Managing a company demands knowledge in several areas, such as administration, marketing, costs, logistics, and of the branch of business activity, which makes the manager's job very difficult. When the enterprise starts to operate in off and online markets, the difficulty only increases.
To cope with the new attributions, it is essential that the organization uses the technological tools available, such as those that allow the integration of the virtual store with the physical store. Are you interested? Find out below how to do it!
Why Integrate the Online Store with the Physical Store?
From the moment a company starts to operate in off-line and on-line markets, it is as if a new branch was opened. Just like the physical store, the virtual one demands a serious management in order not to burn the image of the whole brand. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of the financial, commercial and stock aspects of both units.
If the administrator will have to do the same activity for both stores, obviously the work will become more organized and practical with the integration of the virtual space with the physical one. And, by doing this, you will have several benefits. Get to know the main ones:
Centralized management
Nothing justifies performing the same task twice (once for the virtual store and once for the physical one). Therefore, you must control accounts payable and receivable, cash flow, contact with suppliers or customers, and employee administration, among other management activities, in the same system.
Thus, the manager will have more precise information and at the necessary moment to make accurate decisions.
Automated processes
By using computerized tools, the manager gets the processes off the paper and onto the computer. The advantages of this are the security and availability of information, because most of the solutions available rely on cloud storage.
Therefore, everything is safe in case of breakdowns and accidents. In addition, data access can occur from anywhere there is internet available.
Another benefit is the almost zero probability of errors such as those that occur in manual processes. The information becomes more reliable.
Controlled inventories
One of the greatest difficulties to manage a company that operates in the off-line and online market is to control stocks. If no tool is used to integrate the virtual store with the physical one, the embarrassing situation of the same merchandise being sold over the counter and on the internet may occur.
In this case, what to do? One of the customers will be dissatisfied, and getting around this will be complicated. When the stores are integrated, when selling an item by any means, the product is automatically taken from the stock that is available for all sales channels.
Increased productivity
By concentrating the administrative activities in a single tool, there will be the availability of time and manpower for other work, increasing the company's productivity. With a large part of the automated tasks, the focus shifts to increasing business revenues.
Economy of resources
By centralizing several processes in just one tool, the company starts saving money. This occurs in several ways. See some examples:
- savings with licenses for various software, because only one program will be needed;
- less spending on stationery, such as paper, folders, and printer ink, because most of the information will be saved in the system;
- fewer people needed to perform the same tasks, because of the automation of several processes;
- Less space needed for document files, because they will be saved in the cloud.
What are the main ways to do this?
Now that you understand the benefits achieved by integrating the online store with the physical store, find out what tools are available to perform this operation efficiently.
Online store platform
Some companies that specialize in providing platforms for the creation of online stores usually offer the possibility of also entering information from the physical store into their systems. This ends up being interesting for the platform company, because such business is sustained when virtual stores achieve success.
Therefore, nothing more natural than to offer tools that can make the administrator's work easier and more intuitive.
ERP
This is usually the most cost-effective solution. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. The advantage of this tool is that it was created specifically to gather virtual and physical business information, allowing a more assertive and less laborious management.
Through the ERP system, the stock in all sales channels is controlled, the customers are registered and their information is filtered. In addition, the issuance of electronic invoices and bills is facilitated, and the cash flow is organized, with the administration of revenues, expenses, and accounts payable or receivable.
Another important point of this solution is the fiscal part. When goods are received for sale, the purchase invoices are posted in the system. When you make the sales, the exit invoices are also issued by the application. With this, the information on revenues, expenses, and taxes are all collected and, automatically, sent to Sefaz.
The interesting thing is that, despite being a very complete tool, the ERP system does not require large investments. This explains its attractive cost/benefit ratio.
Hiring programmers
If the company is at a more advanced development level, it will need customized solutions to integrate the virtual and physical stores. This is what happens with big players and franchise chains: there are several branches, each with its own particularities, and only one virtual store that represents the entire brand.
To be able to integrate this amount of information, it will probably be necessary to develop a specific solution for the case. In this situation, it is natural to have a team of programmers dedicated to developing this tool.
Do you realize how important it is to integrate the online store with the physical store? The benefits are countless, and yet, there are no major difficulties in promoting this integration, agree? What do you think? Leave a comment below and share your opinion with us!
