The automotive industry has not been left behind in this online business era in many ways. Today, most of the auto parts retailers and distributors throughout the automotive industry have moved their business online. Still, some auto parts shops and distributors continue to use outdated, manual spreadsheet technology and outmoded technology solutions such as Intuit QuickBooks. If you’re one of the few that have failed to modernize your automotive parts retail or distribution operations, you have probably noted that obsolete tech such as the platforms listed above obviously has prevented you from growing faster and prevent you from building greater revenues for your auto parts business.
Whether you sell to businesses or individual customers, you must have a business platform that aligns with the way your business grows. Moreover, it should be an ERP platform offering a personalized and unified customer experience, making the business efficient at its front-end as well as its back-end. But which platform has these capabilities altogether in one software-as-a-service in the cloud? Well, NetSuite ERP is one of the primary ways automotive retailers and distributors can use to track and sell their parts in the cloud and online. If you’re asking, “how good is NetSuite ERP for Auto Parts retail business?” Well, here in this article we will describe some of the main features of the NetSuite ERP software that make it an excellent choice for your auto parts businesses’ ERP financial foundation:
1. NetSuite ERP provides an easy multi-channel experience
The B2B and B2C customers of today have all the control and come with great expectations for unique customer experiences. For example, they want to learn about what you have in your auto parts retail or distributor store on their PCs from their homes or workplaces, then follow it up with a physical pickup. So-called “Buy online pickup in-store” options have become standard for most online bricks-and-mortar eCommerce operations in the automotive parts industry.
What does this mean? The answer is, the customer is now looking for a better experience while shopping. But how does this concern NetSuite ERP? Well, NetSuite offers customers a more custom experience across any channel they shop with, all these depending on the likes and habits of the customer. That’s not all. You can even ensure the method and details of the products and services delivery to ensure customers are satisfied hence you can enhance the customer experience at all steps of the buying journey as well as bring in more sales.
2. NetSuite ERP provides a full perception of your Businesses Customers
As mentioned above, there can be a massive difference in what the customer experiences when shopping through various channels with an omnichannel business with online and in-store or telephone call-in purchasing options. Do you know that you can make the experience uniform across those many channels? Well, NetSuite ERP along with SuiteCommerce e-commerce monitors customer engagement and behavior as they shop at your online store or through any other channel. With this shopping data, merchants get to create a uniformly impressive eCommerce experience. Note that any time you make an improvement in your business that is customer-centered, customers always notice, and that increases customer lifetime value and average order size.
A personalized experience also means that with NetSuite ERP you can now offer better customer service. Then, you can take advantage of cloud-based data integration to reduce callback response times to inquiries and product returns. What this implies is, customers can be more easily satisfied and merchants can gain vital enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty to their brands.
3. NetSuite ERP provides Real-time inventory visibility
It is wrong for your site to indicate that it is selling as in stock when in fact something is out of stock. Having a system that updates inventory records in real-time can make a difference in your business and your customer’s perceptions of it — and NetSuite ERP helps with that in a big way.
This means that when someone buys your product, the displayed inventory stock numbers reduce on the web-store automatically. Suppose your automotive parts products are almost out of stock, then your site can now indicate how much parts inventory on your store remains in stock, truly. Once the online web store’s inventory has been depleted, the site will then suggest that the automotive parts in question are not in stock automatically. An automatic back-in-stock notification can be generated via a script, and the customer can then be informed as soon the item stock level returns to par value.
The important and vital concept here is not just better and more efficient management of inventory but rather more efficient management of the entire Enterprises business operations. The managing of automobile parts and their inventory levels is of course a paramount concern, but it is important to note that with NetSuite ERP, an automotive parts distribution or retail business now has access to myriad forms of data about every part including where it is housed, warehoused and stored, how it is purchased, from whom, when and for how much. It takes a “system of truth” such as NetSuite ERP in order to ensure the accurate and sophisticated display of information about the stock availability of the automotive product in question. Why is this important? It will be bad for your reputation in the event someone places an order with your automobile parts distribution or retail shop and even pays for it to be notified only later that the vital automotive parts they need is not available.
Moreover, this kind of information is essential for other functional business units within your company, like shipment, refunds, sales, and returns. This allows all the departments to have uniform knowledge of how the business is doing. For this very reason, NetSuite ERP is frequently referred to as the “system of record”, or the “system of truth”. There is one system that holds all of the vital information for your business’s operations, in one place, easily accessible in the cloud anytime, anywhere, from any resource that has the permissions and authorizations to access that data.
4. NetSuite ERP provides Better management of orders
Automobile parts can be large and it could take more than a week to get a product to a customer in certain situations. However, what if you could do it in a shorter period like two or three days. That could create a big positive impression on your customer about your automotive parts distribution or retail store. Well, that’s what NetSuite ERP can do for any auto parts business. First, orders are entered and completed quicker, resulting in demand to cash cycles that are much more efficient, and fulfillment and shipping costs are greatly reduced.
How does NetSuite ERP attain all these business benefits? The NetSuite ERP solution removes any obstacles that could slow the ordering process. Secondly, errors made by your order entry staff during ordering are reduced by the ease of use and uniform user interface for functions like order entry, as well as software as a service cloud availability to prevent slowing down the fulfillment of an order. Lastly, invoices and payments processes are streamlined considering the customer will get one invoice, although they are getting products from more than one location. And of course all of this information resides in the “one system of truth”, your automotive parts distribution or retail businesses NetSuite ERP system.
5. NetSuite ERP Makes Back-End processes more Efficient
NetSuite ERP ensures that you can run your automobile parts distribution or retail business from a single place by allowing you to connect your ERP with your eCommerce store. All back-end processes, including merchant services, multi-currency management, multi-site and multi-book financials, subsidiary management, and marketing. All of this streamlining of processes is possible using NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce or SuiteCommerce Advanced e-commerce solutions from the Seibert Consulting Group.
SuiteCommerce is a great choice to align your automotive parts or distribution business processes, improve your auto parts customers’ experience, and grow your sales channels and automotive parts brand.
Furthermore, it will ensure that you can manage inventory cycle counts, inventory refreshes and improve communication and customer experiences for your auto parts customers. NetSuite ERP makes your business more flexible as well as more efficient and more responsive.
You may have NetSuite ERP or considered it in the past, but it takes a skilled, NetSuite Veteran team to implement NetSuite ERP and maintain it correctly. We here at the Seibert Consulting Group can help with that, as an Official Oracle | NetSuite Solution Provider Partner. We are aware of what your business requires in order to make your automobile parts business an online success. Contact us, and we will be happy to assist.
To find out more about NetSuite ERP for your auto parts business, or to find out more about the Auto Parts SuiteSuccess edition for auto parts retailers and distributors offered by the Seibert Consulting Group, or to set up a free demo of the NetSuite ERP platform, please contact the Seibert Consulting Group at 760-205-5251 or email the SCG Team at hello@seibertconsulting.com
