Best Retail Inventory Management Software Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
In recent years, there’s been a shift in the consumer mentality. While plenty of people are still shopping online, over 30% of consumers say they also want an in-person retail experience with a local store. No matter where they shop, they’re expecting a more connected experience. To keep up with demand, retail inventory management software may become your new best friend.
While this shift may have something to do with the recent pandemic, it’s more likely that people are searching for convenient omnichannel shopping that requires business owners to expand and enhance their retail inventory management. Read on to learn more about what type of software will help you keep track of everything your business needs to stock and how it can benefit your business.
What is Retail Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management is all about ensuring you have enough inventory to meet customer demand. So how is retail inventory management software supposed to help? These software options track available inventory so you can order new stock as soon as you need it and streamline your ordering process to automatically restock before you run out.
Inventory management software can also provide insights on the most popular items, least popular items, and seasonality of certain products. It can even include organizational features that help you assign categories or departments. There is inventory management software focused on physical stores, as well as tools for ecommerce businesses.
Here, I’ll be breaking down a broad range of retail inventory management software to cover all the bases, including those for online-based businesses, brick-and-mortar stores, and hybrid organizations that offer both.
How I Selected the Best Retail Inventory Management Software
Are you wondering how I put together this list of the best retail inventory management software? To build this top 10 selection, I compared a massive range of retail inventory management software — focusing on those with the highest user ratings.
Once I narrowed down the list to the software options that have the most positive reviews, I honed it even further using specialized selection criteria to discover how each platform stacked up against the others. I also drew on years of ecommerce experience to ensure every platform has the right features to add a lot of value.
In addition to an overview of the best retail inventory management software, I’ve also included a general questions section to help you learn more about the importance of inventory management software and what it can do for you. Take a look at these frequently asked questions at the bottom before reviewing the detailed product summaries.
Selection Criteria
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best retail inventory management software for this article:
Usability
Whether you already use a variety of web- or cloud-based tools to help run your business or you’re just transitioning to online platforms now, any software you choose should be simple and easy to use with a low barrier for entry. I tried to choose intuitive retail inventory management software that requires minimal training and onboarding.
Standout Features
There are several key features for every type of retail inventory management software, including POS capabilities, customer service management, reporting and analytics, online shopping carts, and payment processors. These peripheral tools may not help you manage inventory but they’re essential to tracking purchase orders and consumer behavior.
Software Integrations
While retail inventory management software can do a lot, most of these platforms aren’t designed for comprehensive business management. So whether you need to connect to social media, a third-party CRM, or anything else to run your organization, you’ll want a retail management platform with flexible API options.
Pricing
Each business has a different budget for retail inventory management software, but everyone is looking for those same basic tools to add the most value to the platform. I’ve explored software options at a range of prices to ensure there’s an ideal option for SMBs and enterprise-level organizations.
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Retail Inventory Management Software
You can use the simple overviews of each tool below to understand how it stands out from other retail inventory management software.
Oracle Retail
Best for end-to-end omnichannel support
Oracle Retail stands as a formidable retail inventory management software, tailored to equip retailers with the essential tools needed to efficiently oversee and optimize their inventory operations. This robust platform encompasses an array of features, including demand forecasting, inventory optimization, replenishment planning, and stock count management, all integrated seamlessly within a unified solution.
Why I Picked Oracle Retail: Oracle Retail excels as a retail inventory management software by offering several key strengths. Firstly, it provides a comprehensive suite of inventory management tools, including demand forecasting, replenishment planning, and stock count management, covering various facets of inventory control within a single platform. This comprehensive approach allows retailers to gain holistic insights into their inventory and supply chain, ensuring that they can optimize inventory levels, reduce carrying costs, and prevent stockouts efficiently. Secondly, Oracle Retail leverages advanced analytics and machine learning to deliver highly accurate demand forecasts, enabling retailers to make data-driven decisions and respond swiftly to market fluctuations.
Oracle Retail Standout Features & Integrations
Features include demand forecasting, inventory optimization, merchandise planning, pricing optimization, point-of-sale (pos) solutions, end-to-end omnichannel support, real-time analytics, task management, integration with oracle cloud infrastructure (oci), customization, and extensibility.
Integrations are not listed by name, but it does promise connections with Foundation Data Cloud Services, Retail Pricing Cloud Service, Stock Count Export, Notification Services, Ticket Printing, and other 3rd parties.
