If you’re looking to scale your e-commerce business, shortening your cash conversion cycle (CCC) can be an effective way to do it. Your cash conversion cycle is a telling measure of the health of your business and its financial standing, which is why having a shorter CCC as opposed to a longer one is ideal when it comes to growing your business.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how a shortened CCC can be beneficial to your e-commerce business, different ways you can go about shortening it, and platforms you can use to help you along the way.

What Is a Cash Conversion Cycle?

A cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a metric that allows businesses to measure how quickly it’s able to convert inventory into cash. It indicates how well a company is managing its working capital and liquidity. Having a shorter CCC is ideal since it shows that a company is efficiently managing its investments and generating higher returns. 

On the flip side, a longer CCC can negatively impact a business’s growth since it shows that the company isn’t properly managing its investments. With a shorter CCC, e-commerce businesses have the available funds to invest more back into marketing, technology, and other areas that are important for business growth.

The Three Components of a Cash Conversion Cycle

A CCC is made up of three different elements that, when considered together, provide you with the formula you need to calculate your CCC and gauge the health of your company. The three elements are Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), Day Sales Outstanding (DSO), and Days Payable Outstanding (DPO). 

Before we look at the formula, let’s look at each of these three elements and why they’re each an important factor in your business’s CCC.

Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO)

DIO is a way for a company to measure the average number of days it takes to sell inventory. It’s an important metric for a company to evaluate its ability to turn inventory into cash. Like your overall CCC, a high DIO shows that it’s taking a company longer to move its inventory. You can calculate your DIO by dividing the average inventory balance by the cost of goods sold (COGS) over a period of time, and then multiplying that result by the number of days in the same period.

Day Sales Outstanding (DSO)

DSO looks at how long it takes a company to collect on payments from its customers for sales. This is calculated by dividing the total amount of accounts receivable by the average daily sales. Here, you’re looking for a low number, as that’s an indication that customers are paying on time. Your DSO result can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your company’s credit and collection policies, and it can also show areas for improvement in your payment process.

Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)

Finally, your DPO measures the average time it takes your company to pay its suppliers for goods and services. This is typically used to examine a company’s liquidity and cash flow. A high DPO indicates that it takes a company longer to pay its suppliers, which might mean it’s at risk of defaulting on payments or incurring late fees.

How to Calculate Your Cash Conversion Cycle

In order to calculate your CCC, you first need the results of the three metrics mentioned above. Once you have that, the formula for calculating your business’s CCC looks like this:

CCC = DIO + DSO – DPO

The number you arrive at is the length of your CCC. Whether your CCC is high or low might be dependent on your industry. Some businesses might expect clients to pay invoices immediately upon receipt of a product or service, while others might have a 30, 60, or 90-day period for payments to be completed. 

For example, e-commerce retail companies’ sales made directly to clients will likely have a shorter CCC, but if the same e-commerce company also sells on retailers or marketplaces with a 60-day payment term for items sold, that can increase the CCC.

How Can E-commerce Companies Improve Their Cash Conversion Cycle?

A shorter CCC doesn’t only show that a business is in good health, but it also means that a business has a greater ability to free up cash more quickly, enabling them to reinvest back into its business to fund projects and help them grow. That said, shortening your CCC can be tricky, but it’s still achievable with a few targeted strategies maintained over time. Here are some ways your e-commerce business can shorten its CCC.

Reduce Your Inventory Conversion Period

By implementing stronger inventory management practices, your business can reduce its CCC. This can be done by adopting just-in-time inventory management, ensuring you’re regularly managing excess inventory, optimizing your product mix, and relying on data to forecast demand in a bid to control inventory levels.

Optimize Your Accounts Receivable Conversion Period

By getting customers to pay outstanding invoices quicker, you’ll be able to shorten your accounts receivable cycle. You can do this by incentivizing customers for early payments, implementing automations in the invoicing and payment process, implementing a credit check process for new customers, or turning to invoice financing to get quicker access to funds from upaid invoices.

