers’ expectations for perfect orders. Skubana tracks inventory and fulfillment patterns so you can make informed business decisions by predicting shopping patterns. Eliminate guesswork so you’re never out of stock—always ready to meet market demands.
Experienced Amazon sellers know that running out of inventory can cause significant difficulties – not only will you lose the buy box, but low inventory levels can also damage your reputation by lowering your feedback score and seller rating. To avoid stockouts, you may need to increase your average price.
Let us not forget about implementation. Aside from paperwork, this is one of the most important and time-consuming aspects of running an eCommerce business. If you are the one who oversees fulfillment, then why not try to automate this process to streamline your company and capitalize on every sales opportunity you have.
3. Management of third-party software and companies
Many e-commerce companies manage their own warehouses. For those who don’t, outsourcing to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider can be a lifesaver. A 3PL takes that burden off your shoulders by managing the distribution and fulfillment services.
If you’re already using a 3PL as part of your automation and streamlining efforts, great!
4. The power of data
The retail industry is developing rapidly. Consumer expectations are high and evolving rapidly. Where consumers shop and on what devices continues to change. Business insights and reports can help you make informed business decisions to improve your business model. Eliminate guesswork, which is detrimental to any business – use advanced analytics to gain a comprehensive 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 become dissatisfied. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that your brand needs to be consistent, reliable, and provide top-quality service in order to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Decreased performance can severely damage your overall brand reputation.
Unsatisfied customers will share negative reviews, which will damage your brand and seller rating on Amazon. Due to low ratings, new customers may never discover your brand, and your business could suffer irreparable damage. It’s much easier to improve your feedback score than to rebuild a damaged reputation.
What you may not realize is that these negative reviews are heavily scrutinized by Amazon. Your reviews, seller ratings, and brand reputation on Amazon play a big role in competing for the Buy Box.
Stop juggling multiple channels and marketplaces
Every Amazon seller needs to focus on managing their staff, orders, inventory, fulfillment, and reputation.
But what about multi-channel marketplace sellers? These concerns are multiplied when you have many orders and inventory to handle. The stakes are higher for multi-channel sellers, as any mistakes can impact operations, profit margins, and your reputation. The problem is that these sellers are struggling to manage multiple software tools for every aspect of the business: warehouse management software, 3PL software, shipping and accounting software.
Skubana can help you streamline your business and remove friction for multi-channel marketplace sellers. Skubana was developed by high-volume sellers for high-volume sellers. It redefines multi-channel selling by delivering breakthrough order management, inventory, ERP, shipping and business intelligence capabilities.
Don’t devalue – automate
Automation software solutions allow you to make significant improvements to your operations. Your seller rating will improve and your sales will soar. 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 businesses. Skubana simplifies all markets in one convenient dashboard.
