Understanding and keeping up with the latest technology is important for every business out there. However, this is an absolute necessity for businesses that keep most of their operations online.
To be able to grow your business online and keep making good money, you need to understand how new tech solutions can help. On top of that, you should also consider your business and how various software tools can help you improve all the processes.
Below you will see various software tools that can help enhance important processes and your everyday tasks.
ETL tools
The ETL process can help your organization improve some of its vital activities, like the extraction of data from one or many source systems, the transformation of data, and the loading into your data warehouses.
This process is needed to make the data an analyzable whole. Your online business will benefit from fast and accurate analytics and you will never face data loss with good ETL tools.
The best ETL tools are much easier and faster to use than traditional methods that move data through manual code writing. These tools offer different types of graphical interfaces to help with speeding up the process of mapping columns and tables between the source and end storages.
So, if you want meaningful data that can help you make better business decisions, definitely consider investing in one of these tools. They have proven to be successful for numerous companies, maybe even your competitors.
Live chat
Nowadays it is absolutely necessary to have a live chat feature if you have an online store. Customers expect to see a little chat box at the bottom of the screen as soon as they click on your website.
On top of that, 73% of customers state that a company valuing their time is the most important part of good customer service. They have placed time efficiency before free shipping, easy returns, and other aspects.
On top of that, other live chat statistics reveal that 51% of customers want businesses to be available at all times. This is an obvious sign of how important live chat can be for your store.
Having live chat support does not require customers to leave their shopping journey to get answers, and they don’t have to write an email or get on the phone to resolve their issue.
This functionality also saves you a lot of time. It relieves your customer service agents, which gives them more time to focus on more difficult business tasks. If you implement a knowledge base and then connect it to the live chat feature, you might just make it a lot easier for your customer service department to do their job.
Accounting software
This kind of software is virtually the technology-laden version of the sales records. It aims to help retailers monitor incoming and outgoing transactions, and generate a cumulative history of finances.
Most good accounting tools have features such as these:
- General ledger
- Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable (companies like DataServ)
- Financial reporting
Additionally, retail-focused accounting tools also offer useful functionalities like payroll services (employee payroll management, paycheck creation, taxes) as well as reports and analytics (sales performances, trends, margins, and markups).
Accounting software is also essential for brick-and-mortar stores. However, as an online retailer, you should explore advanced features such as budgeting, forecasting, payroll services, and reporting and analytics aside from core accounting features.
Helpdesk software
Good helpdesk management software can really make a significant impact on your business. It can help through automation, better ticketing, tracking and resolving customer complaints, and so on.
However, let’s go through the most important benefits that a helpdesk management software solution can bring to the table.
- Single point of communication. A software solution of this kind works as a one-stop solution for all customer support, queries, requests, complaints, and assistance requirements
- Quality improvement. A good helpdesk tool allows businesses to improve the quality of assistance and support provided to their customers.
- Better brand image and reputation. Advanced helpdesk software solutions ensure top-notch customer support and assistance. These are crucial if you want to win over customers through high customer satisfaction.
Payment processing software
You need a good and reliable payment processing software solution if you want to avoid losing customers during the checkout process.
Your payment processing software needs to connect your store through virtual terminals with other payment systems that accept credit cards and other payment methods. The more, the merrier.
Some benefits of this tool include reduced costs, maintaining a professional image, low risk of fraud, better cash flow, as well as improved customer satisfaction.
And these are some of the top features of good payment processing software:
- Customer records (designed to collect your customers’ personal data)
- Invoice creation (designed for businesses to be able to create professional invoices that can be customized)
- Online payments (probably the most important feature where a store offers multi-currency support and in-line processing)
- Bank reconciliation (keeps track of money which goes both in and out through daily updates and simple bank reconciliation)
- Credit card processing (saves time and facilitates billing by processing credit cards fast and allowing for recurring billing and secure customer management)
Retail management software
Finally, retail management software unifies various features into a single platform. A good tool of this kind groups together functionalities coming from multiple software tools such as your payment system, human resources, marketing, eCommerce, and even CRM.
All of these and some other tools are grouped into a single platform through this kind of software. So, if you are a large retailer, you will have a more convenient way to manage your operations if you decide to give it a chance.
These are the most important functionalities to keep in mind when selecting your retail management software solution (aside from the usual features):
- Employee management – managing employees’ schedules and planning their shifts
- Suggestive selling – provides suggestions on which products can be recommended to customers based on their purchase history (this helps with cross-selling and upselling)
This tool can be very useful for omnichannel online-only retailers, as it can integrate multiple tools into one, but that is only essential for large-scale retailers. So, think about this if you are a large retailer because it could make a huge difference for your business.
Final words
Now that we have covered the solutions that are of great use to retailers across different industries, it is time for you to sit down and consider your business goals before you make a decision.
It is important to understand how your business goals align with the tools you have selected. So, take some time and think about this. Every business needs technology and innovations to speed up the growth and make more profits. These software tools might just do the trick.
Also Read: 10 Top Tools For Startups- Get your business off to the right start!