Extend Your Accounts Payable Conversion Period

There are many ways you can extend your accounts payable conversion period. For starters, you can begin by negotiating longer payment terms with your suppliers or taking advantage of early payment discounts. Aside from that, you can consider reviewing your payment terms with long-standing suppliers and implementing automations to streamline your accounts payable process. 

Use Technology to Streamline Processes

There are tools available that can help you streamline your business, such as accounting software to help you put your payment and invoice processes on autopilot. Additionally, there are other automation platforms for e-commerce retail businesses that will allow you to improve your CCC. For example, Cymbio is a retail automation platform that helps you manage inventory when you work with retailers and marketplaces in addition to offering finance tools to help you get quick access to your profits.

Cymbio: Automate Accounts Receivable and Shorten Your Cash Conversion Cycle

Cymbio offers two solutions that can help you automate your accounts receivable process and gain access to cash quickly. Let’s take a look at each product in more detail.

Cymbio Finance

Cymbio Finance is a product that allows multichannel sellers to get access to next-day payouts as opposed to waiting out a retailer’s payout period. Some retailers or marketplaces may have lengthy payout processes of up to 90 days, which can not only increase your CCC but also slow down your growth. 

By turning to invoice financing with Cymbio Finance, you can get access to cash quickly, often within 24 hours, by getting access to cash quickly based on the value of your unpaid customer invoices. This can help you improve your cash flow and free up funds to reinvest in growth initiatives. Not only that, but as Cymbio Finance will take care of payment collection and reconciliation, you can cut down on time and resources related to managing your accounts receivable.

Additionally, the entire process is automated, granting you access to daily payouts with minimal intervention so that you can free up more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Cymbio’s Automation Platform

With Cymbio’s automation platform, you can cut down on time and resources spent in other aspects of your business in addition to payment collection, enabling you to optimize all your e-commerce operations.

If you’re selling on multiple retailers or marketplaces or through dropship, you can work more efficiently by turning to one cohesive platform to manage everything from inventory syncing to order management and more. By automating otherwise manual tasks, you can free up more time to dedicate to growing your business. Additionally, with Cymbio’s analytics and reporting, you can get meaningful data about your orders and inventory, enabling you to make better decisions that can ultimately affect your CCC.

Finally, aside from enabling daily payouts and automating operations, Cymbio can help connect you with members of our 800+ retail partners, empowering you to scale your business even further.

Shorten Your CCC, Grow Your Business

Invoice financing is only one of the ways you can shorten your CCC. That said, other methods such as the ones we covered above can be effective, too, but often take a longer time to see results. With Cymbio Finance, you can begin shortening your CCC almost immediately, enabling you to put your money back to work so that you can focus on growing your business instead of collecting payments. 

As the social mindset is shifting towards more conscious consumerism, more and more shoppers are looking to support brands that take a proactive approach toward sustainability. While some brands have taken the opportunity to jump on this trend and adopt more sustainable practices, others aren’t sure how or where to apply these changes. 

One of the best ways to understand how to build a sustainable brand is to look at other companies’ success in this field. One company that has built its entire business with sustainability at the heart of everything it does is B Corp footwear and apparel brand, Allbirds. 

In this article, we’ll dive deeper into how Allbirds has integrated sustainability into its business model, and also look at how you, too, can apply sustainability practices within your brand.

Why Brands Are Turning Towards Sustainability 

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their purchasing decisions have on the environment and are looking for products that align with their values. According to a study, 79% of consumers are changing their purchase preferences based on factors related to the environment, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. Additionally, another study showed how products that were marketed as sustainable grew 2.7 times faster than conventional products since 2015, demonstrating the increase in demand for sustainable products.

While awareness surrounding sustainability is growing amongst all consumer demographics, it’s being spearheaded by younger generations, namely Millenials and Gen-Z. While shoppers used to be influenced by brand names, 77% of Gen-Zers and 71% of Millennials said buying sustainably was more of a motivator for them than buying brand names. 

