It may be high summer, but if you’re a merchant, it’s already time to think winter. Serious brands are already strategizing on their approach to this year’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday (November 24th, 2018), looking to top their past years’ results. Taking stock of your businesses technology stack and processes can take some time, and now is the best time to get your business in shape to handle this busy season!
But where to start in making improvements? We at VL OMNI would highly advise that you approach making improvements to your technology stack not only now (with plenty of time to spare), but with a plan. And this plan necessarily has to be based in past performance! What better way to improve this year’s BFCM than by looking at last year’s BFCM?
One of the more important considerations for improving your BFCM is evaluating your integration strategy. After all, your integrations affect everything from your data down to your customer’s experience. With our infographic flowchart below, we help you focus on the important questions your business must ask of itself in order to get a clear picture of the state of your integration processes now — and what can be improved before BFCM 2018.
So, ask yourself: “Am I manually keying in data between my systems as an ‘integration’ method?” and “Do I use work-arounds for common tasks?” If ‘yes’ is the answer to either of these questions, pause. These are genuine red flags that will impact your ability have a smooth and successful BFCM season this year. VL OMNI knows from experience with multichannel merchants that BFCM can take businesses off guard due to the sheer volume of orders, and this is a perfect storm for failure in undersized integrations (for one). Custom hard-coded (PHP) integrations can fail just like plug-and-play integrations under the intense pressure of BFCM, just like not having the right systems (like an ERP or WMS) can impact the end user experience deeply. After all, the customer experience you cultivate with to your customers over this season will leave a lasting impression for the year(s) to come.
Take a dive into our infographic flowchart and find out if your business is ready for one of the biggest holiday seasons of the year.
Is Your Shopify Plus Business Ready for BFCM?
Is Your Shopify Plus Business Ready for BFCM?