Every
business carries inventory and is always vigilant to ensure that there is a
smooth flow of orders and services in the business.
Before
growing market competition and technology involvement, businesses were
maintaining their inventories manually. Manually, they had to deal with the
problem of collecting large inventory data, had an error in data entry, and did
not know when stocks were going to be out-of-stock. This resulted in sales
losses for retailers and in-store shoppers were very frustrated.
Keeping all
these things in mind, technology has found solutions for businesses and
business software has come into existence. This software made it easy to manage
the business. In this context, the inventory management system is also an
important part about which we will learn in this article.
Features of an inventory management system that help the business grow
Simplified
inventory management
The primary
objective of adopting the software for inventory management is to simplify the
processes involved in managing inventory. This is the main feature that every
business looks for in any business software. The inventory software is
developed in such a way that it helps the operations and the business owner to
keep them in the right place to avoid any situation such as stock expiration
and out of stock. It provides a quick view of stock data to update stock status
in real-time and helps in final delivery trading. In this way, the inventory management system simplified inventory and is beneficial for growth potential.
Better
product visibility
Inventory
management systems come with a systematic approach that organizes your stocks
with preferences of size, color, type, or expiration date as the business
demands. This way, whenever an order arrives or you want to see the
availability of your stock, it allows a quick view in just one click. Also, you
can get the exact location where the stock is kept. It directly benefits in the
quick delivery of goods and provides an easy analysis to repurchase stock items
for continuous supply.
Streamlined
and efficient operations
The main
advantage of having the system for inventory is to streamline the operations
and connect them for successful order delivery. Thus, the business software
takes care of everything from collecting stock details to its purchase to
sales. It also analyzes the customer buying pattern and alerts business owners
for work accordingly.
Accurate
and insightful accounting
Almost all
business software offers the full business solution. With inventory management
solutions, they also come with accounting solutions. It helps businesses in
managing sales, purchases, staff and also updating tax information after buying
or selling products. It also facilitates an efficient billing system to serve
the best and quick billing. It includes an advance billing method to avoid any
hassle in managing up-to-date inventory.
Provides
real-time access to data
With the
inventory solution, you can add a real-time stock view and updating facility.
It provides a system, which automatically alerts when an order is placed and
updates all information in the inventory associated with it. This includes
order items, quantities, expiration, bill details, dates, and more. This way,
whenever you get a query or some change request from a customer, you will get
all the details in just one click.
Inventory
tracking and stock alerts
Inventory
management software comes with a tracking feature for every step in the product
life cycle. This helps businesses keep track of their inventory and offer a
centralized view of the stock. In this way, it becomes easier for the owner to
know; How much stock do they have, where is it located, and when do they need
to re-fill the stock? It directly or indirectly benefits businesses with sales
forecasting, product orders, supply chain management, warehouse management, and
customer fulfilment solutions.
Prevent
from overstock and out of the stock scenario
Avoiding
out-stock or expired product situation is the greatest challenge for any
business. It creates a hurdle inconsistent product supply. An inventory
management system helps organizations to meet customer demand and avoid the
expense of overstock or loss of business with stock-outs. It prevents your
business from overstocking/out-of-stock scenarios by facilitating real-time
data visibility. It adjusts prices by supply and helps businesses to grow.
Inventory
Trend Analysis and demand forecasting
Another
feature that inventory management software must have is trend analysis and
demand forecasting. It forecast the demand and keep update the business to meet
any sudden future demand. This way, businesses can smartly track the number of
units they have sold and estimating the number of units they will sell shortly.
Also, it makes businesses able to better strategize their future business
expansion/planning and meet the customer and market demands.
Limits
human error and staffing costs
An inventory
management software solution reduces errors by automating the manual process.
It makes business more efficient, more profitable, and better equipped to serve
your customers. At the same time, automation limits staffing costs by reducing
employee training time and eliminate the traditional way to maintain product
details records.
Why it is important to optimize the inventory
Till now we
had heard about inventory management and we are also working on it. But now it
is necessary to know what is inventory optimization and why it has become
necessary for a business. Let's understand inventory optimization through this
blog.
Inventory
optimization is the practice of having the right inventory to facilitate your
target service to customers with a minimum amount of capital investment.
Changing market trend, digitization, globalization and security threats are the
reason businesses needs optimization in their services.
Today’s
everyone is using internet/technology and very soon updated with the trend. Thus,
consumers' behaviors and habits are changing more rapidly than any business
thinks. Inventory optimization plays an important role. It provides a perfect
balance between demand and supply. It maintains inventory level and eliminates
out-of-stock situations while improving efficiency and cutting inventory costs.
Steps involved in Inventory optimization that will help you to transform your business
- You can
optimize your inventory management and fulfilment processes with the following
steps and procedures. It will cost less, have fewer issues, and make the
customer happy. So, what you need is to find the software solution that helps
you in optimizing your inventory.
- Adopt a technology that provides a solution with real-time analytics and maintains the market trend.
- Let you know your most demanded item to maintain its stocks.
- Update inventory records in real-time, so all the staff members get aware of the inventory information and manage and re-stocked accordingly.
- Split inventory into different categories so that maintenance gets easy and simple.
- Establish a tracking system that enhanced the ability to monitor all aspects of the inventory.
- Facilitate the mobile (B2B/ B2C) applications for the fastest ordering and billing.
- Identify slow-moving and fast-moving items to ensure their continuous supply and alert when they get low in stock.
- Establish re-order management without any hassle.
- Maintain up-to-date stock levels, so inventory can be managed promptly and restocked as necessary.
Final Note
Inventory optimization helps in establishing the balance in consumer demands with the needs of a retailer to minimize inventory levels. Also, it leads to a significant reduction in the cost of acquiring, holding, and shipping stock. Thus, to get a competitive advantage an innovative technological solution is required for inventory.
If you’re required a solution for inventory optimization in India, kindly contact the SWIL team. Also, to get a better understanding please go through our next blog, where we discuss the role of barcode systems for inventory optimization.