This move of the younger generations towards becoming more conscious about the environment and wanting to invest in products that align with their values is having an effect on society at large, forcing the entire consumer mindset to shift towards aligning with sustainable brands and products. As a result, brands that can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility are more likely to attract these consumers, outshine competitors, and grow their customer base.

How Allbirds Leads the Way In Sustainability

With sustainability being part of Allbirds’s DNA, they take many different approaches. Allbirds has three focus areas as part of its Flight Plan, a robust sustainability framework in which it has committed to reducing its per-unit product footprint by 50% by 2025, and near zero by 2030. These pillars are: Renewable Materials, Responsible Energy, and Regenerative Agriculture. As of 2019, Allbirds has been certified carbon neutral and is a B Corp.

Natural material innovation is a core element of Allbirds, most recently releasing the Plant Pacer – a new sneaker crafted from Plant Leather. Developed in partnership with NFW, Plant Leather is the world’s first 100% plastic-free, 100% vegan leather alternative.    

However, building a sustainable brand isn’t as simple as swapping out the materials you use for a product. In order to commit to the values of the brand and its customers, Allbirds had to set specific strategies to achieve its goals. For brands looking to do the same, there are a few things to be learned from the Allbirds sustainability strategy.

Dedication to carbon accountability

Claiming to be a sustainable brand is one thing, but being able to walk the talk is more important. Allbirds provides their customers with a transparent view of their initiatives and clearly identifies the carbon impact of each of their products. In 2020, Allbirds became the first fashion and footwear brand to label all of its products with their respective carbon footprint. This move empowers customers with the information they need to make purchasing decisions and keeps the brand accountable as it works towards its carbon reduction commitments.

Deep focus and dedication to its goals

Allbirds bases itself on three key pillars: as a brand, it aims to use and promote regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy. These three pillars drive Allbirds’s goals and enables the company to remain hyperfocused on attaining them.

Source: Allbirds

As the company’s mission is to “reverse climate change through better business,” Allbirds has dedicated itself to reducing carbon emissions as much as possible to reach its goal of zero emissions. 

Sets measurable milestones

Based on the company’s three pillars, Allbirds has set itself some milestones it hopes to achieve by 2025:

• 100% of its wool will be sourced from regenerative sources
• 75% of its natural and recycled materials will be sustainably sourced
• 100% reliance on renewable energy for owned & operated facilities and manufacturers

By setting clear sustainability milestones, Allbirds can ensure its campaigns and business strategies are consistently in line with its goals.

Bigger picture thinking

While remaining competitive is important for any brand, it’s also important to look at the bigger picture when you prioritize sustainability. Allbirds has made its carbon footprint methodology open-sourced for other brands in the fashion industry to follow in its footsteps. In fact, even Allbirds CEO Joey Zwillinger has encouraged other brands to copy its sustainability model to inspire collaboration over competition. The brand has also partnered with adidas to create the Adizero x Allbirds 2.94kg CO2e performance running shoes. Traditionally seen as competitors, the two brands came together and created the lowest carbon footprint running shoes either brand had ever made. For context, the average pair of running shoes has a carbon footprint of around 12.5-13.5kg CO2e. 

The Key to Building a Sustainable Brand: Commitment

What other fashion brands can learn from Allbirds is that it takes a lot of time, dedication, and commitment to become a truly sustainable brand. A lot of work goes into making sure your current plan of action is in line with your goals and that you have the right resources to help you achieve them. 

At Cymbio, we believe that sustainable fashion is the future. However, we know it can be difficult for brands to commit to fostering more sustainable practices when they already have so much on their plate. That’s why our platform helps you automate the more mundane tasks so that you can focus your time and resources on building sustainable practices that will help you grow your brand.

Cymbio helps you automate retailer and marketplace operations, from inventory syncing to payouts, order management, and more, so that you don’t need to assign resources to manually handle these tasks. As you adopt more sustainable practices, it stands to reason that your business will grow as conscious consumers take notice and put more trust in your brand. However, if you’re not ready to scale onto new retail platforms, then you can be missing the opportunity to reach those new customers where they shop. Cymbio helps you connect all those dots without wasting any of your limited resources or extending your budget.

