Getting eCommerce sales can be tricky because you have your own timeline while your customers have theirs. They operate on their motivations with varying states of urgency. Suffice to say, the timing isn’t always right. For the customer, the reasons could range from not the ideal price and insufficient content and research. On the business side, it generally means you are in between items (not currently in stock for seasonal reasons or just out of stock of a popular item). The eCommerce industry moves quickly and having some strategies in place to mitigate the “bad timing” situation can go a long way to smooth out what might be negative situations for customers.
Let us outline some situations of “bad timing” that you may run into:
Situation 1. Your customer is browsing online. They find the right product after reading your excellent description and the raving reviews. All the photos and videos are top notch. Target acquired: they must have it. But alas, the words “out of stock” dash their dreams.
Situation 2. The customer is shopping online. After some perusing on your website, they have confirmed that this is the right product for them. However, upon seeing the price, they balk. They decide to hold off on the purchase.
Price and availability alerts are an important part of keeping your customers informed and happy. Without alerts, the customers in the previous examples would have forgotten about it, found something else, or they would have had to check in frequently. Both situations outlined above can be made into happy endings for your customers with these alerts in place. While no immediate action that has taken place, there is the intention to make it when the time (or price) is right.
When an alert is requested by a customer, they submit their email or other contact information. From there, this information should go straight into the ERP system (MS Dynamics Business Central NAV in this case). When the price drops or inventory levels are back up, customers should be automatically notified as they are in the system.
However, sometimes this doesn’t always happen. Without proper integration into ERP, it is unreliable. The lack of integration to your Business Central NAV system could result in missed opportunities that would diminish the overall customer experience. Customers could visit your webshop at a later time and realize they’ve been missing out because the item they covet has been back in stock for a while. Or they missed a sale!
With Nav-to-Net™, the price and availability alerts are managed directly in NAV/ BC. Because the solution is built in NAV / BC, it means that data goes straight into Dynamics NAV ERP, stored in real-time. This whole process is automated for your convenience. There is no need to manually set up these communications. You won’t have to worry about if your alerts are actually sending and if customers are getting what they requested. Integration is at the core of the solution.
his feature can be applied to multiple situations. For example, if a business has services that require booking, a simple alert will let customers know if they are off the waiting list. This is also particularly useful for services that typically vary in price, such as flights.
What are our other options? How can we preemptively tackle this “timing” situation?
Redirection via Cross-Sells and Upsells
Gentle redirection via cross-sells and upsells are commonly used in eCommerce for showing customers what else others have bought and how to increase value. This process is automated in Nav-to-Net™ for convenience.
This feature can be used to combat the “bad timing” situation by showing customers similar products or perhaps items that are lower in price. It may be a trade-off but it’s important to remember that you are providing options to your customers. Expose them to more of your catalog and entice them to click and explore. For some customers, they may decide to wait for that alert, but others may be content with something else that you can offer instead.
Clear Communication Benefits All
And of course, make sure you communicate clearly to customers so there is no confusion. Content management in Nav-to-Net™ allows you to quickly and easily change information as needed. Customers will see it in real-time and will be as informed as possible. This applies to upcoming sales, new updates, important news, and more.
Promote better management and flow in your eCommerce environment, no matter what it is you sell.
For more information, watch 4 min demo or visit our resource library. If there is anything we can answer for you, please let us know!
