LS Retail
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
AS 400
Shopify Plus
Blue Link ERP
Shopify EDI
Netsuite
D365 Finance and Operations
D365 Business Central
Cova
Back-To-School is finally behind us; the merchants of the world can collectively exhale for a moment before quickly sucking that breath right back in to prep for Black Friday Cyber Monday.
So… how did your business’ B2S go?
Most experienced the uptick in both online and in-store traffic congestion and have settled back into the normal work grind. Since B2S is one of the biggest selling periods of the year, it also serves as a great dry-run for how your business will perform on the dreaded (and quickly approaching) BFCM. Since B2S is spread out over a period of days or weeks while BFCM is concentrated around a single 4-day weekend, if your business struggled to keep up with demand for B2S, you should be seriously considering improvements to your systems and strategies now — while there’s still time to improve before the end of November.
If you noticed that it wasn’t your systems that created issues, but rather your processes between those systems that resulted in slow shipping times, missing items, dissatisfied customers, and a slew of other headaches for you and your staff, your data integration strategy could use a revamp. Data integration technology is advancing just like the rest of the technology that powers online and multichannel merchants. For example, did you know that “data integration middleware” is like shouting to your colleague, “pass me that CD-ROM!” If your B2S season didn’t go as smoothly as it could, we highly recommend looking at your integration strategy first — even before looking at upgrading applications, as the ways in which your business absolutely needs data to move to make things tick can be constrained by applications with poor data integration points. Chances are that, even if you’re using last year’s cutting-edge plug-and-play integration connector, there are improvements to be had and new technology and iPaaS applications that can greatly simplify your workflows.
Back-To-School is a great litmus test for understanding how your integrations and systems work under the pressure of high-volume sales periods. This is an ideal time to take a look at what went wrong, what could have gone better, and to refine your data movement strategy for upcoming BFCM.
Keep scrolling to see VL explain the need for agile and scalable integrations for the holiday season!