Schedule a call with one of our retail experts today to see how Cymbio can help you scale up, connect with new retailers, and free up more of your time so that you can focus on creating the best sustainable business for your clients.

While it’s great to have a robust inventory, too much can lead to financial problems down the road. As consumers splurge on gifts, many brands are left with extra products that don’t sell.

To avoid being stuck with unsold inventory and incurring unwanted costs, brands need to be strategic about managing their excess inventory after they’ve wrapped up a sales campaign. In this post, we’ll cover the main challenges facing brands today when it comes to overstock and how they can manage it. 

Top inventory challenges brands are facing

New products, shipping delays, and over-estimating inventory needs can all create the perfect storm for excess inventory. In order to respond to supply chain demand and inventory shortages that were widespread in the earlier stages of the pandemic, brands found themselves ordering inventory en masse. 

In fact, some stores like Target saw their inventory balloon by 43%. This has now created a situation where brands are finding themselves with an overwhelming amount of excess stock on their hands while facing roadblocks from different directions, such as:

• Inventory tracking: One of the main challenges that brands face with excess inventory is tracking inventory levels and knowing what needs to be reordered. This can be a time-consuming and costly process if done manually.
• Warehouse space: Another challenge that brands face is having enough warehouse space to store excess inventory. As excess inventory becomes a widespread issue, so does warehouse capacity. This can be especially problematic if the brand doesn’t have its own warehouse or if they’re renting space from a third party.
• Rising costs: As inventory levels increase, so do the costs associated with storing and shipping the excess inventory. This can put a strain on a brand’s budget and may cause them to raise the prices of their products. In turn, this can influence consumers’ purchase decisions when prices start to increase, leaving them to stay on shelves for longer.
• Customer expectations: In today’s fast-paced world, customers expect to receive their orders quickly and efficiently. In a report, 44% of consumers now define “fast” shipping as next day, whereas this number was only 14% back in 2020. This can be a challenge for brands dealing with excess inventory levels and may cause them to lose business to their competitors.

7 Tips on Managing Overstock

Going into the final quarter of this fiscal year, it’s essential to have a handle on managing your business’s excess inventory. The surplus of inventory that many brands are facing is expected to be one of the biggest challenges this year. However, with solid advanced planning, creativity, and consistent inventory monitoring, it’s possible to clear out some of your overstock.

1. Sell overstock on other channels

When a brand has overstock of a product, turning to a multi-channel sales strategy helps minimize excess inventory. Brands can rely on social channels or marketplaces to get excess inventory in front of a new audience and move it faster. This is a great way to manage overstock because a brand can list the product at a discounted price and still make some money off of it. Selecting the right products to sell on a specific marketplace is a great way for brands to achieve growth and move overstocked inventory.

2. Offer discounts on overstocked items

Many brands offer discounts to help reduce overstock inventory. The most common method is to offer a percentage off the original price. Holidays or promotional sales are a great opportunity to offer steep discounts to shoppers in order to sell off some excess inventory. For example, brands can offer lightning deals on specific products that are significantly discounted for a short period of time, buy one get one deals, or other promotions on overstocked items.

3. Keep track of inventory levels

In order to manage overstock, brands need to track inventory levels to see exactly what items are available. There are a few ways to do this, but the most effective way is to use software that can keep track of inventory levels in real time in order to help forecast inventory levels, gain seller insights, and view order loads. This way, brands can see exactly how much stock they have on hand and can make adjustments accordingly.

4. Run paid ads to target overstock

Brands can run paid ads to target shoppers looking for deals. Ads such as PPC campaigns can help identify what keywords shoppers are using to search for deals on overstock items. They can also use retargeting to reach shoppers who have visited their site but didn’t purchase anything. By showing these shoppers ads for the items they were interested in, a brand can increase the chances of making a sale..

