To keep up with the explosive growth of the eCommerce market, nailing inventory management is vital. Whether you’re new to eCommerce or have been in the business for a while, here are three pillars that you should focus on to help you master inventory management.
1. Real-time visibility
It’s crucial that you’ve got the inventory visibility to trust both your inventory quantities as well as its locations. By having access to real-time, quality data, you’ll be able to make better data-informed decisions when it comes to ordering, warehousing, sales and more.
By having access to this data along with real-time reporting, you’ll also be able to get a better snapshot of your company’s performance and make the best decisions for your business.
2. Optimisation with inventory management systems
Inventory management systems can help with streamlining processes and workflows for your business. If you’ve yet to implement a proper inventory management system for your business, however, you’d need to make sure that you’re selecting one that suits your company’s needs best.
With the right inventory management system, you’ll be able to access all of the necessary insights and make the best profitable decisions for your company. Some of the other benefits of optimisation with an inventory management system include:
- Better inventory accuracy – you’ll be able to know what’s in stock and order what’s required to meet demand.
- Since you’ve got an idea of the amount of inventory you’ve got on hand, you reduce the risk of overselling your products.
- With your inventory management system, you’ll be able to better plan and minimise the number of days that a certain product is out of stock – thus avoiding stockouts and excess stock.
- Have access to fantastic insights and be able to make better business decisions for your company.
- Increased productivity as you’ll be able to spend time on other parts of your business.
- As you’ll have a better understanding of what’s available along with which products are in demand, this will lead to greater profits in the long run.
- You’ll also have a more organised warehouse which will reduce labour costs, increase the speed of order fulfilment and lead to higher customer satisfaction.
3. Automation of your supply chain
By automating your manual day-to-day inventory management tasks, you’ll be able to focus on other tasks in your business such as overall customer experience, business growth and more.
When it comes to inventory management, it’s essential that you’re looking at a system which can integrate multiple links in your supply chain – whether that be shipping, logistics, stock control and more.
By integrating and automating your supply chain components, you’ll be able to improve accuracy, speed as well as cost.
Taking time to master inventory management
While mastering inventory management might seem difficult, if you follow the three pillars mentioned above, you’ll be well on your way to properly managing your inventory.
Inventory management is vital as it can make or break a business, and having insight into your products at any moment is essential to success. By having the right tools in place, you’ll be able to manage your inventory both effectively and at lower expenses – a win-win.
