{"id":2487,"date":"2017-05-08T16:50:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T16:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brightpearl20.wpengine.com\/when-it-comes-to-retail-innovation-dont-put-the-cart-before-the-horse\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T13:47:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T13:47:25","slug":"retail-innovation-automation-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brightpearl.com\/blog\/retail-innovation-automation-technology","title":{"rendered":"When it Comes to Retail Innovation, Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s easy to get enticed by the latest news on how artificial intelligence will revolutionize retail or how consumers are clamoring for AR-based mcommerce apps. While it\u2019s smart to follow and track \u201cthe future of retail discussions\u201d, it\u2019s just as important to live in the now. SMEs need to ensure their business is running smoothly and profitably before spending capital and resources on touchscreen mirrors in changing rooms.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The key \u201cnow\u201d strategy is implementing automation technology – no longer reserved for the retail giants like Amazon<\/a> – to streamline SME\u2019s unique back office operations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The result is an improvement in customer satisfaction and a reduction in operation costs by performing back office tasks faster, more efficiently, and with less staff. <\/span><\/p>\n

How Automation Works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Within their retail management system, merchants can create rules that define specific workflow actions and conditions to process automatically, as opposed to manually performing each function. <\/span><\/p>\n

A rule is created in three easy steps:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Assign the rule\u2019s name<\/strong>, so it can be identified and managed amongst all other rules. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Create a list of conditions and criteria<\/strong> for this rule. When an order comes into the system where all the criteria are met, the automation process takes it from there. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Assign the automated actions<\/strong> that are to be performed when the rule\u2019s conditions are met.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Merchants can create an endless array of rules for specific criteria, automating and performing multiple workflows and paths efficiently in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s look at three areas of operations and day-to-day back office processes that truly benefit from automation technology.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Automating Your Pick, Pack, Ship Process<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Let\u2019s say there is a SME retailer; we\u2019ll call them Outer Heaven, a sporting goods company that stocks over 1000 SKUs at three warehouses located across the country. With an average of two SKUs per order, Outer Heaven\u2019s team fulfills around 400 shipments per day.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Under manual operation conditions, when an order came into the system, it took several staff to perform the back office processes of pick, pack, and ship. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Management also discovered that staff were not consistently assigning order fulfillment to the closest warehouse<\/a> to the customer, costing the company unnecessary shipping costs and longer delivery times. Some manually generated order confirmations slipped through the cracks, which resulted in increased order status requests from customers and added stress on the company\u2019s support staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

    By setting up specific automation rules designed to support Outer Heaven\u2019s unique operation:<\/span><\/p>\n