Pros
- Integration with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers scalability
- Advanced analytics, ML, and AL for analytics
- Comprehensive, end-to-end omnichannel support
Cons
- Not cost-effective for small businesses
- Not cost-effective for small businesses
Linnworks
Best for scaling retail inventory management
Linnworks is a cloud-based inventory management software designed for online retailers who sell on multiple channels. It aims to simplify the inventory management process by centralizing all sales, orders, and inventory across different marketplaces and channels into one easy-to-use platform.
Why I Pinked Linnworks: Linnworks' customizable reporting feature provides a wide range of pre-built reports, but retailers can also create their own custom reports to analyze inventory, sales, and customer data. This tool helps retailers manage inventory by providing real-time stock updates, creating purchase orders, and managing shipping and fulfillment across multiple sales channels. Linnworks' automation features also save retailers a lot of time by automatically syncing inventory levels, updating order statuses, and generating shipping labels.
Linnworks Standout Features and Integrations
Features include multi-channel listing, shipping management, stock forecasting, warehouse management, and real-time insights.
Integrations include Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Shopify, QuickBooks, and ShipStation.
Pros
- Multi-channel support on more than 70 channels
- Highly scalable
- Multilingual support
Cons
- No free trial
- No transparent pricing
SkuVault
Best for creating unique SKUs to keep track of your inventory
SkuVault is a cloud-based software that allows retailers and ecommerce businesses to manage their inventory across multiple sales channels, all from one central location. Users can easily monitor their products and streamline their order management process. They can receive alerts when stock levels reach a certain threshold, which can help prevent stockouts or overstocking.
Why I Picked SkuVault: SkuVault allows users to set reorder points, generate purchase orders, and transfer products between locations. It offers real-time stock adjustments, meaning any changes made in sales channels are automatically updated in the system. It also offers integrations with popular marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart and ecommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. SkuVault supports barcode scanning, which makes inventory management more efficient and accurate. Users can scan barcodes to add or remove items from their inventory and perform inventory counts. This feature eliminates human error and saves time, enabling retailers to focus on other business activities.
SkuVault Standout Features & Integrations
Features include barcode scanning, real-time data syncs, cycle counting, inventory pick lists, inventory forecasting, unlimited sales channels, unlimited SKUs, advanced analytics and reporting tools, and inventory management reports.
Integrations include Amazon, Easyship, eBay, Etsy, Lightspeed, Marketo, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Salesforce, ShipWorks, Square, and many others.
UpKeep
Best for asset operations management for increased reliability and maintenance
While many of the previous applications on this list focus on retail businesses, UpKeep offers solutions for maintenance, operations, and reliability teams. Their features include key tools like work order management, asset management, preventative maintenance, and safety and compliance to keep projects running smoothly.
Why I Picked UpKeep: UpKeep ensures streamlined asset operations management that reduces equipment concerns and downtime, as well as extending your equipment lifetime. Their AOM tools unite all aspects of maintenance and operations to ensure comprehensive visibility to provide better data for every project-critical decision.
Whether you need operations, maintenance, or reliability support, UpKeep can provide targeted solutions for businesses of every shape and size, including food and beverage manufacturing, energy and utilities, facility management, property management, restaurants, hospitality, and healthcare.
UpKeep Standout Features and Integrations
Features include work order management, asset management, parts and inventory, preventative maintenance, safety and compliance, analytics and reporting, barcoding, supply chain management, real-time sync, retail inventory management, and serial number tracking.
Integrations include Microsoft Excel, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, Zendesk, Procore, Tableau, Xero, Microsoft Azure, and Motive.
Pros
- Very user-friendly
- Comprehensive dashboard
- Easy asset maintenance
Cons
- Doesn’t have automation for service updates
- App is easier to use than PC version
Zoho Inventory
Best for comprehensive business management
As a cloud-based inventory management software, Zoho Inventory provides businesses with everything they need to manage sales and purchase orders, track inventory, and integrate this tool with other essentials for streamlined business management.
Why I Picked Zoho Inventory: The Zoho platform can handle businesses of every size, with options for businesses that need to fulfill less than 50 orders a month, as well as solutions for businesses with over 25,000 orders in a single month. Their software is ideal for anyone with a heavy focus on ecommerce and online sales. In addition to integrations with online sales channels, inventory control, warehouse management, and viewing invoices, Zoho has also partnered with international carriers so you can provide an efficient delivery experience to customers around the globe.
Zoho Inventory Standout Features and Integrations
Features include order management, warehouse management, inventory management and tracking, inventory control, order fulfillment, inventory reports, order templates, a mobile app, SKU generator, a reorder point calculator, a barcode generator, and a packing slip generator.
