Infinite. Com started as an automobile portal in 2007, but later turned into an online retailer. The success of Infinite has been stupendous. Many Indians today are embracing retailing with enthusiasm. For Inflame, this means the unlocking of a vast audience waiting to experience the Joys and comfort of shopping online. The concept of e-commerce is downloading at a fairly rapid pace in the psyche of the Indian consumer. In the metros, shortage of time is a big driver for online shopping. On the other hand, accessibility to a variety of products makes audiences from smaller towns and cities opt for the online route.
Major retailers face challenges in stocking their stores adequately. Often, customers are unable to purchase items of their choice, thus prompting them to resort to e- retailers. A robust back-end is a vital pre-requisite for an online business to survive, since once the customer completes the transaction; it’s this back-end that connects the dots. Infinite began operations on the consignment model -? goods were procured from suppliers on demand, based on the orders received through the website. However, eventually, the books-to-electronics e-shop adopted the warehouse model.
The company has its own warehouses, and maintains its own inventory. Sales projection determines the inventory, and the available inventory accounts for the sales made; it’s a self-feeding cycle of sorts. On the operational front, issues faced by the company pertain to delay in deliveries, or faulty products. As a customer-centric organization, none of these issues can remain unresolved for long. Infinite faces significant challenges in reverse logistics. It’s a big task to track unsuccessful orders, which are quite costly to manage. Hence, Infinite stresses on customer service -? it customer service is the hallmark of Infinite.
The founders don’t think discounts can replace the customer’s satisfaction of being serviced promptly and efficiently. In this business, delivery drives delight. Extending services like cash-on-delivery and credit card payment at doorstep were introduced to provide ample choice and comfort to customers Today, the premise of any business, traditional or modern, rests on its ability to harness data. – 4 – ERP Implementation in E-commerce Industry In this industry, the scope for growth is immense, as is the risk of failure. With the immense growth opportunities, a lot many commerce websites have sprouted.
This as led to fierce competition in the industry and even a small mistake at any customer touch point can destroy the market share that the company has gained since startup. Infinite planned to implement an order tracking feature on its website to better satisfy and make the service more tangible for customers. Thus, Inflame wants to implement an ERP system which manages the inventory and keep stock levels synchronized with the website, order processing, order fulfillment, order tracking and customer feedback as well as the supplier relations. This ERP system will fully automate the company’s operations.
The various challenges that the company was facing with increasing sales are listed as follows: 1. Separate Inventory management and shipping tool which was not integrated with the online platform – the website – Infinite. Com. 2. Delay in shipment was leading to upset customers and the Shipping tool was nonsensical in-terms of volume of business. 3. No single system which could provide a 360 degree view and control of the business process of the company. 4. Another challenge was maintaining separate accounting system called as Quick books which was leading to manual data entries leading to errors. Company required affordable, agile solution to survive and thrive in industry with fierce competition and thin margins. 6. Order processing required manual typing and retyping customer information, slowing sales processes and risking errors. 7. Lack of analysis and reporting. Maintaining real time inventory for the huge selection of offerings. 8. Demand Planning and Forecasting was also an area lacking integration and enterprise-wide visibility. 9. Corporate office and warehouse operations were not integrated online, running on separate instances. 10. Business processes were non- inform, and accurate information was not readily available. 1. What and when to order from the suppliers was also not integrated with inventories and was done manually. – 5- ERP Implementation in E-commerce Industry So Infinite was in look of an enterprise application that will integrate all its suppliers at all times thus leading to an improved ROI. 2. 1 Why ERP in Infinite The Online Retail Industry has changed tremendously in the last few years. To sustain competitive advantage, Infinite must re-examine and fine-tune their business processes to deliver high quality goods at very low costs that too with good laity and at the time promised.
Globalization has led to increase in competition and quality awareness and therefore it has become very important for the industry to integrate itself with latest information technology to survive. ERP is an integrated system that allows information to enter at a single point in process & updates a single shared database for all functions that directly or indirectly depend on this information. ERP system enhances information flow through various business processes like production sales, inventory planning and finance helping Infinite to gain competitive advantage.
By using ERP, the following advantages can be obtained when compared with non-ERP systems: 0 It provides software components for vertically integrated companies requiring system to cover the entire supply chain. 0 It helps in the planning for optimizing and scheduling of production orders. 0 It not only provides a user-friendly environment can be tailored to the needs of companies both large and small, but also progressively expanded, both in the ‘ horizontal’ sense to embrace additional organizational functions, as well as ‘vertically to integrate other stages of the order fulfillment process.
ERP enables accountability, accuracy, and transparency without breaking the existing workflow. 0 It vanquishes the old standalone computer system in Finance, HRS, Manufacturing and Warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified software program dived into software modules and shares information enterprise wide in real time thus improving customer service and corporate integration 0 It provides accurate information at all times to all stakeholders – employees, warehouse managers, supplier set and customers – that leads to better functioning of operations as well as better managing of customer expectations.
