As their customer bases and sales increased in the double digits during the pandemic, many online alcohol merchants found themselves burdened by their basic technology solutions, most of which are siloed and unable to “talk” to one another.
A chain of liquor stores that had to make a quick pivot to ecommerce in 2020, for example, may have been forced to quickly set up a Shopify ecommerce storefront and then use an existing QuickBooks accounting system to manage its online sales.
Unable to produce reports, maintain operational visibility, or even close out their month-end financials without the use of spreadsheets for transferring data between these disparate systems, companies in fast-growth mode struggled to keep up.
4 Reasons All Online Liquor Merchants Need Cloud ERP
Here are four ways cloud ERP helps both online alcohol sellers and subscription companies break through these barriers and continue growing their businesses:
1. Know the contents of every box.
Subscription-based companies need to know the contents of every box that’s in their warehouse/storeroom and that’s being shipped out to customers. A customer with a wine of the month subscription, for instance, may sign up to receive six bottles of wine every month. Using NetSuite’s Work Orders and Assemblies and Advanced Inventory modules, subscription companies can put multiple different SKUs in a single box, bundle them together, and then create a new SKU that accurately represents the contents of that box. This not only saves the subscription company time spent checking and rechecking boxes, but it also ensures a more accurate shipment and happier customer.
2. Access to enhanced reporting.
Developed specifically for the beverage sales industry, Cloud Genius Advisors’ Cloud Wine ERP Solution for Alcohol Distribution + Subscription Companies helps companies get the most out of NetSuite. The reporting module allows them to view bottle quantities and cost of inventory on-hand by warehouse using a snapshot view for any given date in the past; see the quantity of bottles ordered by order date, with category of bottle (i.e., standard, gift, replacement, etc.) in order to separate revenue and non-revenue generating bottles; and view quantities of bottles shipped by ship date, with the category of bottle indicated to see separate revenue and non-revenue generating bottles.
3. More reliable inventory tracking.
Companies use custom fields to store information about individual products (e.g., sugar levels, alcohol count, type of alcohol, color of the alcohol, importer channel, country, taste, etc.), and can barcode physical locations and items to easily locate/relocate inventory. NetSuite users can also easily “transfer” wines or other products to different production areas within a warehouse or “freeze” inventory so that it cannot be allocated.
4. Better order allocation.
Online sellers can automatically route orders to certain production areas for fulfillment based on item settings; use slotting or substitutions to define the order in which inventory is allocated (e.g., RO1 should be fulfilled with Wine_1 until we run out, then use Wine_2, and when we run out use Wine_3). Users can also independently track and allocate inventory in different production areas within the same warehouse (e.g. if we have Wine_1 in only the VIP production area, do not allocate the wine to orders in other production areas).
Choose Cloud Genius Advisors as Your NetSuite Partner
These and other functionalities within CGA’S NetSuite solution help growing online alcohol sellers effectively shed their basic, disparate technology solutions in lieu of a unified enterprise solution that they can use to manage their end-to-end operations.
With decades of experience, our team of senior-level consultants can help you find the perfect way to implement NetSuite into your online alcohol business. Contact us today to learn more about our Cloud Wine ERP solution and to schedule a free demo!
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