Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the whole world has experienced a surge in crude oil and gas prices which has led to an increase in the cost of goods and services. The influx of the Ukrainians seeking refuge in their neighbouring countries has added to the burden on the European countries’ governments which are already working hard to keep their economies stable.
Ireland being a part of the EU cannot stand out as an exception. The rise in crude oil and gas prices has led to an increase in the prices of goods and services across the country. Also, there is an increasing shortage of energy supplies as Russia has reduced its supply of gas. Additionally, there have been more than 200,000 Ukrainians seeking refuge in the country.
This has resulted in the domino effect that has put Ireland on the path of inflation.
As the purchasing power of the consumer is reduced the businesses are forced to reduce their overheads and maintain a sustainable cash reserve to create a cushioning effect against the drop in their revenues. SMEs are always the worst hit in such kind of a scenario. As more than 60% of jobs in Ireland are generated by SMEs it has become important that they survive this economic slowdown by continuing to run their businesses.
How SMEs can succeed in this situation
At this time, it is necessary for SMEs to have a deeper understanding of their market and to know which sales channels can be optimized depending on the products that they offer.
In the case of the FMCG industry the small manufacturers and retailers who follow an omnichannel model (for example, e-commerce and in store) for their business, it is important to have a thorough understanding of which product suits which channel and based on that knowledge they can make an informed choice. This way it will help them to reduce the unnecessary cost of pushing the wrong products through the wrong channels.
So, for example, if there is a musical instruments vendor selling guitars through multiple channels, it is important to know which high end guitars with more profit margins are mostly sold through the physical stores, or which low end guitars with less profit margin are bought online. Furthermore, if the total sale of low-end guitars is more when compared to their high-end counterparts.
For such insights, it is crucial to have a sales reporting tool.
Once a business has this information it will be easier for them to decide whether they want to increase its revenue by focusing on low-end guitars or increase its profits by selling the high-end ones and accordingly invest its money to run the marketing campaigns.
Data driven solution to the problem
As the understanding of the market has become more important than ever before, it is necessary for the organization to be data-driven by generating and studying sales reports based on their previous sales data.
This way with the help of data analytics they can understand their strengths and weaknesses and utilize their resources where it is really needed. To achieve this feat, it is important to have a sales reporting tool which would help the management come up with the right decisions.
Knowing what the data is saying during uncertain times will mean a business will have to rely less on gut feel and can be supported in the decisions being made.
Informed decision making with a Sales Analytics tool
Sontai offers a Sales Performance dashboard which is a plug and play automated sales report tool for SMEs. Our dashboard connects with the existing in-house system of the company like an eCommerce platform such as Shopify and WooCommerce alongside an ERP such as Sage and Xero.
Our Sales Performance dashboard extracts the data from these systems and converts it into prebuilt sales reports which are easy to understand and provide deep insights for making key decisions. Since this is a cloud based data analytics tool it can run on almost any computer system irrespective of their hardware configuration.
Want to learn more? Book a no obligation demonstration of our dashboards to see for yourself how Sontai can unlock the power of your data.
