It’s fantastic to see a spike in orders during the holiday season, but more orders mean added strain on your fulfillment system.
Without a robust fulfillment system and efficient order processing, you risk missing out on sales – a startling 38% of online shoppers will abandon their carts if the estimated delivery exceeds a week.
After the rush of the holiday season, analyzing your sales data provides key learnings about gaps in your tech infrastructure, allowing you to pinpoint where your software fell short.
This guide will show you how to successfully identify gaps in technology for holiday fulfillment and integrate better software solutions to enhance forecasting, planning, fulfillment, and service for the next busy season.
Analyze Technology Infrastructure
To begin your assessment, create a top-down visual of your current systems used for ERP, WMS, shipping, etc. You likely rely on several integrated systems, so having it mapped out visually will help you identify bottlenecks, slowdowns, or downtime issues.
Make a note of any systems that are not being used to their full potential, redundant systems, and any integration challenges that are adding manual steps to your holiday fulfillment process.
According to a Pendo study, around 80% of software features are never used, even after a new implementation. This means there is a significant opportunity to improve your current software stack and take advantage of underutilized features that could solve some fulfillment challenges.
Assess Data Availability & Insights
Next, look at data availability – where does your sales data come from? Are there blind spots in customer, inventory, or operations data? If you have difficulty accessing or sharing data due to software limitations, that’s a red flag requiring attention. You should have easy access to all your holiday data, including sales, customer information, order processing, and shipping. If you are missing data, now is the time to consider software improvements.
If you are looking for the right solutions to your technology issues, consider talking to a pro. By working with a software coach, you can quickly identify issues and get to breakthrough improvements that improve data collection, analysis, and any operational changes needed to make the most of the holiday rush.
Evaluate Data Integration
Data silos can create significant issues for retail businesses. Without a centralized view of holiday fulfillment data, you’ll end up with inaccurate reporting, barriers to communication, and inefficient operations.
We often find that SMBs have silos between systems – especially CRM, ecommerce, and finance software. This usually leads to duplicate data entry requirements, which increases the chances of errors and omissions. Research shows that fractured systems lead to staff spending up to 12 hours a week searching for necessary information.
If you have noticed gaps in your current IT stack, look for opportunities to streamline workflows. This could be as simple as improving underutilized integrations or, creating a software implementation plan.
Review Analytical Capabilities
Do you have robust analytics capabilities that provide key metrics and KPIs? Without efficient data tracking, you’ll struggle with forecasting, sales optimization, and scenario modeling.
Without a streamlined holiday fulfillment process, you’ll almost always find gaps in your analytical capabilities that inhibit continuous improvement. With the right tech stack, tracking your metrics and milestones is easy, meaning you can set realistic seasonal targets and enjoy consistent growth each year.
Takeaways and Action Planning
After reviewing your fulfillment technology, round up the assessment with key findings and lessons learned. What systems worked well? Where were the most significant shortcomings? What systems lack integration and data flow?
Turn your findings into tech, data, and integration goals – what will you add to your 12-month technology roadmap to improve for your next busy season? Prioritize your investment and upgrade plans by focusing on ROI to ensure buy-in from key decision-makers.
Get Expert Help Reviewing Your Fulfillment Software
The only way to grow your business and see meaningful growth each holiday season is by leveraging tech and data analysis. If your current fulfillment system is full of gaps and inefficiencies, you’ll struggle to meet seasonal targets.
However, it can be challenging to determine what systems you should improve, upgrade, or scrap altogether. Which is why working with a business analyst is essential.
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