10 Benefits Of Inventory Management Software You Should Know About
Successful businesses can be described as a well-oiled machine that requires proper caring. Inventory management is the oil that keeps your ecommerce business operating smoothly. However, your machine will come to a grinding halt without any well-defined inventory management software in place.
These tools have quickly become the gold standard for inventory tracking and various business insights. Inventory management can be challenging work, but with the right software, you can alleviate much of the stress from the process. With the benefits of inventory management software I’ll list throughout this article, you can stay competitive, no matter the size of your business.
What is Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management software is a digital tool that automates the tracking and management of inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries. It assists businesses in maintaining optimal stock levels, minimizing overstock and outages. This software streamlines warehouse operations, enhances order fulfillment accuracy, and enables real-time inventory tracking, thus improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Benefits Of Inventory Management Software
If you’re searching for a way to turn your ecommerce business into a fine-tuned success, you can implement inventory management software to gain the following significant benefits.
1. Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency
The average inventory accuracy level for many businesses is a modest 63%. Consistently maintaining inaccurate inventory levels can make managing replenishment schedules effectively highly challenging. One significant benefit of inventory management software is that it can reduce the number of inventory your business has to keep on hand while improving order accuracy.
Decreasing your held inventory will allow you to save a large amount of money and effort. You can utilize inventory management software features and their benefits to stay agile and implement tighter inventory control, helping you boost returns on investment.
Also, if improving cash flow is a significant priority in your business, enhancing inventory management efficiency can help. You can discover specific bottlenecks in various process stages, and fixing them can help improve cash flow to a greater extent. Many businesses with optimal supply chains can have three times faster cash-to-cash cycles.
So, if this is what you want, implementing efficient inventory management tools can put you on the right path.
2. Real-Time Inventory Tracking
Inventory management software can help you enhance inventory control through real-time tracking. This can help you see where products are located and how they move throughout your supply chain. This benefit allows you to eliminate human error from the process, which can’t be done with manual inventory spreadsheets. Many ecommerce inventory management tools can track each product entering and exiting your cycle from production and storage to sales.
Numerous businesses across multiple sectors successfully implement inventory management systems in their operations. For example, Amazon uses inventory management technology and robotics in its warehouses for real-time inventory tracking, reducing delivery time and improving customer service.
Similarly, Walmart uses these tools for real-time inventory management, empowering the organization to ensure its shelves are regularly stocked and reduce lost sales.
3. Cost Reduction
When implementing inventory management tools in your ecommerce business, you can avoid many deadstock and overstock situations. Inefficient inventory management can lead to lost revenues and overspending. Enhancing your inventory management processes with software tools can help eliminate stock expenses from human error and help your business earn profits through further cost savings.
For example, through data analytics, you can know in advance which products will be in more demand in which season, allowing you to save money from unnecessary expenses and overstocking.
4. Improved Supplier Relationships
One of the most critical relationships to have in your business is with your suppliers. Using inventory management software can help solidify this relationship.
These tools provide full access to your numbers when working with existing or potential suppliers so you can increase your confidence when approaching them for deals. Also, being prepared and providing enough lead time to your suppliers to fulfill orders have the additional benefit of establishing your business as a preferred customer, giving you access to priority treatment and better products.
5. Data-Driven Decision Making
Inventory management tools can automate information collection from multiple sources, such as demand patterns and trends, sales records, production schedules, and supplier lead times. The powerful inventory management features, algorithms, and reports you can find on some platforms make it easy to analyze data to help you make decisions such as reorder points and safety stock levels to meet any demand variance. Also, historical purchasing data and real-time sales insights can help your business accurately predict future demand.
Also, inventory management platforms can consolidate data from multiple sources, providing a more consistent view. In one case study, product managers for an organization had little details about product turnover rates and had a significant need for better production planning and performance metrics. They manually generated reports at the time, and ad-hoc reports were created on the fly with slight consistency or governance.
Modernizing their business information efforts made inventory data available and allowed them to address how much inventory they needed to meet demand, optimize stock management, reduce product recall impact, and identify how to prevent stock-outs or surpluses.
6. Scalability and Flexibility
Growing an ecommerce business takes care, support, and flexibility, and your inventory management system can be a comprehensive tool for facilitating this. Your inventory management requirements will evolve as your business grows and expands into new markets.
A 2023 consumer study found that 55% of products are out of stock more frequently, and with frustrating stock levels being normalized, businesses can give themselves an advantage by managing inventory better as they scale and ensure product availability. Many tools offer automated inventory management features that provide the flexibility and scalability your company needs to adapt to changing needs.
Also, with the right software, you can easily add new products, warehouses, and sales channels, ensuring you can remain flexible without having to make costly upgrade investments.
7. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Happy customers can lead to good reviews and repeat business while also building trust and credibility within your industry. 76% of consumers will stop buying from a brand after one experience, and having better inventory control means customers get their products when they want them.
The features within inventory management software are designed to help your brand look better in your customers’ eyes. Increasing accuracy results in the right product being delivered to the right place at the right time. Automation helps get orders out of your warehouse doors quicker. Real-time updates let your customers know when shipments leave your storage and when to expect them at their doors.
