What exactly are enhanced websites, and are they that beneficial? Andy Scothern, founder of eCommonSense, an ECI Software Solutions company, explains why builders’ merchants that embrace the technology now will gain an advantage over their competitors — and why they’re becoming all the more necessary.
We all know that supply chains are tricky. In fact, for many businesses keeping a supply chain balanced and working efficiently is one of the hardest things they do. And this difficulty has been compounded for some merchants because of the changing habits of buyers.
Until recently, customers could be neatly divided into two sets — those who ordered their materials online to collect, and those who did everything in person. Left to their own devices, each set of people would largely have stuck to their own methods. We’re all habitual, and we stay with what we’re used to.
Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that, over the past two years, many more people have been forced to shop online for all sorts of things in their daily lives, from groceries to stationery. People who wouldn’t have even considered doing so before.
And so is the case with construction. The trouble is that many builders’ merchants still manage their stock and supply chain with old school methods, which is fine for old school buying habits. But when you try to adapt those practices to a rapidly changing environment, everything can start to unravel.
For those without a website, and dealing with more orders by phone and email, this is especially difficult.
Without everyone always seeing every product that goes in and out, and because the transactions happen faster, the records become harder to keep accurately updated. That leads to mis-ordering of new stock further up the supply chain or, worse, running out and enduring a period of lost sales.
And although many builders’ merchants have a standard website to explain where they are, what they specialise in and so on, it’s a sector where relatively few have one through which items can be ordered. Out of that, an even smaller number have a website that communicates directly with the programme managing their supply chain and wider business, known as an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. This is what an enhanced website does.
We saw that this has prompted many builders’ merchants to update, and add such a site to their business — and experienced a big surge of people asking about its benefits.
The fact is, buying habits aren’t going to dramatically reverse. So while physical sales will always have their place, builders are doing more and more of their preparation online. And this is why good systems like ours are able to include various tools, such as to suggest materials and calculate the costs of a certain job, or an entire project. There are also tools to configure windows and doors, and a system to find stock of matching bricks from a photograph.
The fact is that buying habits aren’t going to dramatically reverse. So while physical sales will always have their place, builders are doing more and more of their preparation online.
By including these facilities on your website, and taking care of more of your customers’ project process, they are more likely to buy again from you or order on repeat. This is especially important when the nature of online retailing means customers are less loyal to specific companies.
One of the most important aspects that an enhanced website includes is a display of a particular item’s current stock in your warehouse, or nearest branch if you have several, because it links directly with your ERP system. This not only helps your part of the supply chain management, but also your customer’s management of their section.
Naturally, taking such a step into ecommerce can be a daunting prospect for many — particularly for businesses that have been relying on more traditional ways of managing their stock and orders.
Of course, we recognise that many builders’ merchants are very long-standing businesses. And in the construction industry, which still places great value on manual skills, it’s understandable that some are hesitant to change such a fundamental component of how they operate.
However, making the change now is what will enable you to capitalise on the situation, making the most of the change in buyers’ habits while they’re still happening. The greater efficiency and real-time visibility that a good system offers of your entire business — not just of orders but, together with the ERP system, of that delicate supply chain, inventory, finances and HR — is what will future proof it.
A final tip is that, whichever system you decide to use, do it with an experienced provider. We’ve learnt many lessons from several years of implementations, and know the issues to anticipate, how to solve them and complete it all quickly. We also know how builders’ merchants in particular will use it, and what information they’ll prioritise.
With the right help, it’s possible for companies to come out of these uncertain times in an even stronger shape than two years ago.
Click here for more information on the range of ecommerce solutions from eCommonSense.
A version of this article appeared in the March edition of PBM. Click here to read the full digital issue of the magazine.
