The retail industry is indeed a happening one, with all activities trendy at a fast pace. Technology has been pivotal in enhancing retail operations. The merger of the business with technological advancements has led to the successful growth of the retail industry.
One instrumental software solution is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. ERP solutions have carved a niche for themselves in the retail landscape. Being a multitasking domain indulging in a variety of activities, the retail industry has really needed such an ERP software solution.
Retail operations have been streamlined with ERP solutions by creating a smooth and effective business workflow. This workflow integrates all involved departments and their functionalities into an organized digital framework.
Strong Data Points to Consider ERP Systems:
- Interestingly, a majority of IT executives—more than 50%—have named ERP as a top investment priority.
- After implementing ERP, more than 52% of organizations reported a good Return on Investment (ROI).
- With ERPs, operational costs can be lowered by an impressive 20 to 25%.
- More than 65 percent of businesses say they aim to implement an ERP system in the next three years.
It is interesting to understand what benefits ERP has on the retail industry and how well the domain is being transformed. Before we perceive the advantages, let us glance through the preliminaries of Retail ERP solutions.
Retail ERP – An Overview
This is ERP, especially for the retail sector! Retail ERP is all about an effective software solution that is tailored to fit requirements specific to the retail sector. With it, retailers can have an optimal experience in streamlining, automating, and monitoring business processes.
It assists retail segments in enhancing their bottom line and productivity levels. Be it in a single channel experience or omni channel, ERP helps retailers boost their sales and attract new customers.
ERP for retail takes care of multi-faceted functionalities like sales, finance, supplier management, supply chain management, logistics, etc. It offers real-time insights into the entire operational workflow, integrating multiple channels of business.
Salient Advantages of ERP for the Retail Sector
Just as other ERP systems, ERP for retail has its flavor of benefits that it offers to the industry; here are they:
- Offers real-time, precise, and true information across channels
- Integrates seamlessly with point-of-sale systems and eCommerce systems
- Manages inventory and stock effectively
- Lessens manual and repetitive tasks, facilitating efficacy
- Enhances satisfaction levels in customers, attracting further prospects
- Provides predictive analytics with a futuristic business insight
- Integrates different channels of business with augmented sharing between departments
- Simplifies pricing and discount schemes, offering flexible models
How is the Retail ERP System Influencing Retail Segments?
- Integrated eCommerce and Sales Channels
The modernized version of eCommerce is all about mobile applications, usage of the latest technologies like Beacons, sensors, etc., and branding through social media platforms. ERP helps retailers in taking advantage of all these ways and means and extract the best output.
ERP systems offer regular pricing mechanisms, consolidated client data across locations, satisfied customer journeys, online shopping experience, in-store purchasing, etc. The systematic integration of different channels motivates and regulates the entire shopping experience.
- Focus on Innovation Rather than Extra Expenditure
ERP in the retail sector helps businesspeople focus more on innovative ideas rather than wasting money and time on unnecessary things. ERP is affordable, profitable, collaborative, and hence offers great returns.
It assists retailers in coming up with great ideas that can be helpful in their business development. It lessens the burden on them with respect to license costs, maintenance costs, etc. Its flexibility and scalability are quite effective in terms of high-end RoI and efficacy levels.
- Real-Time View of Inventory Levels
Inventory management is one of the crucial processes involved in the retail segment. Retailers look forward to effective inventory management, and that can happen with a robust ERP system.
ERP helps in offering an accurate, real-time view of the inventory and stock levels at any given point in time, for any location. This helps retailers in ascertaining exact stock replenishment, up stocking, down stocking etc.
Retailers can perform precise demand forecasting and get a bird’s eye view of the entire stock situation. It helps them in cost saving and augments their cash flow. Management can also avail futuristic insight into what is needed for the future.
- Global Community Collaboration
ERP systems have a widespread global community that consists of domain and tech experts, developers, and users having a great range of experience. This helps in keeping in touch with what is happening around. It helps retailers in knowing and upgrading to the latest.
Retailers can leverage their connections with the global community to extract the best information and use it in their business. It includes mechanisms to do better business, know more about future trends, and offer clients a personalized experience.
- Well-Defined Supply Chain Mechanism
Having an effective and collaborative supply chain is key to good retail management. An ERP system for the retail sector helps in optimizing supply chain procedures through effective order management, vendor dealing, managing logistics, etc.
ERP helps in lessening lead times and extra expenses, offering a better touch of client requirements and supplier collaboration. The entire supply chain gets more agile and responsive. There is complete visibility and control over all processes, with accurate demand forecasting.
- Systematic Management of Stores
Stores and their effective management are vital areas for retailers to do good business. ERP systems help in managing stores and their operations with ease and visibility. It helps in managing inventory, tracking orders, integrating Point of Sales, and watching store performance.
The real-time visibility of stock helps in keeping stores at a balanced level in terms of availability. ERP systems help in the centralized automation of day-to-day activities like price listing and sales needs. It saves bigtime on costs, efforts, and finances.
- Insightful Data-Driven Decisions
For predictive retail business to happen, retailers need to see the futuristic view of market demand and business output. ERP software solutions are apt to offer an intuitive and visually appealing view of the data. Retailers can predict future outcomes and take necessary actions.
ERP helps in a detailed analysis of sales targets and demand, future patterns and trends, stock optimization levels, personalized customer preferences, customer targeting, etc. It also seamlessly integrates with other third-party systems to ensure an effective flow of information.
- Point-of-Sale (POS) Integration
Point-of-sale systems play an important role in enhancing retail business. ERP systems can integrate POS systems with other workflows to ensure a streamlined flow of information. This enhances automated entries, lessens manual intervention and errors, and thereby augments customer experience.
The overall customer wait time is reduced, sales transactions become quicker and more convenient, and billing becomes accurate and faster. POS integration through ERP takes an extra load of work off your shoulders and raises business efficiency levels.
Good Read: Tech-Driven Transformation: Scaling the FMCG Industry
Final Thoughts
As retailers set out to choose an ideal ERP solutions provider, there are certain factors that they must consider. A realistic budget, scalability considerations, integration with eCommerce systems, experience and expertise, budget, and timelines must be considered.
Some of the key steps while evaluating the ERP are identification of business needs, level of scalability, user-friendly interface, reporting capabilities, security features, vendor support, and total cost of ownership.
As a robust ERP implementation services and solutions provider, Atrina has been apt at streamlining your business operations. Our skilled task force is all set to integrate and facilitate business processes, offering augmented growth and efficiency levels.
Our tailored approach ensures that each organization implements its ERP system with respect to what they really need. Our ERP solutions offer in-depth data visibility, scalability, flexibility, and enhanced collaboration between departments.
Note: This article was originally published on Atrina Technologies’ Blog
Reach to us, and we will be happy to understand your business needs to offer you a perfect ERP system for your retail business.
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