Store management - which processes should be automated (part 1)

timer 3 min read

Process automation

When opening our own business and starting a new project, we are rarely able to foresee all the challenges that will arise during its implementation and prepare for them. We also do not always have the knowledge and experience that would allow us to adjust the tools we use to the type of problem we face.

It is no different in the case of online stores - even those based on the dropshipping model, in which many of the seller's responsibilities are taken over by a wholesaler.

When planning sales on the Internet, one of the first things that are taken into account is, of course, its conceptual assumptions - such as the name, appearance or type of assortment.

The next step is the technical aspects - what kind of store platform to use, what shipping method to use, from which wholesaler to obtain goods. Although we don't usually think about them in the first place, making these decisions is essential for a store to get off the ground.

What most often surprises inexperienced sellers, however, is how much regularity and reliability is required to keep a store running smoothly after it opens. So in this article, we focus on the issue of process automation - while it doesn't solve all the problems, it can significantly reduce the time we spend on routine, repetitive tasks.

Importing product information

Regardless of what sales model your online store is based on, in order to sell products it is necessary to add basic information about them - their names, descriptions, categories, manufacturers, features or prices.

Depending on the type of assortment and the amount of data provided by the supplier, preparing a card for a single product in the store can take from a few minutes to even several hours if you prepare the product card completely from scratch.

Assuming that you will spend about 6 minutes on one product, adding 10 products will take you an hour, 100 products - 10 hours, and adding 4000 products will be the equivalent of over 2 months of 8-hour work.

Although almost every store platform provides tools for bulk import of products, there is no unified standard on the market for transferring information about them, so the chance that the file from your chosen wholesaler will be compatible with the built-in importer is relatively small.

This is where the tools available on the market for automatic store merchandising come to the rescue. They allow you not only to add many products in a short period of time, but also enable you to make large-scale changes - such as filtering descriptions, modifying prices suggested by the wholesaler, or assigning all products from selected categories to the indicated category in your store.

You can learn more about stocking the store on a dedicated subpage:
https://www.megamo.pl/en/content/48-store-supply

Comments (0)

No comments at this moment