5. Turn your overstock into something new

One way to move excess inventory is to find a way to repackage it in order to maximize its appeal. This could involve changing the color or design of the packaging or bundling items together with other products. For example, a brand could create a package of related items at an attractive price point and market it as a special bundle.

Take control of overstock with end-to-end inventory management

Handling excess inventory on your own involves managing a lot of manual tasks simultaneously, which can be complicated, especially for brands that sell on marketplaces. With tech-enabled end-to-end inventory solutions, you can automate a number of tasks to make it easier to manage and monitor your inventory during peak busy seasons. Solutions like Cymbio offer a number of helpful features that help you with order fulfillment so that you can free up capacity to focus on other tasks4. Some of the things Cymbio can help with include:

• Inventory management:With real-time inventory updates, brands can be sure partnered retailers have an accurate inventory in order to sell via dropshipping and marketplaces
• Shipping automation:Tasks such as packing slip creation, shipping notifications, returns, and refunds can all be automated to simplify the order process.
• Connect to marketplaces:With our extensive network of retailers and marketplaces, we can help connect brands with new channels to sell their products to a wide audience.

To Wrap Up

By setting new habits when it comes to tracking inventory and managing overstock, you’ll be able to lower storage costs, increase sales, and optimize efficiency during the busiest quarter. Solutions like Cymbio offer a reliable way to automate different inventory-related tasks so that you can more easily supervise your inventory levels, market and sell items on marketplaces, and stay on top of overstock management. 

It’s that time of year again when the pumpkin and ghost decorations that adorn shops and marketing materials get switched out for turkey and tinsel faster than you can say Rudolph. With Halloween underway and the holidays just around the corner, retailers are preparing for the influx of holiday shoppers. 

The pandemic has been one of the key influencers of retail consumer behavior over the last two years, but as attitudes towards Covid continue to relax, other questions on spending habits take center stage this year.

What new trends can retailers expect in terms of consumer behavior this holiday season? With whispers of a recession on the horizon, should brands expect this season’s spending to trend downward?

In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the most impactful consumer trends this year that are likely to influence purchasing decisions. Don’t be scared! Keep reading to understand this retail consumer behavior this year in order to optimize your strategies for the holidays.

1. Inflation is a concern among shoppers, but not a deterrent 

The impact of inflation is one of the most significant financial worries this year, and those concerns are sliding over to retail holiday spending. While the cost of living has gone up along with the cost of supplies for businesses, many brands and retailers are concerned inflation might result in decreased holiday spending this year. However, while spending trends are shifting, that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, 62% of shoppers still agree that it’s important to keep the status quo when it comes to holidays, meaning spending on gifts as in previous years. Rather than cutting costs on holiday spending, consumers are more likely to hold back on other luxuries, such as travel or eating at restaurants. 

It’s good news for brands and retailers that consumers aren’t planning on slowing down their holiday spending. However, as we’ll see in the next consumer behavior trends, inflation does have an overall impact on how and where consumers shop this year as well as their expectations.

2. Shoppers are increasingly relying on alternative payment options

According to a survey by Bluedots on holiday spending habits, 4 out of 10 consumers are planning on using buy now, pay later options when shopping during the holiday season. It’s suggested that this year, shoppers will take on more debt than in previous years, demonstrating the actual financial impact of inflation.

Aside from financing options, consumers are also more likely to sign up for retailer loyalty cards this year in order to take advantage of savings through special sales, point systems, or gift cards. For brands, this presents a good opportunity to incentivize shoppers before the holiday season to sign up for loyalty programs.

With cash flow also being a ‘significant’ challenge for brands, sellers are inclined to utilize next-day payment solutions this season (instead of waiting the traditional 30-90 day pay cycle) to improve efficiencies and liquidity, putting their money back to work fast with next-day payouts. Learn more here –>>

3. Consumers are spreading out where they shop this year

While the last two years saw consumers opt for online shopping over in-store experiences due to the ongoing pandemic, the same survey by Bluedots found that this year, shopping in-store is making a comeback. In fact, 38% of those surveyed said they plan on doing their holiday shopping in a store compared to 36% online.

