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Trading businesses play a crucial role in facilitating the sales of goods. They play the role of intermediaries who ensure goods are picked up from the manufacturing company and reach end-users intact and on time.Â
But modern trading practices are changing rapidly as retailers and manufacturers invest resources to develop indigenous supply chain networks for delivering products to consumers without any middlemen.Â
As a result, traders and distributors are struggling to make profits. Also, manufacturers are paying less to wholesale distributors to offset the rising operational costs.Â
Moreover, the rising e-commerce industry poses a severe threat to wholesale distributors who have largely stayed away from using technology in their daily operations.
Technology has transferred the seat of power from wholesale distributors to manufacturers and retailers.
Manufacturers are developing independent supply chain networks. This move allows them to sell their products at higher rates to retailers. And on the other hand, the retailers get these materials at lower prices because they don’t have to purchase them from wholesale distributors, who initially acted as middlemen.Â
Technology is the primary driving force behind this recent transformation and if distributors don’t find efficient ways to deal with this challenge, they may soon be driven out of the equation
Inventory management means taking care of each product that goes in and out of the storage facility.Â
It’s crucial to monitor the warehouse to know the exact quantity of raw materials to figure out how much you need to restock in the inventory.Â
Primarily, there are two ways of doing inventory management. Firstly, physically counting by hand, which is an inefficient method that wastes a lot of time. And secondly, through RFID tags that only a handful of companies can afford to implement.
Gone are the days when e-commerce was limited to the B2C market. It has now expanded its deep roots in the B2B market too.Â
Newly launched trading companies understand the online market thoroughly and are exploring ways to compete with big giants. On the other hand, traditional companies aren’t competitive enough in the online world. Many of them don’t have a website. And those who do, lack the skills to maintain them in good shape. Â
Also, a trading business, especially in India, does not care about cybersecurity issues that are haunting organizations worldwide.Â
Moreover, most B2B companies are now purchasing products online. So, they expect the same types of customer service that B2C companies provide to their end-users. Thus, trading businesses need to embrace the culture of offering value-added services.
With the rise of the millennial generation, customer demands and preferences have undergone significant changes.Â
Millennials have grown in an environment where they purchased products online. Now, people belonging to this generation have occupied essential posts in the corporate world. So, they expect to receive the same levels of customer satisfaction in the B2B market that they have been getting in the B2C market for ages.Â
On the contrary, the trading industry isn’t ready to provide the same level of customer service. They lack the understanding and the ability to collaborate with competitors to keep clients happy by providing value-added services. In addition, they lack the ability to determine the changes that might happen in the near future and how they might influence the market demand.
Today, trading organizations are selling different types of products to end-users (B2C), other businesses (B2B), and the government (B2G). ERP software for trading company helps organizations achieve the dual objective of improving the brand presence and increasing profits. It also enables brainstorming effective strategies and optimizes various processes.Â
Ask yourself the following questions to know whether you need ERP for the trading and distribution industry.
If the answer to most of these questions is no, then you require ERP software for trading.
Sage X3 is the leading ERP for trading companies that contains different modules to help manage shipping goods to far and wide regions. You can easily configure it for carrying out various business processes, including inventory and warehousing, finance and accounting, maintaining highly efficient human resources, tracking inventory, supporting multiple currencies and languages, accurate reporting, supply chain management, and simplifying international business management, and much more.
The following points explain the features of Sage X3 ERP for trading companies:
Sage X3 is undoubtedly the best ERP software for trading company as it integrates functional modules like inventory, purchasing, asset management, sales, warehousing, production management, order management, finance & accounting, CRM, vendor management, and shipping and delivering goods. You can track business-wide activities from the same platform and take complete control of them.
Sage X3 enterprise resource planning software allows you to adhere to government compliances easily. Avoid severe penalties that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, you can significantly improve real-time visibility across global supply chains that will provide transparency to all stakeholders — vendors, suppliers, distributors, and clients.
