Managing inventory across the supply chain can be a difficult task. If you sell on multiple channels like websites, marketplaces, and social media, you need a clear understanding of your inventory management operations. As your business grows, the inventory requirements change, and the levels will also be altered accordingly.
To meet consumer demand and organize your warehouse, you need to track inventory at all times, and this requires transparency and complete visibility of inventory levels.
This is where inventory visibility comes into play. Let’s look at what inventory visibility is and how does it help with improving the supply chain performance.
What is Inventory Visibility?
Inventory visibility refers to the process of viewing and tracking inventory in real-time. This helps you get an idea of the number of SKUs that are in stock in each location where they are stored.
For example, if you store inventory in multiple warehouses of fulfillment centers, inventory visibility lets you track the available inventory in real-time.
Inventory visibility is essential if you want to avoid unfortunate situations like inventory stock out. It helps you maintain sync between incoming orders in the system with the existing inventory.
As an eCommerce business, it is crucial to have visibility to inventory levels at all times. This will help you gain insights into how you can manage your inventory better and which product you should market to maintain a complete tally of your inventory.
This data will also enable you to study your customer better and learn their interest so disinterest in a more organized fashion. Eventually, this information will help you make more insightful business decisions. You will also be able to work on other aspects like shipping, reducing inventory handling & fulfillment costs, etc.
How Can Inventory Visibility Help Improve Supply Chain Performance?
Increase Efficiency
Inventory visibility lets you get an oversight of the inventory available across channels. You can leverage this data to match his stories and current data and firm trends that will help you improve internal processes and eventually boost supply chain efficiency.
You can use existing warehouse management systems or segregate inventory apps to manage inventory visibility and enhance productivity.
Maintain Inventory Levels
An essential advantage of inventory visibility is to maintain inventory levels. If you do not maintain inventory levels and purchase without keeping track of orders, you can either accumulate excess dead stock or be left with no store when the customer orders the product.
If you store products in more than one location, you can face this problem frequently and pay a lot extra if you need the products urgently.
Enhance Customer Experience
Inventory visibility will help you maintain transparency throughout your supply chain. This will enable you to take business decisions quicker, process orders faster, and deliver to the customers sooner.
With inventory and visibility in place, you can meet customer demands, manage stock across the network in advance, save on logistics costs, and reduce last-mile delivery costs by storing inventory closest to your customer.
Improve Communication
With enhanced transparency owing to complete visibility, you can improve communication within the organization and take collaborative decisions faster. As the data is available at your fingertips, you can solve any concerns arising efficiently.
Uplift Demand Forecasting
Another advantage of inventory visibility is the improvement of demand forecasting. Demand forecasting is essential if you want to assess your customer’s demands in advance. It helps you plan your shipments and gives you an idea of the inventory you should purchase. With data available around existing inventory and past purchase trends, you can make insightful decisions and forecast customer demand in advance. Since this data will be rich and close to the actual value, you will face very few situations like stockouts.
Shiprocket Fulfillment – Enhancing Inventory Visibility with 3PL Fulfillment.
If you opt for 3PL fulfillment by Shiprocket Fulfillment, you can enhance your supply chain operations with several techniques. First, you can store inventory closest to your buyers in a network of eCommerce fulfillment centers located in zones across the country. This will help you reduce shipping costs by up to 50%, Seaview fulfillment costs, lower weight discrepancies, and reduce RTO.
Not just this, with a thoroughly equipped dashboard, you will be able to track your inventory at all times and map it with incoming orders. With marketplace and website integration with multiple channels, you will keep track of your inventory and maintain transparency within the supply chain.
It is an intelligent choice to choose 3PL fulfillment providers like Shiprocket Fulfillment to handle your eCommerce fulfillment operations efficiently with several benefits.
Final Thoughts
eCommerce fulfillment is a full-time job that requires you to be skilled and attentive at all times. Opting for 3PL fulfillment providers will help you maintain inventory efficiency and visibility to enhance your supply chain operations by many folds.