Allowing customers to discover when they’re supposed to get their products in real-time reduces their worries and saves you from answering questions for them.
8. Compliance and Audit Readiness
Ensuring you have accurate and up-to-date inventory records is a critical aspect of running a business. These records will help you manage and protect your company, or you could be penalized or fined. Inventory compliance audits are essential for ensuring your inventory records are accurate.
You can use inventory management tools to regularly perform these audits to identify and fix any discrepancies before they become a significant problem. This helps you solve issues before they worsen, stay compliant with regulations, properly represent the value of your inventory, and avoid excessive fees from non-compliance, including higher insurance rates.
For example, a cannabis company in Ontario, Canada, recognized the importance of compliance and regulation in the cannabis industry. They implemented a monthly compliance reporting tool for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) to save time and improve workflow for month-end reporting. The company was able to meet cannabis regulatory requirements by automating the compliance reporting process.
9. Multiple Warehouse Coordination
Larger businesses are the earliest adopters of inventory management software because these tools can help manage multiple warehouses and consolidate product information into one system. If you have several product warehouses, the inventory management tool you use can give you a better big-picture analysis to help with long-term decision-making. You’ll get a birds-eye overview of your entire supply chain by tracking stock and its movement between warehouse locations.
Inventory management software can show which warehouse has the product, how many it has, and its price, so when one warehouse runs low on inventory of a specific item, you can process orders from another location. Some advanced inventory management tools also help you place orders while automatically updating product count.
10. Data Security
You can use inventory management tools to restrict user access based on your requirements. You can restrict users and give them rights so no mistakes can happen. These systems can also provide security at all levels. For example, someone on your team can input data regarding specific items, and a manager can approve them if everything is correct.
Also, you can give rights to employees to allow them to see particular data and dictate who can retrieve and access what details, enabling you to restrain employees to the information they need and eliminate any chance of data loss or leakage.
How to Choose the Best Inventory Management Software for Your Ecommerce Business
Selecting the ideal inventory management software for your ecommerce business is crucial for streamlining operations and ensuring the smooth handling of inventory, from raw materials to order fulfillment. The right system will not only save you time but also reduce labor costs and eliminate the inefficiencies of manual processes. With a plethora of options available, focusing on key functionalities and how they match your business needs can lead you to the best choice. Here are some factors to consider:
Accurate Inventory and Real-Time Data
Effective inventory management hinges on having accurate, up-to-date information. The best inventory systems provide real-time data, allowing you to track SKUs across warehouse operations with precision. This accuracy is essential for minimizing excess inventory while also preventing stockouts, ensuring you have the right amount of inventory to meet customer demand.
Streamlining with Barcode and Warehouse Management
For ecommerce businesses, especially small businesses looking to grow, the integration of barcode scanning and advanced warehouse management features can significantly streamline warehouse operations. These features expedite the tracking of inventory as it moves through your supply chain, from receiving raw materials to shipping customer orders, making the process less time-consuming and more reliable.
Forecasting and Just-In-Time Inventory
The advantages of inventory management software extend into forecasting and adopting a just-in-time inventory approach. By analyzing sales data and customer trends, the software can help predict future demand, allowing you to adjust your inventory levels accordingly. This approach helps in reducing excess inventory and associated costs, making your business more agile and responsive to market changes.
Integration with ERP and Accounting Software
An inventory management solution that integrates seamlessly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and accounting software offers comprehensive control over your business operations. This functionality enables a unified platform for managing everything from order fulfillment and inventory to customer experience and financial reporting. The ability to synchronize data across these systems fosters better business decisions and enhances the customer experience by ensuring orders are processed and fulfilled efficiently.
Advantages for Small Businesses
Small businesses, in particular, can reap significant benefits from adopting the right inventory management practices. By automating and optimizing inventory management, small businesses can compete more effectively, reduce labor costs, and allocate resources more efficiently. The key is to choose software that scales with your business, providing the necessary functionality without being overly complex or expensive.
Conclusion
The best inventory management software for your ecommerce business is one that offers real-time data, integrates barcode and warehouse management, supports forecasting and just-in-time inventory, and connects with your ERP and accounting systems. These features not only enhance the efficiency of inventory management but also contribute to a better overall customer experience. By carefully evaluating these aspects, you can select a solution that streamlines operations, optimizes inventory levels, and supports informed business decisions, propelling your ecommerce business toward success.
Conclusion
In a landscape where precision and efficiency reign supreme, embracing inventory management software is a strategic imperative. From real-time tracking to data-driven decision-making and beyond, the benefits your ecommerce business can experience from inventory management software give you a roadmap to operational excellence and financial success.
Consider how these advantages can revolutionize your business, paving the way for optimal stock levels, simplified operations, and enhanced customer satisfaction. You can explore our comprehensive resources to dive deeper into these transformative tools and other platforms.
Stay ahead of the competition by subscribing to The Ecomm Manager newsletter, unlocking exclusive insights, and empowering your business for sustained success.