Even if you find a good fit at the start, your needs will change as you grow. You’ll list more products in more categories. You’ll get more site traffic converting to more customers, generating more transactions. And your original ecommerce platform may no longer be a good fit for your booming retail business. This is especially true if you were heavily influenced by price considerations when researching your options, because many ecommerce platform vendors offer great deals for small businesses, but their pricing plans don’t scale fairly.
So how do you know when you’ve outgrown your ecommerce platform, and what should you do about it? Watch for these warning signs, and follow our tips for finding a better solution.
1. You’re not able to sell everywhere
Maybe your customers have expressed disappointment at not being able to find you on eBay, or maybe you’ve noticed your competitors have their own mobile app that’s getting a lot of attention. If you’re not selling on all the channels where your potential customers are buying, you’re missing out on sales opportunities. Your ecommerce platform should make it easy for you to sell on multiple channels, and your vendors should help you leap into new sales channels as they arise.
Ask yourself:
- Does my retail platform make it easy to list some or all of my products on eBay?
- Can I readily share and sell my products on social media?
- Can I use my ecommerce platform to create a mobile app for the 53% of smartphone and tablet owners who shop on company-specific apps?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, it’s time to start thinking about switching to an ecommerce platform that can keep up with current shopping trends.
2. You’re not giving customers what they want
You could be letting your customers down if you’re not
- offering a variety of payment methods, including a regular credit card facility through a payment gateway, third party processors like PayPal and Stripe, and instant finance options like ZipPay and Afterpay
- offering free or low-cost shipping that’s fast and reliable
- offering click-and-collect, so customers can shop from home and pick up their goods as soon as they’re ready
- streamlining your checkout process, and offering guest checkout
- sharing useful information on your ecommerce site, like customer reviews, FAQs, shipping and returns information, and helpful blog posts.
If you’re lucky, your customers will tell you about it. If not, you’ll probably just notice a lot of shopping carts being abandoned. But these are pretty basic expectations of online shoppers, and if your ecommerce platform doesn’t make it easy for you to meet these needs, it’s not a wise investment.
3. You’re buying more and more add-ons
Add-on modules are a great way to bridge the gap between what your current system does and what you need to do, but if you’re starting to use more add-ons than inbuilt features, your ecommerce platform is no longer meeting your requirements. As these add-ons are often created by third parties, you generally need to talk to multiple vendors if you encounter billing or technical issues. And it’s almost certainly costing you more money than an all-in-one retail management platform would.
4. You’re doing things more than once
It sounds like you may have bought an ecommerce platform from the dark ages! There’s really no excuse for a platform that requires you to manually copy and paste data between pages or repeat basic tasks that should be readily automated. By switching to an efficient platform that better matches your business processes, you’ll free up time to focus on growing your business.
5. You’re struggling to manage your inventory
Many ecommerce platforms offer only the most basic inventory tracking, and the same is true of accounting platforms. Your inventory management system should
- optimise your ordering process
- help you plan your procurement
- simplify your stocktakes
- integrate seamlessly with your sales system.
If you’re receiving stock in one system, then adding stock levels to locations in your sales system, and updating your stocktakes elsewhere, you’re creating extra work for yourself. Ideally, your inventory should be handled in the same system as your sales, returns, and customer service, so your staff and customers can always access up-to-date stock levels.
6. You’re working between multiple systems
The benefits of rolling your business processes into a single retail management platform apply to more than just inventory management. Which sounds easier:
- collecting orders manually from your different channels and consolidating them at the warehouse, or viewing them all on a single platform
- generating an order in your sales platform and then manually preparing an invoice in your accounting platform, or creating invoices directly from your orders in the same system and then syncing them to your accounts
- fielding a question from a customer, switching to your inventory management platform to check availability, and then switching back to answer the customer, or having all the information at your fingertips in the one system?
Only when all your business processes are managed within one system, and your data is seamlessly synced to accounting platforms using native integrations, can you be confident that your business information is accurate, reliable, and available when you need it.
Why wait, when you can switch today?
If your ecommerce store has been growing steadily, there’s a good chance you’ve outgrown your ecommerce platform. If you’ve noticed one or more of these warning signs, it’s time to start investigating your options for switching to a complete retail management system.
Neto is the only Australian retail management platform that provides a
Just about everyone is somewhat (if not completely) jealous of the amazing perks and employee wellness ideas that global giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and others offer to keep their employees happy, healthy, and super motivated.
Locally, Monash University was recognised for its employee wellness ideas through its Wellbeing at Monash program which was developed to support staff to adopt healthy work and lifestyle practices. The Monash program takes a holistic approach to health through providing programs on mindfulness and stress, physical activity classes and support around quitting smoking.
