Every item you stock is a potential profit, so it’s vital that you manage those items well. Read more in our latest article.
If a customer should order an item and you don’t have it in stock, then that’s lost profit. If your products don’t make it onto the shelves in a timely manner, items could miss a key date such as Christmas or Easter or may become out of date and unsaleable. So, keeping track of your stock, ensuring you have sufficient stock levels, and making sure that every item is where it should be when it needs to be, is invaluable. The average business loses out on around 4% of sales due to items being out of stock. This loses the sale, but it also reduces the faith in your brand from the customer’s point of view. They are less likely to return to a store that doesn’t have the items they want in stock.
So, it’s rather surprising to learn that 43% of small businesses either track their stock manually, or don’t track it whatsoever!
The benefits of utilising an Inventory Management System
A good Inventory Management System will make life easier and boost your profits in several ways…
Never out of stock
The system will keep track of stock levels for you, but it will also use historical and seasonal data to ensure you have more or less stock exactly when it is needed. So, you’ll always be able to supply demand and customers won’t be left disappointed.
Offers traceability
With an Inventory Management System, you are able to track a product throughout its whole life cycle. This gives you the opportunity to trace a product back to its raw materials or forward it to a customer record.
Makes multiple locations easier to manage
Keeping track of stock levels across multiple locations is complex and time consuming unless you have an Inventory Management System to keep track of it all for you. This will give an overview of all locations, as well as a global view of the entire inventory.
Simplifies inventory cycle counting
Your Inventory Management System will also be able to make light work of the regular job of cycle counting. Scheduling counts for you and allocating tasks to specific staff members. Counts can be integrated into daily tasks to reduce time and workload.
Get in touch to learn more
Our recommended Inventory Management System is NetSuite Inventory Management. This well-regarded system is already being used with great results by businesses worldwide. It solves all the issues we’ve mentioned, and many more in addition. For more information regarding how we, as NetU, can help you to incorporate an Inventory Management System into your business please get in touch today, we’re always happy to answer any questions you may have. Contact us.