Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us for another year, it’s clear to see the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had in further accelerating the consumer shift to e-commerce options in the retail sector. While this evolution certainly opens the doors for firms to work within the e-commerce niche, it also creates new service needs for brick-and-mortar retail clients, too.
There is certainly a fair amount of crossover in service opportunities between traditional and digital retail businesses, such as tax preparation, however each also has their own unique needs. Here are ten key ways that firms serving the retail and e-commerce niches can develop and expand client relationships.
For a deeper dive into this topic, make sure to register for our webinar "Will Retail Rebound This Holiday Season and Into 2021? Get the Goods to Grow Your Practice in the Retail and E-Commerce Niche" on December 3, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.
Top service opportunities for accounting firms in the traditional retail niche:
- End of year reporting to assess impact of ongoing overhead costs, especially payroll, real estate, lease agreements as well as declines in revenue due to decreased foot traffic.
- Monthly accounting and bookkeeping services focused on cash flow and expense control.
- Outsourced CFO services for inventory management.
- 2021 budgeting and financial projections through business advisory services.
- Assistance selecting and implementing new technology for point of sale, expense management, and potentially introducing e-commerce capabilities.
- Fraud and loss prevention consulting.
- Payroll services to ensure compliance, manage tax reporting, and processing as demand for hourly staff changes.
Top service opportunities for accounting firms in the e-commerce niche:
- Sales tax consulting and liability management for online retailers selling in different states and countries.
- Technology consulting for digital data entry, online inventory management, payment processing and day-to-day sales tracking.
- Outsourced CFO services for financial management including reporting and analyzing the impact of seller fees, high merchandise return rates and payment fraud on overall revenue.
- Consulting to implement financial management and accounting technology infrastructure.
- Business advisory services to designed to help manage growth cycles and capital needs as business scales.
In addition to these unique service opportunities traditional and digital retailers, like any other businesses, will look to accounting firms for:
- Support for any additional SBA/federal relief applications.
- Management of the impact of PPP loan forgiveness on their tax and overall financial positions.
- Helping them work more effectively with banks and other financial professionals to help them navigate their business lending relationships and other financial obligations for 2021 effectively.
If your firm serves retail or e-commerce clients, or you are looking to expand into serving this niche, it’s important to understand the particular pain points that your services can help these businesses address. From helping traditional retail clients successfully navigate the financial impact of their rapidly changing business environment to advising e-commerce businesses on the technology that can help them better mange and control their financial data are just two of the many opportunities to further develop and expand relationships in this sector.
For a deeper dive into this topic, make sure to register for our webinar "Will Retail Rebound This Holiday Season and Into 2021? Get the Goods to Grow Your Practice in the Retail and E-Commerce Niche" on December 3, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.