Another popular avenue for shopping this year is apps, with 75% of consumers expecting to do at least half their holiday shopping on mobile devices. This increase in app usage this year is a win for eCommerce businesses that focus on online sales, meaning it’s more important than ever to have strategies in place to convert online shoppers quickly and efficiently before they shift to another online competitor. 

When it comes to shopping for gifts, Google and online search is still the main way people find ideas. When strategizing a digital marketing strategy to convert online shoppers this year, it’s therefore important to focus on paid ads, PPC strategies, and placing in the ad carousel to help capture consumers in the early stages of shopping.

4. Consumers are putting value over loyalty

With inflation as a main concern for nearly all consumers this year, it’s no surprise that shoppers are changing how they make purchasing decisions. According to a McKinsey report, more shoppers this year are making the switch to different brands as compared to the last two years. The driving factor for this change is that shoppers are looking for good value and are more concerned about prices than before. While this behavior was mainly studied for the purchase of essential goods like gas or groceries, we might see similar trends hold for holiday shoppers.

40% of consumers intend to look at new brands this year while holiday shopping, leaving a whole lot of space for new brands on the market to make an impression. This implies to focusing on brand awareness through selling on the right marketplaces and digital channels, providing good value, and creating an efficient order experience early on in the holiday season can prove to be profitable later during the peak shopping season and in the new year as well. 

5. Shoppers are aware of potential supply chain challenges

In previous years when Covid was rampant, supply chain delays were a major issue. In fact, in a PwC survey in 2022, a lack of stock was the second most significant roadblock to shopping both online and in stores after inflation. In previous years, a lack of inventory could have been attributed to panic buying and media hype, but this year as brands are more prepared, new concerns have sprung up.

To prepare for possible supply chain issues, retailers started preparing for the holiday season earlier this year by bulking up their stock. However, this is likely to pose a different problem of brands that are left with overstock during and after the holiday season. According to the Bluedots survey, customers are split on overstock issues, with 44% expecting better prices due to high inventory and the same percentage of shoppers still expecting price increases due to inflation.

For retailers and brands, this indicates that retail consumer behavior surrounding the holiday season has changed in that shoppers are more aware of the issues retailers are facing because it directly affects their total spending. To help diminish the burden on the customer, retailers might start offering deals and shipping promotions earlier in the season.

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Navigating Consumer Behavior This Holiday Season

Inflation may be scarier to some retailers than the average goblin or ghoul, but by understanding how to adapt your business to emerging trends and by using the right tools, brands can easily navigate these trends and enjoy a successful holiday season.

While there are a number of ways brands and retailers can work to minimize the effects of changing customer behavior, tackling issues on multiple fronts can demand time, effort, and resources that some companies may wish to invest elsewhere. To help with challenges related to shipping, supply chain, and reporting, consider turning to a third party to lighten the load.

Tools such as Cymbio can help brands automate their marketplace maintenance and monitoring, freeing up time to focus on other things, like how to provide your customers with the best value. Cymbio allows you to automate manual order cycle tasks, such as shipping label creation, handling returns and refunds, and real-time inventory tracking. During the hectic holiday season when orders and returns are rolling in and inventory seems to fluctuate by the minute, having a solution like Cymbio on your side can make the difference in helping you meet your targets this year.

Schedule a call with one of our experts today to find out more about how Cymbio can help you reach your holiday goals.

Meet the Brand

Lemlem is an artisan-driven brand of beautiful women’s resort wear made entirely and responsibly in Africa, with a core mission of preserving the local art of weaving in Ethiopia and inspiring economic growth on the continent.

Founded by supermodel Liya Kebede in 2007, Lemlem was born to help preserve the ancient art form of weaving to create a fashion label of love, celebrating women and nature.

