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~ ShopCtrl ~

eyond the buy button ing too. Th e platform functions as a tailor-made solution, like
Consumers are privileged, right? Th ey browse through a glove that specifi cally is designed for your company and that
Byour shop, compare products, decide what they want fi ts perfectly,” illustrates Prost.
and how they want to pay for it and – as a fi nal step – click “When you, for example, look at sales and communication
the buy button in your checkout process. Th at is it. Th eir job is channels, the market has grown exponentially. Integrating all
done. Talk about the sunny side of life. channels and aspects of an order consolidates all information in
one place. When you off er your customers all the contact chan-
As an online retailer, this is the cue that your job just started. nels they desire, and you use a system that puts all the informa-
After convincing consumers to choose your shop, which is hard tion together, your customer service agents can see what has
enough in itself, you must now live up to your promises. It been talked about, no matter the chosen channel. Th is heavily
requires a smooth chain of systems that can handle all aspects benefi ts the customer experience,” says Bastiaans. “An ERP sys-
of the order. Bastiaans sums up some of questions of process- tem provides the solution to keep up with market demands.”
ing the order: “Is the customer’s payment successful? Are the
ordered products in stock in your warehouse or at one of your Consolidation in the market
partners? What logistic partner will deliver the order? Will it Even though the online market is still developing, Bastiaans
be handled by a logistic or drop shipment partner?” A smooth thinks consolidation will take place, “It is easy to think that
working system can streamline these processes. bigger companies will become bigger while smaller, special-
ised retailers will have a tougher time to survive. In the US,
Today’s consumer wants to be informed, which is why it is people in general are surfi ng directly to Amazon.com to start
important to have a clear view of the order process. When their purchase journey. On marketplaces like Amazon, the best
– preferably on the minute – will their order be delivered? performing shops get the most visibility. As a small retailer, you
Which logistic provider is making the delivery? What do they need an extremely good proposition to make a diff erence and
need to do when they want to make a return? Not to mention be successful too. Meanwhile, platform fees take bites out of
all fi nancial processes. Prost: “In the online business, there are a your sales margin.”
lot of solution providers who cover a small piece of the online
selling toolbox. ShopCtrl provides an ERP (Enterprise Re- Other developments can be seen in the Chinese market, where
source Planning) system that can connect with all these sepa- manufacturers focus on the European market: “It becomes
rate service providers. Th is way, you can control all processes of more regular that the middlemen, who used to buy Chinese
your organisation in one platform.” products in bulk and sell them in Europe, are cut. In the cur-
rent market, Chinese manufacturers immediately sell to the
Th e bricks that fi t your needs European market.”
ShopCtrl started as an OMS (Order Management System)
functionality, supporting online entrepreneurs to process their Prost: “Th ese changing demands asks us to adapt our platform.
orders the right way. “Over the years, that process developed it- Our generic system enables us to react to new developments
self in many fi elds. Each of these disciplines has to be mastered and remain relevant for users. It is up to us to deep dive into
to get yourself a working system for your business, whether it is all disciplines that we off er and centralise in our ERP, whether
accounting, logistics, payments, customer service or something it is customer service, order management, fi nance, inventory
else,” explains Prost. control, reporting or automation.”

For multi-channel retailers, it becomes even more complex. Bastiaans adds: “Right now, we need to deal with the demand
“Say you have both brick stores and an online shop. As an of extensive data. As a service provider in the current online
e-tailer, you want to know which stock you keep where. In world, you should always make your data transparent for your
today’s current market, it is quite common that you do not customers as it helps them improve their business strategy. We
allow customers to return products to a physical shop. Inven- are innovating this fi eld in all kinds of ways.” ••
tory systems often cannot cope with these diff erent inventory
units, even though in-store returns are a much preferred option
by consumers. In ShopCtrl, we off er the possibility to work IN COMING ISSUES OF CROSS-BORDER MAGAZINE, SHOPCTRL WILL LET COMPANIES
with the online and offl ine stock in one system, making sure all SPEAK ABOUT THEIR CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE ACTIVITIES AND THE USE OF THE
numbers are correct. Th at way, you can provide a more conveni- ERP-SYSTEM TO THEIR BENEFITS. CHECK WWW.SHOPCTRL.COM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT
ent service to the customer and still have up-to-date inventory,” THE SHOPCTRL PLATFORM.
points Bastiaans out.

Having all disciplines of your online business on one platform
is making work easier. “As the demands set for software in the
market are rising, the value of an ERP system like ShopCtrl, in
which we add more modules and keep on innovating, is grow-

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