Store Inventory Management: How Do You Manage Store Inventory?
Your inventory, as they say, is actually money that’s just sitting around in another form. Since you must manage your money wisely, store inventory management is definitely something you need to be good at.
No matter how many warehouses you’ve got to maintain, you must count each item of stock in each one of them, record the results, and take necessary action accordingly. It seems so challenging, right?
Well, you can’t help but keep track of your inventory levels all the time. After all, an unexpected stock-out is the last thing you’d wish for. Some inventory management software do come to your rescue by making store inventory management less of a headache.
Managing your stock is often like you’re stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. On one hand, you don’t want to disrupt your cash flow with excess stock. On the other, you want to keep enough stock to timely meet the demand of your customers.
This is where store inventory management comes into the picture. Let’s understand what it is and how you can do it effectively.
What Is Store Inventory Management?
Store inventory management refers to maintaining your stock at the optimum levels across your online stores. In other words, it means keeping track of incoming stock, outgoing stock, and the stock lying in your warehouse.
Managing your inventory effectively helps you not only save big on your costs but also enables you to make timely decisions. You can get a crystal clear idea about when to recover your stock or sell your old stock.
Result? You can enjoy an uninterrupted cash flow and also can fulfill your orders on time. Here are the best practices of store inventory management to help you along the way:
Effective Practices Of Store Inventory Management
Did you know? Mismanaged inventory had cost retailers a whopping US$ 677 million during the coronavirus pandemic last year. To protect your business against such a situation, do the following:
Forecast Accurately
If you fail to forecast, you forecast to fail. Always base your sales projections on crucial factors such as your past sales data, economic environment, marketing plans, and the ongoing market trends.
Utilize The FIFO Approach
FIFO(First In, First Out) approach of store inventory management suggests that your products should be sold in the same chronological order as they were bought or manufactured. This is particularly useful in case of perishable products like food items.
However, it’s also a great idea for non-perishable goods as long as there is a risk of damage or becoming unsellable. Here’s a trick. Always add new stock from the back, so the older stock is at the front.
Identify Excess Stock
You see, excess of everything is bad. Get rid of every stock item that hasn’t been sold at all in the last six to twelve months. Maybe, consider running a special discount or promotion for such products to clear that stock.
Do A Stock Audit
No matter how good your store inventory management software is, don’t forget to manually count your inventory from time to time to avoid any surprises. This can be done through various techniques, such as an annual physical inventory count or an ongoing spot audit.
Deploy An Inventory Management Software
If you aren’t using any store inventory management software, get one today. The most important things you need in an inventory management software is real-time insights and regular inventory alerts via Email or SMS.
Keep Track Of Your Stock Levels
Never ever lose track of your stock levels. You simply can’t do that, unless you want to waste your time and money. While tracking your inventory levels, always prioritize the most expensive products. A good inventory management software can also help you do this easily.
Ensure Proper Quality Control
Last but not least, take a pledge now that you’ll keep your products in tip-top condition and are working properly. To start with, hand over a simple checklist to your stock auditors that covers damage, labeling, and other quality-related aspects.
That’s it for now. We hope you must have got a clear understanding of what store inventory management is and how you can implement it in your business. But here’s a tip. If you don’t want to take any stress, how about outsourcing your entire order fulfillment process to a third party?
Manage Your Inventory Like A Pro
Using Shiprocket Fulfillment, you can sync your inventory from all your sales channels and marketplaces in a single place. You can also integrate new channels in just a few clicks.
It’s easier to keep track of your stock and determine how many products you have on your hand. Our system will let you know when you are running out of stock so that you can update your inventory on time.
Simplify your fulfillment, warehousing, and logistics operations today.
