Inventory management is a process of storing and utilising a company’s inventory. It refers to managing everything from raw materials to finished goods. Independent brands and entrepreneurs around the world now deal within a global arena where even small businesses are stepping against multinational firms.
Managing inventory is one of the most important aspects of any business. You can lose a significant amount of clients by not having significant inventory. It’s fundamental to maintain a reliable system to avoid risks and inefficiency. Some top consequences of not having inventory management are lack of inventory balance, increased costs, poor vendor-customer relations, and decreased productivity.
However, did you know that all of these consequences can be conveniently avoided? Today, technology makes things easier with inventory management software. The key features of inventory management system help you manage, organize, and track material purchases, product sales, and other inventory processes. Gone are the days when stock control was done manually. With that, let’s learn about the top ways of how technology can simplify inventory management.
Top 5 Ways How Technology Can Simplify Inventory Management
1. Intuitive Order and Inventory Management
An inventory management system provides end-to-end order and inventory management so businesses can manage all stages of an order life cycle efficiently. It also guarantees complete control of consumer orders from financial settlement to order fulfilment.
You can automatically manage and update inventory stock across multiple channels while controlling stock-outs and overstocks. With that, you’d want to make sure to optimise your inventory turnover using the right software and strategy. You can provide flexible shopping and fulfilment options within an omnichannel environment. Order and inventory management ensures customer retention by decreasing fulfilment errors and meeting delivery deadlines.
An inventory management software enables you to simplify complex workflows based on predefined service level for drop ship orders, part fulfilment with back to back orders. When planned properly, you can effectively streamline your inventory process management.
2. Efficient Warehousing & Fulfilment
An operational supply chain with robust warehousing operations are the secret ingredients of any successful brand. An active warehousing channel guarantees CRM, inventory, purchasing, accounting, and other workflows. Many inventory management solutions offer a SaaS-based warehouse management system that helps small and large enterprises with their everyday warehousing needs.
Warehouse operations require efficient processes and a reliable team while keeping fulfilment costs down. There are different types of inventory management systems. If needed, you can choose one that bolsters speed, accuracy, and profitability of your warehousing operations.
Such software allows you to enhance overall accuracy while optimizing processes and productivity. Once you deploy inventory management KPIs software, you won’t have to worry about warehousing fulfilment. You can accurately track suppliers and vendors and accomplish your pick pack despatch process through easy virtual tracking.
3. Easily Sell on Marketplaces
Regardless of whether you are dealing in a small or medium-sized business, many entrepreneurs consider selling their products in marketplaces. This gives them another channel for revenue growth and consumer reach. Hence, it’s essential to look for a tool that offers intuitive inventory management tools to help you sell on multiple markets across the globe.
Tools such as centralized inventory offer a wide range of features that are suitable for most listings and marketplaces at a highly competitive price. This tool synchronizes your inventory to enable a single view of real-time merchandise. The software offers customized inventory controls that are specific to marketplaces. You can easily avoid decreased sales, unsold inventory, as well as dissatisfied customers.
Moreover, even if you are looking for support in channels like Google Shopping, Facebook, Amazon, and much more, you can establish your business there too.
4. Easy Retail Inventory Management
Retail inventory management completely depends upon your processes, employees, and technology. If any of it fails to perform, your business is likely to fail. Regardless of whether you are storing items for too long or ordering the right amount, it may have a huge effect on your profit margins.
To make things simpler and more efficient, look for the best retail software that suits your business and can feasibly integrate with POS and accounting systems by syncing information from your ecommerce platform and physical stores in real-time. An online inventory management system gives you access to data anytime and anywhere. Employees can easily check for stock availability at their location or other places in mobile devices while the entrepreneurs can keep track of costs, sales, and discounts across operations. This helps you make sure you stay connected even when you’re on the go.
Retail software also allows you to generate fast reports on previous sales to chart peaks. You can easily check which product is selling well that helps you in making more informed decisions for your business to pump up your sales pipeline.
5. Greater Cost-Savings
Every entrepreneur looks for is cost-saving. Once you streamline your inventory management processes, you not only eradicate the costs related to human errors, but you also benefit from cost-savings.
Inventory management software allows you to reduce obsolete and excess stock by establishing par levels and calculating safety stock. Not having the right information on which stocks to order and what amount can cause you money. Hence, it’s crucial to have accurate data and insights to ensure you are getting the right inventory. By eliminating the manual process, you can also avoid costs and delays caused by mistakes.
One of the biggest cost-savings comes with automation. Poor inventory management can cause fundamental revenue losses followed by errors including stock-outs and overstocks. Maintaining the right inventory balance is no simple task. Fortunately, the software enables you to track low stock levels and identify the reorder points for every product. This process helps you with efficient order management, ultimately leading to cost-saving.
Why is Inventory Management Software Important for your Business?
We listed down all the factors how technology can simplify inventory management for your business. Without accurate inventory on how much stock a business has, where it is located and what resources are needed to complete future orders, no business can run efficiently. According to research on Inventory Control Performance Metrics, good inventory requires at least 95% of accuracy.
Take this as a wakeup call as inaccurate records can lead to a slower response to demand and customer disapproval. Inventory turnover plays a key role in profit growth, such as for small businesses. Inventory management software is worth the investment as it offers the highest return on investment. You can easily manage inventory by cutting major costs, saving space, maximizing labour, and most of all, satisfying your customers.
Choosing the right software is crucial. Pick one that suits your needs best. The best inventory management system is not with the cheapest price tag or the most number of features. You’ll have to evaluate and determine your business needs first to identify what challenges you’ll have to resolve, which processes you can streamline, and which features you actually need.
To start, you can check out this Khaos Control review page to give you an overview of the tool’s inventory management features. This can kickstart your search and equip you in comparing features and different products that match your requirements. You can also get in touch with the vendor, schedule demos, or sign up for free trials to know more about the software. The process can be daunting, but it can help you make sure to get a good value of your investment in the long run.