Common Ecommerce Problems and the Correct Technology Solutions

As an ecommerce business leader, you are responsible for solving a variety of problems to keep your business running smoothly. Technology solutions can help, but how do you know which type of technology solves each unique business problem? Here is a brief overview of common ecommerce problems and their correct solutions.

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Identify the technology solutions to your business’ urgent problems.

Which of the following problems is your business currently facing? Hover over the problem or click it to reveal the software solution that can help. Then, jot down the software solution types so you know which ones to research.

Problems with Your Ecommerce Customers

Your business’s success depends on customer satisfaction, so solving problems with your ecommerce customers is one of the most impactful things you can do with technology. Are any of these problems familiar?

• I’m overselling my inventory and my customers/ marketplaces are upset.
  Inventory Management (IMS) or Order Management System (OMS)

• I’m losing customers because they want free shipping, and I can’t afford to do that.
  Shipping Solution

• Orders are arriving late; people are receiving the wrong order; my customers are angry.
  Shipping Solution and Warehouse Management System (WMS)

• I don’t have a great way to nurture my customers and earn repeat business.
  Ecommerce Platform

Problems with Scaling Your Ecommerce Business

As your ecommerce business grows, you may face problems with scaling your operations to manage rapidly growing order volume. Do you know which software solutions can help?

• I need to quickly scale my infrastructure.
  Ecommerce Platform

• I have no idea what’s in stock anymore.
  Inventory Management System (IMS) or Order Management System

• My warehouse workers can’t keep up with orders. We have a huge backlog.
  Warehouse Management System (WMS)

• My current software tools can’t keep up with my B2B business growth and complexity.
  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Ecommerce Problems with Time Management/Bottlenecks

Often ecommerce businesses struggle with performing tedious, repetitive tasks quickly and accurately, especially when using paper-based processes. Are you currently facing any of these time-related problems?

• Entering shipping details is a bottleneck. I can never get orders shipped fast enough.
  A shipping solution automatically inputs customer information.

• We can’t pick orders fast enough in the warehouse. We have a huge backlog.
  A Warehouse Management System (WMS) can increase efficiency by over 50%

• I hate logging into multiple shopping carts/marketplaces to manage orders.
  An Inventory Management (IMS) or Order Management System (OMS) lets you manage all orders in one place.

Ecommerce Problems with Losing Money

• Losing money on shipping? If shipping is too expensive, use a shipping solution to rate shop, get specially negotiated shipping rates, and trim costs.

• Losing money on overtime? If you’re paying overtime to warehouse workers to keep up with order fulfillment, do more work with fewer people by using a warehouse management system.

• Losing money by overselling inventory? If you are losing online sales because of overselling inventory, you need an inventory management system (IMS) or order management system (OMS).

Is more technology really the answer to ecommerce problems?

Selecting and adopting new technology may seem like a monumental task. Is it worth the time, effort, and money? Consider this: ecommerce orders vary in volume throughout the year, peaking for many businesses around the end-of-year holidays.

• I was planning to hire more people.
  If you hire more people, you run into the question of what to do with them during lulls in order volume. Alternately, you could hire seasonal workers, but they must be able to quickly learn your tools and processes to be truly useful. Is your current process efficient and user-friendly? Can a new person learn it quickly and execute without making mistakes?

• My workers already have specialized knowledge.
  Your workers’ expertise and existing processes may be good enough for slow days, but when order volume increases, can they keep up? How will you scale operations as your business continues to grow?

By adopting technology, you will not only eliminate human errors and repetitive processes, but you will also no longer need to rely on individuals with specialized knowledge, such as “picking experts” that know where certain items are in the warehouse. Because the software is user-friendly, anyone can easily learn how to use it and perform the necessary tasks without errors, unlike many paper-based or manual processes. This will allow you to easily scale operations.

Start Building a Tech Stack for Ecommerce Fulfillment

We have outlined four simple steps to help you build a tech stack, and you just completed Step 1. Now that you have identified the solutions to your most urgent business problems, let’s move to the next step and see how the pieces fit together. It’s time to choose a tech stack journey for your business type.