5 Reasons Why Your Online Store Needs Proper Inventory Management
Who is the most important part of online sales Inventory Software for Small Business? The customer, of course. What does inventory management have to do with the customer? Everything! Online shopping is a “I want it now” mindset. Customer satisfaction and proper Inventory Software for Small Business are inseparable. Customer satisfaction is only a short distance from company profitability.
There are (at least) five reasons why this must
- Online customers want to know what’s in stock. Inventory management can tell them immediately or it can tell them how much stock.
- Online customers don’t want to false promises now and later. With proper inventory management, you can tell them the truth up front and protect your reputation.
- You don’t want to overstock. Buying or manufacturing more than you currently need ties up capital that could to generate profits elsewhere.
- Don’t run out of stock. Even if you give your customers accurate information about running out of stock, your online competitors are just a click away.
Financial management is a key part of keeping your business afloat. Inventory management gives you real-time information on revenue, expenses and cash flow.
How is it done?
Software Inventory Software for Small Business that drives online sales. To keep pace with online sales, inventory management should also be software-based. Behind the marketing, advertising and buying visible to online customers, inventory management applications work behind the scenes. They allow you to sort, store, track and manage your inventory. They can also help you manage assembly, transportation and delivery to final destinations. As software applications, they can also automate reordering, especially for suppliers when stock levels fall below a predefined level.
Inventory management applications for online sales
The right Inventory Software for Small Business application will address the five reasons above to get online sales right.
Integration with an e-commerce site means providing customers with accurate information about product availability, including a purchase trigger such as “only two left in stock!”.
When a product online Inventory Software for Small Business, the inventory management application immediately updates the stock information so that the same product is not sold twice. The tracking and tracing function allows you to monitor delivery times and set customer expectations correctly.
Overstocking doesn’t just mean having far more stock than you can sell in the short term. Inventory costs can be a costly part of the equation, especially if overstocking leads to running out of space and having to find new space. Capacity management can also help control storage costs.
In the app
You can set levels and alerts, alert you when stock is low, or automatically order to take advantage of bulk pricing discounts from suppliers. Avoid running out of stock due to carelessness or forgetfulness.
Reports
Trends and sales data help you optimist profitability and plan for customer demand. Product return statistics can help you improve your cash flow.
More benefits
For most people, there are probably five good Inventory Software for Small Business reasons to make sure your inventory management is up to par for online shopping. However, there are more reasons.
End-of-season inventory
With automated systems, this can be as easy as creating a report at the click of a button – a far cry from the manual methods of the past, which often rendered businesses warehouse management system for small business inoperable for days at a time.
Limit attrition
Losses due to breakages or internal theft may never be zero, but continuous monitoring is much more likely to bring the situation under control than bi-annual audits.
Freight optimization
Depending on the inventory management application you use, you can find out the best rates directly from a number of well-known transport and courier services.
The absolute advantage of cloud-based inventory management applications from reliable service providers is also the almost constant availability. Because it’s connected to your e-commerce site and hosted in a fairly robust way, your business can continue to operate even if your own internet connection goes down or your office systems crash.
Vend, Stitch Labs and Ordure
Each of these three inventory management warehouse management system for small business applications offers a solution to help online businesses do better business. They provide small and growing businesses with similar basic functionality to improve online inventory management, while offering a personalized and streamlined approach.
Synchronization of online and offline sales channels. E-commerce can be a business in its own right or a parallel sales activity to traditional bricks-and-mortar sales. Vend, Stitch Labs and Ordoro all enable the synchronization of sales inventory.