The Challenge

Lemlem found the majority of their workload and processes being undertaken manually by a limited-sized team. While this allowed for tight controls, they reached a point where this was no longer sustainable. Seamless integration between ApparelMagic and Cymbio’s platform allowed them to not only save time and money – it also helped improve data quality, streamline metrics, reduce errors and lift employee morale.

The Solution

Since 2017, Lemlem used ApparelMagic’s apparel management software to centralize their operations. ApparelMagic’s software offers leading apparel accounting, inventory control and logistics solutions. Due to Lemlem’s growth and success with ApparelMagic, they were also able to extend their wholesale business with J.Crew and Farfetch. Commencing in 2020, Cymbio provided automated, integrated support to help manage and process orders associated with J.Crew, Madewell plus many more retailers, which has been essential for growth.

This upgraded eCommerce platform elevated the user experience for consumers with an improvement in the ability to personalize their shopping journey. It also allowed Lemlem to enjoy growth in other significant areas, such as design and strategy, given that they had more time.

Only with the effective technology offered by Cymbio was this possible. Cymbio worked closely with Lemlem, maintaining the same team, to support their niche product integration into the eCommerce market.

Recipe for Success

With excellent product quality, inspired by the unique Ethiopian hand-woven patterns and the vibrant, colorful combinations in the streets of Africa, Lemlem is all about happy colors and stripes, creating new casual and chic pieces that are easy to wear on all occasions.

The brand’s products are made entirely and responsibly in Africa inspiring economic growth on the continent.

Lemlem understood the importance of partnering with eCommerce platforms in order for their niche product to reach a global market. Moreover, given their relatively small team, they needed successful retail connections and automation to ensure systems ran smoothly with very little hands-on effort.

“Onboarding with Cymbio has been key to securing our partnership with J.Crew and the ability to manage the increase in orders. Without Cymbio, this just would not have been possible.”

Janise Vargas, Sales Assistant, Lemlem

“We enjoy the ease with which we are able to collaborate and integrate systems with Cymbio. Collaboration isn’t just a strategy but essential for long-term business success, which we feel defines what we have with Cymbio.”

Nicoll Leighton, Operations & Strategy, ApparelMagic

The Results

The successful integration of Cymbio’s eCommerce automated solutions to ApparelMagic’s powerful ERP offered significant growth for Lemlem. This included:

• % GMV change YoY (21/20)-  112% growth
• % Orders change YoY (21/20) – 106% growth
• % GMV Q1 22 vs Q1 21-  167% growth

In addition, the upgraded platform increased the quality of the customer experience (by segmenting and personalizing offers) while simultaneously allowing Lemlem to prioritize and allocate time for other more important tasks such as designing, strategizing and sourcing more (or better) suppliers.

A lot has changed in the last few years. Increased competition, elevated shopper expectations, and macroeconomic disruptions are driving merchants to make strategic changes in their supply chains.

In 2022, trends are continuing to adapt and revolve around how to reach more customers while minimizing delays. How can brands expand beyond DTC? How can brands bring products offline and into retail marketplaces? How can brands future-proof themselves to continue to meet their customers everywhere?

Shopping expectations and buying journeys can start and end on any channel, which is why revisiting supply chain strategies to create consistent URL and IRL shopping experiences is a must. To stay competitive, brands need to create experiences and build relationships with their customers that only omnichannel can offer.

70% of brands will add new sales channels in 2022. Selling through retailer websites was once one of the more daunting and complicated processes in eCommerce, but by leveraging ShipBob’s direct integration with Cymbio, brands can now fulfill wholesale or drop ship orders automatically. With more control over the customer experience, brands can streamline retail set-up, product data, and open the door to a nearly $6.64 trillion retail market.

Real experts, real growth. That’s our motto.

View our joint webinar with ShipBob for the playbook on future proofing your operations through marketplace and retail drop shipping. With our partnership, it’s now easier than ever to expand to retailers and marketplaces like Target+, Nordstrom and Walmart Marketplace.

