Amazon and online marketplaces present tremendous selling opportunities for fashion and consumer goods brands. To seize this opportunity, it’s essential to offer quality products and meet exacting fulfillment and customer service requirements. This e-guide, “How to Do Business with Amazon” discusses technology and automation to help you do business with Amazon and other online retail platforms successfully and profitably.

You don’t have to be a large business to take advantage of surging online shopping sales. On Amazon, small- and mid-sized businesses (SMB) recorded solid sales in the most recent holiday shopping season. “During the holiday season, third-party sellers — most of which are small- and medium-sized businesses — achieved record worldwide sales in Amazon’s store. More than 130,000 third-party sellers worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales on Amazon.”

Common Challenges

The opportunities are clear, but how do you get a piece of the action? How can you meet online retailers’ and consumers’ demands and grow your business? How do you avoid pitfalls that cause many companies to have their Amazon accounts frozen due to noncompliance with the platform’s strict requirements?

The e-guide discusses the four common hurdles facing many fashion and consumer goods brands and manufacturers when they engage in e-commerce:

1. Limited visibility
2. Lack of automation
3. Compliance problems
4. Planning complexity

“Legacy computing systems leave brands with inventory blind spots,” the e-guide states. “This is particularly challenging if you are running multiple systems across different divisions or brands. It’s hard to have one version of the truth that is up-to-date and exact. But that’s exactly what is necessary to succeed with Amazon.”

Aligning Business Objectives and Technology Solutions

CGS BlueCherry™ is partnering with hundreds of manufacturers, brands and retailers on their e-commerce strategies and execution. Jason Roth, Vice President of Solutions and Strategy, said CGS begins by working with customers to understand their business goals with online marketplaces. Then CGS helps clients identify processes and technology to support those goals.

“It’s really important to help customers find the best fit to achieve their goals,” Roth said. “We collaborate with customers on their business strategy before any technology comes into play. Where do they want their product to be? What do they want to gain? Market share? Sales growth? Greater profits? Faster fulfillment times? Streamlined processes? First, we have to know our client’s end goals and business requirements. Then we can implement the best technology solution.”

The e-guide highlights a CGS customer success story about a fashion wholesaler that earned $25 million in new sales through Amazon in six months, all the while maintaining its Amazon Prime status, which is difficult to do for new sellers on the platform. “Just as importantly, now they have the standard business processes and technology in place to add other brands to Amazon if they desire,” Roth said.

Business requirements of Amazon and other platforms are always changing. Even brands with e-commerce sites need a technology partner who is continually investing the R&D to know what’s coming next from the big online marketplaces, whether it’s Walmart.com, Target.com, Macys.com, Etsy or Amazon.

It takes end-to-end automation, to grow online sales efficiently and profitably. The right solution must help you master order management and fulfillment, a major emphasis in working with online marketplaces.

Success online also requires digitalized and streamlined processes for:

• Omnichannel planning — Embracing a holistic strategy across channels and business disciplines. Planning a targeted mix for each channel, including Amazon as its own channel if needed.
• Design, product development and PLM — Moving fast to design and spec out products so that you can respond to quickly evolving online demand trends.
• Production management and shop floor control — Manufacturing products rapidly, with transparent tracking, monitoring and quality control, so that you can speed goods into available-to-sell status as efficiently as possible.

Last but certainly not least, lean into integrated business analytics. “Amazon is a business built on analytics,” the e-guide said. “Other marketplaces are very analytically savvy, too. Suppliers have an imperative to use analytics to perform well on Amazon and other platforms.”

Are you ready to automate your business with Amazon and other online marketplaces? Download the e-guide, “Doing Business with Amazon: Operational Tactics and Technology for Growing Your Business with Online Marketplaces,” for helpful insights and tactics.