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The Top 8 eCommerce Challenges

4 Min READ

In today's eCommerce space, we find that most companies are looking for help with a very particular set of issues. These are areas where we see most businesses struggle to get the help they need to achieve their goals. Because we work with companies every single day to help address these issues, we thought it would be helpful to list what we see as the Top 8 eCommerces Challenges:

  1. Abandoned Shopping Carts  - We have learned from experience that 25% of all shopping carts are abandoned based on insufficient product information. The best way we have found to address this challenge is to have a complete set of product information that is stored and maintained in a "single source of truth" for all your sales channels.
  2. Omnichannel Struggles – Many companies are trying to sell across many sales channels such as an eCommerce site, marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart and in physical retail stores using point-of-sale solutions. One of the first questions we ask is if you are using a single channel, or multi-channel method. In either case, this means that all your processes, systems, data and people are disjointed from one another. This causes a lot of extra data entry work, increased operational costs and decreased customer satisfaction. By introducing omnichannel, you are able to provide your customer with a seamless buying experience by connecting all your processes, systems, data and people so wherever they purchase from you they have a consistent customer experience. This also reduces the amount of time you spend on data entry and data management.
  3. Inventory Awareness –When you are holding too much inventory, it is costing you money. When you are holding too little inventory, your customers become frustrated because they can’t purchase from you, and they go somewhere else. If you want to offer a BOPIS solution (buy online, pick up in store), you must be able to track inventory. Therefore, you need to integrate your eCommerce and point-of-sale solutions with the right inventory management system.

    common eCoomerce challenges

  4. Real Time Order Status –Customers have grown to expect real time order status. By integrating your fulfillment system with your eCommerce channel, your customer can track their orders in real time. This where an ERP system can help fill that space in your company. 

  5. Time to Market – It is more important than ever to get your solution out into the marketplace so you can compete in the rapidly growing eCommerce landscape. When we engage with clients, our goal is to get them up and running in about 90 days (on average) .  The quicker you can go live, the quicker you can start growing your business by selling products on your various sales channels--whether it be an eCommerce site, marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay, or in your physical retail locations. 
  6. Cost – Many people think that eCommerce solutions are a large capital expense with a high price tag to implement. While it's true that custom eCommerce systems can be costly to develop and maintain, there are many modern SaaS solutions available that will be do a better job at a lower cost. There is also a common misconception that standing up an ERP solution takes 12-18 months and costs a fortune. It doesn't have to be that way if you choose the right SaaS based software and the right team to stand up your systems and get them fully operational.  
  7. Expertise – Many companies don’t have the in-house expertise to build and grow an eCommerce business. Or they may not have the expertise and strategic know-how to grow an eCommerce practice that can scale into a complete omnichannel sales engine. We receive calls all the time from companies that need our strategic guidance and technical capabilities in these areas.
  8. Support – Your business can spend less on IT support services when you look at how companies are being supported using SaaS based eCommerce and ERP technology. Most of these cloud-based systems have built in upgrades, and partners who are experts in providing maintenance and support with these solutions. All of this will help relieve the stress and the high cost of having to manage these systems yourself. 

If you are ever wondering where to go for information on eCommerce, ERP, or integrations, Fortuitas provides expert services, support  and strategic guidance in all these areas. Contact us today and see how we can help you meet your top 8 eCommerce Challenges.

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