Is Your Business Ready to Expand to Multichannel Ecommerce?
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “The only constant in life is change.” This astute observation is especially true in the ever-evolving world of ecommerce.
The business systems and workflows that got you from zero to selling successfully on one channel, will not suffice to help your business grow expand to multiple selling channels. According to a recent report, most customers check out multiple sites prior to making a purchase. Thus, you need to make sure that you stay competitive on multiple selling channels.
How do you ensure that you business scales smoothly and profitably amidst the competition?
As your business expands, automation and accurate financial reports will be key to success.
At Connex, we specialize in helping small business owners eliminate manual data entry into QuickBooks. This allows small businesses to have accurate financial information at their fingertips. In addition, automation frees up resources to grow small businesses. Curious how our customers have been able to expand profitably to multiple selling channels?
Let’s look at how some Connex customers overcame three challenges and stay profitable through the transition of growing into a multi-channel ecommerce business.
Three Common Challenges of Scaling to Multichannel Ecommerce
Challenge #1: As your sales increase, how do you keep your QuickBooks up-to-date?
Many small businesses reach out to Connex at the juncture of transforming from a single selling channel to a multichannel retailer.
Katherine and Ryan Harvey, founders of Bare Bones Broth, started their business making and selling bone broth from their kitchen. During their humble beginnings, they hired a bookkeeper to enter their Shopify orders manually into QuickBooks. As their sales increased from individuals to wholesale, it was difficult for their bookkeeper to keep up. Sometimes, Katherine and Ryan had to go for a week without their books.
Automating data entry into QuickBooks saves time, and is the fraction of the cost of a bookkeeper
Once Katherine and Ryan automated data entry into QuickBooks with Connex, they had the accurate information about their finances and inventory. It cost a fraction of the price of a bookkeeper, and they had peace of mind that their books were always up-to-date. Automating data entry into QuickBooks allowed the Harveys to profitably sell their products both to individuals and large-chain stores such as Whole Foods.
Challenge #2: How do you ensure that your orders are fulfilled on time?
Gentent’s Founder, Mark Carpenter, designed a safety canopy for portable generators after he experienced a serious power outage following a snow storm in New Hampshire.
Gentent began selling products on Amazon and used ShipStation as their shipping solution. Although sales were increasing, Mark and his team couldn’t keep up with manually entering all their orders into QuickBooks.
Gentent is a complex and multichannel ecommerce business. Besides selling to individuals on his website and Amazon, they also sell to over 20 small dealers, and large chain-stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. It was impossible to manually enter all the orders into QuickBooks and to track the flow of customers through his business.
An automation that ties different pieces of your business together streamlines your workflow and reduces time to fulfill orders
Mark considers Connex an essential part of operations for his own business. One of Mark’s favorite parts of Connex is the Rules Engine. “With the Rules Engine we are able to pull in products from different channels and get the order correctly into QuickBooks.”
Challenge #3: How do you know your business is profitable?
Is it possible to have a profitable business selling high quality apparel that is 100% made-in-USA, fair-trade and also environmentally friendly?
Duckworth, based in Montana, prides itself on creating Merino wool apparel for both men and women. Their “Sheep-to-Shelf” process ensures trust, high quality, and comfort in their products. In addition, as the company is 100% US-based, it also supports the local economy.
Prior to using Connex, Duckworth was hand-entering orders into QuickBooks. It was a cumbersome process that got in the way of expanding their business and serving their customers. As many other multichannel ecommerce businesses, Duckworth sells their products both on a Shopify site, and also through an Amazon storefront.
An automation tool that provides up-to-date accurate financial information helps you make decisions to stay profitable.
Daniel Mouw, controller at Duckworth, appreciates that he can make high level financial decisions. “Having Connex easily saves me 15-20 hours a week.” Connex helps Daniel and him team have accurate financial information to make business decisions and serve their customers.
Is Connex the Right Tool For You To Expand Your Business to Multichannel Ecommerce?
Most of our customers sell on multiple e-commerce channels. For example, Woocommerce, Shopify, Magento, and ShipStation, just to name a few.
They want to grow their business, and they also value the peace of mind from knowing their books are always up to date and they can serve their customers.
Why Our Customers Choose Sync with Connex
- Developed specifically e-commerce business owners
- You can scale your business by automatically syncing sales & inventory from multiple e-commerce platforms to QuickBooks Desktop or Online.
- You don’t have to spend your resources manually entering sales, inventory, and customers into your website and QuickBooks accounts.
Recommended by Intuit itself, Connex for QuickBooks will give you peace of mind that your inventory will be updated. You will be free of the frustration of oversells and missed items.
- When your inventory is up-to-date, you can achieve higher customer satisfaction, leading to more positive reviews, and increased sales.
- For phone orders, we can sync sales from QuickBooks to your shipping solution.
- If you sell on multiple channels, you can simplify by using our solution instead of multiple tools.
- Connex integrates QuickBooks with all major e-commerce platforms, such as Woocommerce, Shopify, Magento, Amazon, and e-commerce shipping solutions such as Shipworks, Ordoro, ShipStation and ShippingEasy.
–Click here for a full list of our ecommerce, shipping, and payment integrations
How can you decide whether Connex is right for your business?
The easiest way to tell whether Connex is right for your business is to speak with our sales team
During this introductory call, you will discover how Connex can help you to:
- Eliminate manual data entry into QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop
- Automatically update your inventory and prevent oversells and refunds
- Manage sales from multiple channels in one app
- Connect your shipping solutions to QuickBooks
- Have accurate financial information in your QuickBooks every day
Are you unsure whether Connex is right for your business?
Click here to schedule an introductory 15 minute call with a member of our sales team.