While being customer-centric is a top priority, at the end of the day retailers need to sell the products they have on the shelves—and sell them as quickly as possible. There are too many areas where the system can break down and leave you with out-of-season inventory that has to go to markdown. These areas are typically ones that a lot of retailers overlook or take for granted thinking things are running smoothly. These five critical connections bring to light how important it is to have visibility into the entire process of sample to shipping (and everything in between) in order to increase your sell-through velocity.
2. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
Increase Sell-through Velocity
While being customer-centric is a top priority, at the end of the day retailers need to sell the products they have on the shelves—and
sell them as quickly as possible. There are too many areas where the system can break down and leave you with out-of-season
inventory that has to go to markdown. These areas are typically ones that a lot of retailers overlook or take for granted thinking things
are running smoothly.
These five critical connections bring to light how important it is to have visibility into the entire process of sample to
shipping (and everything in between) in order to increase your sell-through velocity.
1. Inventory
Received to
Posted
2. Competitive
Pricing & Delivery
Terms
3. External
Exposure
4. Internal
Exposure
5. On-site
Search &
Categorization
3. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections to Increase Sell-through Velocity
1. Inventory Received to Posted
How can you leverage inventory
received and posted data?
Do you know how long it takes for products to get shot
and posted to your website? Do you wait for the whole
collection before shooting? How do returned items get
processed and restocked? Time is money—especially in
retail where products that spend days or weeks in limbo
mean you’re losing money on potential sales. Looking
across inventory, website data and even returns is not
something many retailers have the capability to do often
or too easily. Connecting these areas of the business can
help improve sell-through velocity.
What are other retailers doing
inventory received and posted
data?
By combining their web analytics and inventory data,
Dynamic Action highlighted nearly $4 million dollars
worth of inventory that had no exposure on a retailer’s
website. When they investigated further, they discovered
that the delay was due to the fact that the inventory was
awaiting photographs, copy and product details for the
website. Realizing what this delay might be costing them
in missed sales, they bought additional photo booths to
speed up the production process, which helped improve
their sell-through velocity.
4. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections to Increase Sell-through Velocity
2. Competitive Pricing & Delivery Terms
How can you leverage competitive
pricing data?
eCommerce has increased the competitive landscape
giving retailers the ability to change prices on a daily if not
hourly basis. Your products may not be selling quickly
enough because competitors are out-pricing you or
offering better delivery terms. Maintaining a constant
handle on what your competitors are doing can be an
overwhelming task for all of your products, but with an
application that can pinpoint where the biggest disparities
may lie, you can remain competitive, maintain your
sell-through velocity and save time combing through
competitive data.
What are other retailers doing
with competitive pricing?
A luxury goods retailer was alerted to products that
were overstocked and priced high compared to
competitors. When investigating the items in question,
they found that some items were overpriced by as much
as $1,000. Adjusting the pricing to be more in line with
other retailers—while still maintaining a healthy
margin—they managed to improve the sales and
sell-through velocity of these products without having to
resort to multiple rounds of markdowns and, ultimately,
liquidation.
5. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections to Increase Sell-through Velocity
3. External Exposure
Why is external exposure critical to
increasing sell-through velocity?
Is there not enough external exposure to drive traffic to the
products? While marketing is one of the more obvious
answers to increase sell-through velocity, keeping track of
all of your marketing efforts—PPC, email, affiliates,
display— across all of your products is nearly impossible.
Sometimes the connection between marketing and
merchandising teams can get lost. With the right
technology, identifying those products with the greatest
revenue potential that have limited or no external exposure
can present significant sales opportunities.
What are other retailers doing
with external exposure data?
By connecting one retailer’s marketing channels data
and product inventory, Dynamic Action identified nearly
$300,000 of inventory that had no external exposure
through any marketing channels. The marketing and
merchandising teams collaborated on those products to
drive more external traffic. By increasing the external
views of these product pages, they were able to increase
sales and improve the sell-through velocity.
6. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections to Increase Sell-through Velocity
4. Internal Exposure
How can you leverage internal
exposure data?
Do you know if every product is on your website and
ready for purchase? If the landing pages are correct? If the
product descriptions and imagery are high quality and
accurate? With thousands or even millions of SKUs that
can change daily, these can be daunting tasks to keep up
with. Internal exposure on the website is just as important
as external exposure. Having an application that can alert
you to the biggest internal exposure issues and
opportunities may help get your products in front of more
customers—resulting in increased sell through.
What are other retailers doing
with internal exposure data?
Using Dynamic Action, a high-end retailer found
$500,000 worth of inventory that had no internal
exposure on their website. By connecting their web
analytics and inventory data, they were able to identify
the exact products at issue. They then worked with the
merchandising and content teams to shoot the
products and get them up on the site, which ultimately
increased sales of these items and avoided markdowns
on potentially out-of-season inventory.
7. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
The Critical Connections to Increase Sell-through Velocity
5. On-site Search & Categorization
How can you leverage on-site
search and categorization data?
Knowing every variation of search terms and categories
that your customers browse on your site is impossible.
However, missed dual-merchandising opportunities or
miscategorization issues may be the cause of markdowns
because customers can’t find the products they’re looking
for. Do you know which of your products are not showing
up in on-site searches? Are they showing up low in the
sort order? Identifying the products with the biggest
revenue potential and how they appear in search results
and categorization can present a significant opportunity
for improving the sales and sell-through velocity of these
items.
What are other retailers doing
with on-site search and
categorization?
Connecting web analytics and inventory data, Dynamic
Action identified $1,000,000 worth of overstocked
products for a high-end retailer. Upon investigation, they
found that some of these products had been
miscategorized or had too few views in search results.
They dual-merchandised and recategorized these
products to give them added exposure in on-site search
and sort orders, which resulted in increased sales.
8. The Critical Connections of eCommerce success
About Dynamic Action
Dynamic Action from OrderDynamics helps forward-looking retailers and brands drive every last dollar of profit from their eCommerce
business.
This first-of-its-kind Decision Intelligence application connects and analyzes product and customer data across a retailer’s
organization. Unlike any reporting or analytics tool to date, Dynamic Action tells you exactly what’s impacting profit, recommends
actions to take, and ranks them by how much they’re worth to your business.
Find out how the leaders in retail are revolutionizing their omni-channel businesses at www.orderdynamics.com.