On this Webinar, you will learn how to: 

• Automate your operations to expand your reach and scale your business
• Fulfill drop ship orders from the same warehouse that you fulfill your DTC orders from
• Sync all order and inventory data into one platform to increase visibility and transparency

Leveraging customer data to elevate online marketing in the eCommerce industry isn’t something new. Understanding data helps eCommerce brands to better figure out their customers’ buying habits and adjust online eCommerce strategies to optimize current market trends. 

Discovering insights based on in-depth analysis informed by data helps you know your customers ’choices, behaviors and motivations which in turn, can help shape your business decisions.

Seller Insights is a new feature that Cymbio is offering to our clients as part of our ongoing service to be more than just your average digital commerce automation platform. With Seller Insights we can share valuable data about your best selling products to help improve inventory decisions e.g. audit and prioritize your inventory as well as set minimum stock levels. 

This information can be further broken down across specific time periods allowing comparisons and valuable insight across seasons and sales quarters to help improve inventory management control.  

With endless choices, speedy deliveries, numerous curbside pickup options, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping has become a widespread revolution among consumers. Raised and evolving expectations, chiefly established by the global giant Amazon, have also broadened the world of eCommerce and digital communication. 

While some brands have conquered the recent surge in online shopping, many brands lack the logistic and internal organization to handle the varying integration requirements and data specifications necessary to rapidly expand across channels. Additionally, maintaining brand-to-retailer relationships can be challenging in relation to product pricing and maintaining brand image on alternative platforms. 

Here are the 5 best practices to improve your content output and retail media strategy for a seamless shopping experience to elevate your presence in the world of eCommerce.

• Focus on Consumer Intent 

To improve customer retention and loyalty, alter the commonly-used ‘funnel model’ to a flywheel model’ to promote increased sustainable growth. The funnel model works fairly well to acquire new customers and outlines different phases of outreach as well as the optimal strategy to apply to each phase. While this approach suffers from a disconnect between various channels, the flywheel model reorients strategy around consumer intent through connection via social media with customized video content and reward programs. 

• Create Seamlessness Across Channels

Another way to create a smooth customer experience is to support consistency across channels. Make data-driven decisions, taking into account feedback from people about your product across various platforms. Leverage this data from one channel to inform another, including popular “key” terms. 

• Utilize Shoppable Media and Dynamic Linking Technology 

Implementing shoppable media technology, a link or piece of digital content that gives customers an actionable experience, is another way to ease the path to purchase. It is also important to use dynamic linking technology, which provides backup products or retailers if an item is out of stock. This is especially relevant in the current state of the economy, which is rife with supply chain issues. 

• Strike a Balance Between User Experience and Overmonitization 

Remain conscious of over monetization, ensuring that you are not overwhelming customers with ads and detracting from their user experience. This requires careful decisions about which channels you want to utilize to advertise your product and brand. 

• Improve Your Retail Media Game 

Finally, here are the best-recommended practices for retail media to conquer the world of eCommerce.

1. Ensure your CTA is visible and quickly delivered so consumers have a clear next step in the purchase process without losing interest. 
2. Create compelling visuals to design an engaging brand experience while guaranteeing that your content fits marketplace specifications. 
3. Track how your content performs on retailer sites, as well as how your competitors are being promoted on the digital shelf. 
4. Ensure that the above decisions are data-driven and constantly tested and tweaked for maximum impact. 

Looking for a way to expand in the eCommerce universe without taking on insurmountable tasks and navigating brand-to-retailer connections? Cymbio is here to help. Our automation platform supports all data formats, and we can provide you with a one-to-all connection to join any marketplace! By streamlining the onboarding, set-up, and day-to-day e-commerce operations between brands and their retail partners, inventory and warehouse management systems and more, we make it super easy for our customers to grow comfortably while maintaining their current operational load. 

We recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with NBCU focused on how to develop and grow  eCommerce opportunities via the power of storytelling. Don’t miss this informative webinar which discusses how to optimize reach via a variety of channels such as streaming, linear broadcast TV, and social platforms to help drive increased sales, customer acquisition and enhance brand awareness.