Integrations include Shopify, AfterShip, USPS, Amazon Services, Canada Post, Bond, eBay, Etsy, Google Shopping, and Mailchimp.
Pros
- All-in-one business management
- Meets everyday needs and long-term goals
- Nearly endless list of integrations
Cons
- Must buy integrations separately
- Reporting data is too basic
Veeqo
Best for efficient automated shipping
Any retailer or ecommerce shop that needs to do a lot of shipping can benefit from Veeqo for inventory management and fulfillment. With automatic rate selection, faster bulk shipping, and automated shipping rules, you can ship faster, while real-time stock updates, mobile scanning, and forecasting tracks and organizes your inventory.
Why I Picked Veeqo: One of Veeqo’s most powerful tools is the inventory sync that works with every sales channel you have. Whether it’s eBay or Amazon, you’ll always know what you have, what’s low stock, and what’s in danger of overselling. Veeqo also offers a unique bundling tool that links individual items into one kit without any additional effort! Veeqo is a good choice for small businesses and single-person operations that are striving to cut down on costs. This retail and fulfillment software is completely free because they make their money off shipping partners instead of your business.
Veeqo Standout Features and Integrations
Features include low stock alerts, overselling alerts, data sync, multi-store management, inventory control, 3PL management, air shipping, backorder management, cost tracking, label printing, order fulfillment, real-time monitoring, and label making.
Integrations include Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, USPS, Fedex, DHL, UPS, and Walmart.
Pros
- Completely free
- Small-business focused
- User-friendly platform
Cons
- Only for inventory and fulfillment
- Time-consuming front end setup
MicroBiz Cloud
Best for a wide selection of free launch services
One of the best POS and retail inventory management solutions for multi-store retailers, MicroBiz streamlines workflows through automating manual tasks like sales, customer orders, inventory management, shipping and receiving, store management, customer service, and credit account management.
Why I Picked MicroBiz: Their inventory management automation helps support your business through real-time updates, tracking, and reordering at multiple locations. You can manage matrix products with custom variants, attach serial numbers when receiving items, update stock level through import, and track inventory at any location. MicroBiz is designed to support smaller operations — it’s in the name! They’re affordable and offer free launch services and training to ensure every independent retailer has access to tools that will improve their operations.
MicroBiz Cloud Standout Features and Integrations
Features include barcode scanning, POS hardware, order management, work orders, CRM tools, credit accounts, product catalog, serial numbers, ordering automation, sales reports, returns management, reporting and analytics, inventory optimization, and customer history.
Integrations include QuickBooks Online, WooCommerce, and Adobe Commerce.
Pros
- Great for bundling POS and inventory needs
- Simple data import solutions
- Visualization options for any task
Cons
- No invoice customization
- No iPhone app
Cin7 Omni
Best for connecting all sales channels in one place
When you need an automated inventory management platform to grow your revenue to over a million dollars, Cin7 provides solutions with synchronized stock and sales across every one of your sales channels, automated order processing, and configurable inventory management.
Why I Picked Cin7 Omni: No matter where you sell your products, this multi-channel inventory system can help you keep track of it all. Connect everything when you turn on the sales channels and lower operating costs by automating inventory adjustment, email notifications, tracking batch orders, and purchase to order creation. While Cin7 may not be the right tool for asset management or rental type businesses, any organizations that sell or distribute physical products can use this retail inventory management software to keep costs down. This tool is best for medium, large, and enterprise-level organizations.
Cin7 Omni Standout Features and Integrations
Features include real-time inventory updates, stock management, ecommerce platform integrations, built-in EDI, 3PLS, B2B ecommerce, point of sale, payment portal, and production management.
Integrations include Google Drive, Microsoft Excel, PayPal, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Shopify, Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero, and WooCommerce.
Pros
- Very easy to learn and use
- Comprehensive business management solutions
- Great support team
Cons
- Costly add ons
- No customizable branding
Unleashed
Best for full inventory visibility and control
If you’re looking for an intuitive tool with cloud-based inventory management, Unleashed delivers accurate data to drive business operations in real-time. With their inventory control and reporting features, you can handle everything from purchasing and production to flexible, manageable workflows.
Why I Picked Unleashed: One standout tool in the Unleashed arsenal is the Perpetual Inventory Control Report. Looking at this spreadsheet-style visualization, you can get a handle on the cost of your products that’s more reliable than tracking the costs of goods sold. Maintain more visibility with store inventory and stock counts and get a better view of product margins and profit. Unleashed is a useful software for medium-sized businesses and emerging enterprises. They may be a little too cost prohibitive for single-person operations and small businesses. However, this platform can support a variety of industries, specializing in manufacturing, retail, distribution, food manufacturing, breweries, distilleries, and coffee roasters.