The thing is, employee wellbeing and happiness isn’t just about nap rooms, onsite massages, and cafeterias serving healthy food and snacks (though that would be nice!). It’s about doing what you can to show your employees that you care about them and their wellbeing.
Low budget employee wellness ideas
Of course, investment in your people’s wellbeing delivers on the bottom line in terms of lower absenteeism, lower injury related insurance claims, and fewer internal squabbles. This in turn translates into happier workplaces with loyal employees, higher productivity and high quality output.
Budget won’t stretch to the high benchmarks set by the tech giants overseas, or Monash University over here? Never fear. Developing and implementing employee wellness programs is all about figuring out what makes your people happy, and what keeps them healthy. And then get creative and build a work environment based on those ideas.
To help get you started, here are 4 quirky (read: low cost) employee wellness ideas you can adopt to put wellbeing front and centre in your workplace.
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Ping pong
Ever noticed how every tech startup comes replete with a ping pong table or two? That’s because ping pong is actually a fun and inexpensive way for employees to refresh themselves mentally and physically, and engage with their coworkers. Ping pong gets the brain racing, helps people develop tactical thinking skills, provides aerobic exercise, and brings out everyone’s competitive nature! A quick ping pong match in the middle of the day strengthens relationships within the team and allows team members to switch off for a short time, before returning to the job at hand more focused and alert.
In terms of cost, you can pick up a ping pong table from Kmart for about $100, so it’s not a major expense for all the good it brings. The biggest decision you need to make is where to house it!
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Green walls
Take a leaf out of Lend Lease’s book – their office in Sydney’s Barangaroo contains a 6-metre-high breathing green wall with more than 5000 plants. Meanwhile atop Macquarie Bank’s offices at Sydney’s Martin Place there’s a rooftop garden incorporating a vegetable garden and free range chickens.
A green wall will help to vastly improve the air quality of your office. This can lead to greater employee productivity and overall health, since cleaner air leads to better concentration, healthier employees and fewer sick days.
To start growing your green wall, speak to plant rental companies in your area or consult with specialist green wall designers to see what’s the most affordable option.
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Mindfulness and meditation
The use of mindfulness and meditation techniques are on the rise in the corporate world in a bid to combat the increasing problems associated with workplace stress. The theory goes that by being more in tune with their thoughts, mindfulness empowers employees to focus, speak up, and push back against unrealistic work demands.
Companies that offer mindfulness training report enhanced productivity, creativity, innovation, and better problem solving abilities, which are also key traits of highly engaged employees.
Even if you’re not ready to offer a mindfulness program just yet, designating a private space for general “chillaxing” is a great start. You can hold lunch time yoga or meditation sessions, and provide a place for people to take a moment away from their desks in a calm and tranquil setting.
Once you’ve found a suitable Zen space, all you need to do is remove traditional office furniture and replace it with cushions or comfy lounges, and ensure you can filter the light with an appropriate window dressing. Then all you need to do is light some calming, and soothing scented candles, and say “Om!”.
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Enshrining the lunch break
While you can’t force people to leave the office at lunchtime, research shows that employees who work through their lunch break suffer higher rates of burnout. Taking just 30 minutes away from the office can boost energy levels and help people become more productive during the afternoon.
To encourage your people to get away from their desks and make the most of their lunch break, get creative and promote walking activities around your neighbourhood. Think about setting up teams and offering incentives to the team that logs the most steps within a certain timeframe. Or perhaps it could be as simple as walking a couple of blocks to try out a new healthy eatery.
If you’ve set up your Zen space, then you can also encourage your people to use it to meditate, doodle, or take a power nap at lunch. In terms of cost, this one comes without a price tag, though you should see its benefits in terms of happier staff and higher levels of productivity.
What are you waiting for?
As you can see, incorporating employee wellness ideas into the everyday isn’t hard and it doesn’t have to be expensive. And the best thing is, looking after your employees will actually save your company money in the long run through increased productivity and lower turnover.
Free eBook
For more ideas, download our Employee Wellness Guide. When you show your employees that you care about their health and wellbeing, they respond by being more engaged with your business and more productive too.
Employment Hero is Australia’s first all-in-one cloud HRIS offering a comprehensive HR software, payroll system, and employee benefits platform in one easy solution. Trusted by Australian businesses, Employment Hero is about making rostering, onboarding, performance management, time tracking, payroll, and award interpretation a snap. Employment Hero’s HRIS also integrates with Xero, MYOB, KeyPay, and Accountright Live. Stop wasting time with spreadsheets, and request a demo today.
complete solution for ecommerce, point of sale, inventory, and fulfilment. Our integrated back-end technology enables exceptional and consistent customer experiences via any channel, be it in-store, online or through a marketplace. We automate repetitive tasks and integrate with multiple sales channels to manage orders and shipments. If you’re ready to streamline your store and take your ecommerce to the next level, start the switch today with a Neto free trial.
