Store Inventory Software

How Can Store Inventory Software Help You Grow Your Business

By Read Dive 3 years ago
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As a business owner, you need to be constantly on the lookout for improvements you can make to take your company to the next level. One option that all stores should consider is using inventory software. This can bring cost savings and enhanced efficiency to your business. Below, we will reveal everything you need to know.

What is store inventory software?

Before we reveal how this type of software can grow your business, it is critical to explain what it is. Store inventory software has been designed to help you keep track of all stock levels across your retail stores. This can relate to both online and physical stores, and it includes everything from purchasing the stock until the point it reaches your store.

Inventory management software will enable you to:

  • Track the items you sell
  • Synchronize your inventory across a number of sales channels
  • Make sure you are not selling beyond your inventory capabilities
  • Restock prior to entering the ‘red zone’
  • Quickly and easily locate items

How does inventory software help your business to grow?

Now that you have a good understanding of what inventory software is, let’s take a look at the benefits that are associated with it.

Increase productivity levels

One of the main ways in which inventory software will grow your business is by boosting productivity. You will get more done in less time with a systematic and organized inventory management process.

Utilizing software to manage inventory is going to cut down on the time required to track, audit, and process your products.

With one interface, you can easily check the stock amounts across all of your inventory, determine what is selling and what is not, connect to payment apps for purchasing orders and invoicing, and find vendor information.

Track costs accurately

Expense tracking is a key part of any department within a business, and there is no exception when it comes to your inventory. Inventory software can produce reports so that you can determine pertinent financial information, including:

  • real-time inventory valuation
  • total taxes
  • total sales

meaning you can effectively track your inventory expenses and revenue.

Reduce stock-outs

Inventory control software helps you to prepare for different events, like a stock-out, which impact the demand and supply of your products.

A stock-out occurs when there is an unexpected demand for a certain product, which results in the item selling out. You will be better placed to prepare for such scenarios if you have store inventory software in place.

Automatic quantity updates, real-time inventory valuation, and low stock alerts will help you to adjust to the supply and demand in your market effectively.

Improve customer service

Giving your customers what they want, when they want it, is a huge part of delivering customer satisfaction. With this sort of software, you can use automatic low stock alerts to make sure that you always have the most popular items in-store.

These alerts can be sent directly to your smartphone. All of the stock quantity data and vendor information will be available at the click of a button.

Automate manual inventory tasks

When you choose software with care, inventory management can be automated for your business, which will boost count accuracy and revenue while lowering expensive mistakes and human errors.

Your workers are not going to need to spend their precious time counting stock (and then recounting it), as the automated software will provide real-time data. There is no need to run back and double-check either!

Reduce deadstock and aged inventory

Organize your inventory by date so that you can see which orders were placed first, and check the quantity you have available to figure out how much you need to sell.

Knowing what products are going out of date soon, particularly if you have perishable items, means you are best placed to sell aged inventory before it ends up being deadstock and you lose money. You can lower business wastage and repurpose aging inventory to save money by using an effective store inventory solution.

Save time

Save time by using inventory management software to streamlining inventory processing by tracking inventory and stock numbers and the associated costs.

When you have clear visibility of stock movement, you will always know the status of all of your goods. You can expect faster processing and selling times when purchasing and selling items in real-time thanks to the automatic updates on the quantities you have at hand.

Boost profitability

You can gain insights about your business with store inventory software, such as what products are popular and which items are not selling. Tracking and inventory reports give you the power to make intelligent decisions so that you can boost your profit. You will be able to focus more on the items that sell well, which ultimately benefits your bottom line.

How to choose the best store inventory software for you

In order to reap the benefits discussed, you are going to need to choose a reliable, high-performing solution. So, what should you be looking for?

Consider your goals and objectives

There is only one place to begin, and this is by establishing your objectives. Put together a list of the challenges your business faces and the goals you hope to achieve by implementing store inventory software.

This could be anything from higher profitability to easier scalability, more streamlined workflows, and more accurate inventory tracking. By establishing your challenges and goals, it will give you a clear understanding of what you need from an inventory solution.

What features do you need?

This is a key question you need to ask yourself when looking for inventory software. Some of the most essential features include inventory synchronization capabilities, accounting plug-ins, inventory fluctuation alerts, forecasting inventory levels, tools for reporting, and a barcode assistant.

Ultimately, though, the set of features you require depends on your business and the nature of it, for example, the type of products you sell and the number of items you store. Sit down and think about what you really need from a store inventory solution.

Security features

This is a critical area but it is one that a lot of people tend to overlook when they are searching for store inventory solutions. As you are going to be inputting company data, you need to make sure that the software provider has gone the extra mile to protect all of your confidential information.

Do not simply assume that this is the case. Find out what approaches the company uses to make sure that your data is protected. The best security is always multi-layered, meaning a number of different approaches are used, from encryption to multi-factor authentication.

After all, there are many different ways for hackers to gain access today, so various security measures must be implemented.

Cost

Cost is a critical factor to consider when making any sort of business purchase, with inventory software included. This does not mean that you should simply go for the cheapest solution you find. If you do this, you are almost certain to experience a lack of quality. However, it is important to make sure that you are getting good value for money and that there are no hidden costs.

Integrations

The majority of the store inventory solutions available today will provide a suite of integrations with other key applications, including logistic providers, accounting systems, and shipping providers. In fact, some software companies will give you the ability to enjoy custom integrations through an API.

Selling channels

What channels do you currently sell on? If you sell on multiple channels, or you intend to do so in the future, you need to look for software that has been created to handle your sales across various places.

You can integrate inventory management solutions with a number of direct selling platforms, from Amazon to Shopify.

Support and training

The majority of software providers will offer varying types and levels of training resources and support, yet costs do differ. Free support will be included in subscriptions with some providers, yet others will charge for this. As a consequence, we recommend that you consider this carefully when determining which solution is going to be right for you.

Read reviews

Finally, we recommend that you take the time to read reviews that have been left by others. This can give you a good insight into what others have thought about the solution.

  • Does it live up to the hype?
  • Is it easy to use?
  • What is customer support like?

This is the best way to get the answers to the questions you really want to know. Make sure you use an independent review platform so you can be sure that all of the comments are genuine.

Final words on store inventory software for your business

So there you have it: everything you need to know about store inventory software and how it can benefit your business. Use the advice and suggestions that we have provided above to find the best solution for your store’s needs.

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