MARGIN INCREASE FOR TRADING COMPANIES
You achieve a higher margin by increasing sales or reducing costs. But what if you can increase turnover without increasing your costs, or better still, reduce them? You can do so by making smart use of automation, as IT is a valuable key to higher margins.
Higher margins: no hocus pocus!
As a trading entrepreneur, we obviously don't need to explain to you that there are two ways to increase margin: higher sales or lower costs. But increasing turnover without increasing costs, or rather reducing them, is another story. Automation can play a key role in this. It's Us has over 25 years of experience in automating business processes within trading companies.
Our expertise, knowledge sharing and open communication form the basis for successful cooperation. We are convinced that the combination of passion, daring and decisiveness leads to the best results. Based on service and frankness, we help trading companies increase their margins.
IT as a mode of operation
Solid business management is the foundation for focusing on what matters most in a trading company. Because besides purchasing and sales themselves, finance, logistics, inventory management, sales channels and reporting also play a role. It's Us has smart solutions for all these activities.
With the right financial and logistics software, integration with a webshop, POS systems and WMS, there is reliable information and full insight and control. It's Us also has years of experience in implementing and optimising business software.
Agile makes predictable
Trading houses today face rapidly changing conditions. After all, today's world is one big network, leading to unpredictability in markets, supply and demand.
Consider, for instance, the effect of international tensions, rapidly rising transport or energy costs, labour market tightness, import and/or export restrictions, (online) competition, laws and regulations, automation, and so on. The key then is to be able to respond quickly to these issues, i.e. to be agile.
Organisations need to continuously improve and innovate to remain competitive. It's Us helps trading companies become agile and provides an application landscape that can be adjusted quickly when necessary.
Improving performance starts with insight
Is the organisation performing well enough? KPIs allow you to measure the performance and progress of your organisation, your teams and individual employees. This allows timely intervention in processes when targets are in danger of not being met. But is that insight there? At It's Us, we see that at many trading companies, information is available in a fragmented way. An overview of top customers or best-selling products can undoubtedly be found in POS systems or in the webshop, of stock positions in a warehouse management system and a debtor overview in the financial back-end. We can learn a lot from top players in the market who have steering information available in one place at any time, even when it comes to combined overviews across topics. We like to share those learnings with our clients through our own BI platform Roger.
Digitalisation
Investment in technology such as automation and AI is essential for efficiency and customer focus. Combining the right solutions gives the business a valuable edge. Determining the best solutions depends on a number of variables.
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What are the sales channels? Online, physical shops, retailers, e-commerce platforms.
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Is there in-house warehouse(s) or drop shipment?
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How are the warehouse(s) and financial and logistics processes automated?
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Is there working from a single system? Is the best solution chosen per situation?
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And in the latter case, how do those applications communicate with each other?
These are all relevant questions that It's Us can answer for each specific company.
For us, It's Us is the perfect partner for IT solutions, a fine sparring partner who looks at business challenges with a pragmatic eye.
JOOST VAN NOORLOOS, OPERATIONS MANAGER AT ANDEROL
Chain accountability
Increasing internationalisation, international tensions and legislation on climate issues are creating a growing demand for transparency in the supply chain. Where exactly do products come from, what are the raw materials and by what routes are they shipped?
Digitalisation is the key to getting a better grip on the supply chain and making it more transparent, sustainable and efficient.
System integration
Integrating systems reduces unnecessary manual tasks, allowing employees to focus on more value-added tasks. This leads to lower operational costs and higher margins. Our own SaaS platform Coretix helps all systems (webshop, ERP, WMS, robotised storage system) communicate with the same data. To make this clear and transparent, we use AI and smart logic, among other things.
Growth plans
across the border?
More and more trade organisations are operating internationally. Besides cultural differences, these companies also have to deal with local laws and regulations, local customs and additional administrative burdens. For instance, a local VAT number is often required and administration and financial remittance must be organised locally. Companies with international ambitions would do well to be prepared for this. It's Us is happy to help with that!