Unleashed Standout Features and Integrations
Features include data importing and exporting, centralized inventory database, low stock and out of stock notifications, inventory level dashboards, inventory forecasting, stock history reporting, multi-warehouse management, and reporting and analytics.
Integrations include Salesforce, Lokad, Geo, Vend, Prospect, StockTrim, Xero, Amazon, Zeald, Neato, and Shopify.
Pros
- Almost effortless to maintain
- Exceptional reporting with integrations
- Lots of user-friendly guides
Cons
- Requires a time investment to set up
- Reporting isn’t as flexible as it could be
Lightspeed Retail
Best for integrated POS and inventory management systems
As a complete point of sale and inventory management tool, Lightspeed Retail provides the best of both to ensure you can streamline time-consuming admin duties, like checking inventory levels, stock reorders, and employee management, so you can take better care of customers and grow your business.
Why I Picked Lightspeed Retail: In addition to helping manage your inventory, Lightspeed Retail focuses on improving customer service and loyalty through a unique POS system that offers fast checkout with Quick Keys, versatile payment options, built-in customer profiles for personalized shopping, and custom fields that brand the checkout experience. Lightspeed Retail originally started as a tool for SMBs, but has recently expanded to service enterprise-level organizations, managing inventories and sales of over a million dollars for some businesses. In addition to retail, this platform is also specialized to service restaurants, hotels, and golf clubs.
Lightspeed Retail Standout Features and Integrations
Features include inventory tracking, order fulfillment, inventory control, POS for iPad and cloud, pre-loaded catalogs, barcode generator, supplier network, social media and order templates, SKU tracking, product variant creation, and managing multiple locations.
Integrations include APICABASE, BevSpot, BikeExchange, MarketMan, Growzer, OpenTable, Pointy, PeachWorks, RESTOCK, and Retail Toolkit.
Pros
- Streamlined integrations for every industry
- Integrated payment processing
- Minimal training requirements
Cons
- No mobile app for management
- Not ideal for composite product sales
The 10 Best Retail Inventory Management Software Summary
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oracle Retail Best for end-to-end omnichannel support | Free demo | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
2 | Linnworks Best for scaling retail inventory management | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
3 | SkuVault Best for creating unique SKUs to keep track of your inventory | Free demo available | From $359/month | Visit Website |
4 | UpKeep Best for asset operations management for increased reliability and maintenance | 7-day free trial available | From $45/user/month | Visit Website |
5 | Zoho Inventory Best for comprehensive business management | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $79/month. | Visit Website |
6 | Veeqo Best for efficient automated shipping | 14-day free trial | Plans start at $195/2 users/month | Visit Website |
7 | MicroBiz Cloud Best for a wide selection of free launch services | 30-day free trial available | Plans start at $995/user | Visit Website |
8 | Cin7 Omni Best for connecting all sales channels in one place | Free demo available | Plans start at $399/month | Visit Website |
9 | Unleashed Best for full inventory visibility and control | Free trial available | Plans start at $349/month | Visit Website |
10 | Lightspeed Retail Best for integrated POS and inventory management systems | Customized 14-day free trial for your industry | Plans start at $69/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best retail inventory management software list:
- SKULabs
Best for multi-channel order management in one place
- Odoo
Best for all-in-one business management
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Best for building headless commerce driven by customers
- monday.com
Best for out-of-the-box workflows
- Intuendi
Best for reducing forecasting errors with inventory optimization
- Megaventory
Best for cloud order, manufacturing, and inventory management
- Agiliron
Best for cloud-based retail management
- Finale Inventory
Best for cloud-based inventory management for growing businesses
- Primaseller
Best for online and offline sales
- erplain
Best for simplified B2B sales and inventory management
People Also Ask
Here are a few popular questions answered for your convenience!
What are the 4 types of inventory management?
What are the key features of retail inventory management software?
Other Inventory Software Reviews
I've reviewed other inventory management software, so check out these lists if you still haven't found what you're looking for.
- Best Inventory Management Software
- Cloud-Based Inventory Management
- Free Inventory Management Software
- Enterprise Inventory Management Software
Find More at ECM
At The Ecomm Manager, you can find a huge selection of resources to inform you about the latest and greatest tools for your business. From retail management to customer service, these articles break down and examine everything you might need to ensure streamlined, efficient operations.
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