Sage X3 ERP solution significantly improves data management by providing a free flow of business-critical information between various departments. As a result, you can streamline operations with the click of a button, instantly share crucial data with stakeholders, and collaborate with multiple business partners spread across diverse geographies.
The Sage X3 ERP system provides an end-to-end solution for all sizes — big corporates, small scale and medium-sized business. You can list your products on e-commerce stores conveniently and monitor the sales using an interactive dashboard. View the number of sales, estimate future demands, understand customer preferences, and do precise planning to fulfill all your business needs. Sage X3 is one of the best ERP systems. It captures feedback from multiple e-commerce websites that helps businesses understand what customers think about their service and find products with the highest selling potential.
Sage X3 is the best ERP software for trading company in India because it contains cutting-edge business intelligence tools that help reveal current market trends and changing customer preferences. First, get a deep understanding of what products are most likely to have the highest selling potential in the near future. Then, monitor business analytics in user-defined dashboards and make effective decisions in real-time.
The Indian trading industry has shown a remarkable improvement in the previous years. According to IBEF, the Indian retail market is expected to grow from USD 672 million in 2017 to USD 1.1 trillion by 2021. The current tally of distribution outlets in the country is 12 million. A BCG survey revealed that India is set to become the world’s third-largest consumer economy by 2025. Moreover, online retail sales have swelled from USD 32 billion in 2018 to USD 60 billion in 2020. Most importantly, the Indian e-Commerce market has become the fastest-growing globally because of the rapid expansion of the internet user base in the country.Â
Overall, India’s trade and distribution industry is expanding at a rapid pace and has become second to none.
Trading ERP software manages different aspects of your business. For example, from inventory and warehousing to supply chain, finance & accounting, and customer relationship management.Â
Sage X3 is the best ERP software for a trading company. It contains numerous modules and applications that offer a broad range of services, such as customization, implementation, training, integration, and support. With Sage X3 ERP software for trading business, you will implement the right strategy for gaining better performance. The following points explain ERP applications in detail:
Ensure high productivity, consistency, efficiency, and top-notch quality control through the inventory and warehouse management module of the trading and distribution ERP system. Other key features include:
ERP for trading also takes care of warehouses across multiple locations, decreasing processing time and enabling employees to do more work in less time. As a result, you can use resources judiciously and handle millions of transactions conveniently at a time.Â
Other benefits of a trading ERP system include serial number tracking, lot tracking, and inventory forecasts. But, most importantly, it also helps achieve product traceability through upstream and downstream courses of action.
Trading ERP software also has a customer relationship management (CRM) module to build robust and long-lasting customer relationships. Moreover, it helps manage the sales pipeline by prioritizing follow-up activities for each customer and meeting the targets effectively.Â
The CRM module has built-in capabilities to develop comprehensive customer profiles based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral parameters. In addition, a trading and distribution ERP solution has an easy-to-use dashboard that provides a comprehensive overview of each client that can be used to brainstorm effective relationship strategies.
A trading ERP software manages different products and their variants, kits, and multiple units of measurements. It also has a touchscreen interface and a barcode scanner that handle various trading operations such as packing, picking, and delivering orders at high speed.Â
ERP software for trading assigns serial numbers to each product that dramatically improves the tracking ability of those products. As a result, you can access the real-time location of products and make changes in the route from any connected device. Moreover, you can set customized routes and select different picking methods such as batch picking, wave picking, and by-order picking.
Since POS immensely influences customers’ purchase decisions, it plays a critical role in a company’s marketing strategy. As a result, many businesses install POS systems near the store exits that grab customers’ attention and significantly increase the purchase level. For example, department stores have POS panels for different products such as microwaves, televisions, fashion wears, candies, and much more.Â
The staff promotes the products by giving customers gifts, vouchers, privilege cards, and discounts. Other benefits of PoS include improved customer service and checkout efficiency.