case history

ePrice

ePrice the first Italian e-Commerce operator with a great competence and experience in the sale of high-tech products and household appliances, aiming towards control of the commercial chain in terms of profit margin, given the dynamic conditions of purchase and sale of the online market.
ANALYSIS
Goal

The company expressed the need to activate a system able to guarantee: 

  • the automatic and daily distribution of profit margin information to commercial users, divided by category and Sales Site, with the typical characterizations of an online “sales showcase” 
  • high precision in profit margin calculation on sales, linking each customer delivery to the specific purchase cost, using the product traceability mechanism 
  • a uniform representation of sales for both physical products and “intangible” products (guarantees, subscriptions, etc.) 
  • the completion of the commercial profitability, with a first level of logistical costs linked to transport, estimating their impact based on product characteristics and methods of distribution to the consumer 
  • Ability to isolate the impact of discounts linked to online promotional campaigns from the formation of the sales profit margin, which are the responsibility of marketing and do not fall within the sphere of influence of buyers.
Solution

In order to achieve these goals, the E3 Suite “Commercial Profitability”  solution was applied, allowing to: 

  • collect the handling data of active and passive goods on a unique database 
  • assimilate the sales of both virtual and physical products, generating a buying and selling movement, characterizing marginal profit
  • complete the master data of products, through a categorization that focuses more on the needs of segmentation of the online market for “technology”
  • calculate the specific cost for each sale, by intercepting the cost condition on the supplier order after receiving the article, which is able to be recognized thanks to the label that identifies the specific product
  • highlight the movements of “reverse logistics”, such as returns for withdrawal, damage and repairs, which in the hi-tech market assume a particular importance and risk weakening the structure of the company’s income statement and category; in this sense, revision and subdivision improvement has been made on logistic handling with the warehouse personnel.  
  • Introduce, even if just an estimate, the impact of transport costs per piece sold, based on algorithmic rules with reference to standard tariffs of logistic operators
IMPROVEMENT
Result

Thanks to E3 Suite, ePrice – which has recently adopted SAP as part of the listing process – has centralized all data on orders and movements of purchases, stocks and sales per transaction, on a single control system with a 4-year view. The aim is to monitor the trend of turnover, category profit margins and seniority of the stock, sending a complete set of reports at 06.00 a. m. every morning (including Saturday and Sunday) to key figures in the commercial area, controllers, analysts and top management. Visions have been made at different levels, more detailed and segmented by area of competence for operational functions and more concise for management personnel, with the logic of the “Commercial Dashboard”, one has all the main information needed for a specific field of work in a single folder. In addition, with the web portal E3 BPM, data navigation is available for specific analysis and in-depth analysis, typically carried out by marketing analysts and process controllers.

Sign up our newsletter