Today’s eCommerce allows you to offer your products at many forums for sale. This tremendous progress of eCommerce is a healthy sign for your business. But multichannel business invites a variety of problems too. If not addressed with keen attention, they may cause an irreparable loss to your business. Do not take orders for products that are no longer available to you. You may lose not only your goodwill; you’ll lose your customers too. No one likes unpleasant delays; neither welcomes the news of ‘not available’. Without using the best inventory management software, you can’t avoid these problems. Today customers prefer to buy at different channels. Once disappointed with you, they don’t like to visit you again.
For success in a multichannel business, you need to ensure first multi-channel inventory management. It will help ensure prompt delivery of products and consistent customer care.
All you need to know about Multichannel Inventory Management
Read below 10 best strategies to maintain perfect Inventory management Strategies.
1- Create a Compact and Centralized Inventory
Before joining the multichannel business, ensure a compact and centralized inventory at hand. This is the most significant pre-requisite of your business. Without knowing what you have in your warehouses, you can’t maintain an efficient flow of sales. You can’t decide what to buy next for your warehouses. The best solution is to use an automated multi-channel Inventory management Strategies. Stock Konnect is the best. It will help you maintain a record of daily sales and simplify the current position of your stocks.
2- Maintain a comprehensive product database
Feed the right data to your software. Otherwise, your sales reports will have no value. Complete data helps you know the exact position of your stocks. Decide once buying and selling units and create a unique SKU for each product. Note product variants too such as color and sizes in garments. The next important step is to brief your team on these details. Everyone on your team should know how to keep products ready to dispatch. They should know to manage stocks in warehouses and ensure an efficient workflow.
3- Always Mind for System Instructions
Most of the errors occur when you do not follow the system instructions. Do not neglect what your system tells you. If it instructs to take products from a particular location, follow that. If your system is showing any error, first pay attention to correct it. Never overlook system warnings. If you bypass any message of the system, enter it into the system too.
4- Update your System Daily
You should also be careful about updating your inventory management system daily. Enter products that have arrived in the warehouse. Check also the entry of the shipped orders. If you have maintained any quarantined inventory, enter it also. Despite your care, there is a possibility of errors in your system. To maintain an accurate inventory try weekly cycle counts. Match the physical details of the warehouse with the details of their records in the system. It will keep your system up-to-date.
5- Issue Purchase Orders (POs) for Suppliers
Most of the automated systems produce Purchase Orders (POs) as soon as your stocks exhaust. If your system doesn’t have this feature, do it by yourself. Delay in ordering new stocks will cause an adverse impact on your business.
6- Use a Barcode Scanner with your System
It is almost impossible to maintain a record with product names and their specifications. There are always chances of errors, particularly when your sale volume is high. To mitigate errors, use a barcode scanner with your system.
7- Enter Details of Write-offs and Gifts in your System
Sometimes you present products as gifts for promotion or donate them to charities. It is necessary to enter the details of these gifts and donations in your system to keep the inventory in order. You can do it by following two simple ways. First, enter a new customer in your inventory management software. Now mention all gifts and write-offs and make an invoice of zero value. Second, exclude write-offs and gifts from the inventory list following the correction process.
8- Keep a record of returns
There could be many reasons for product returns but it is a common feature of the retail business. You must maintain a record of all those products that you receive back and enter them in the inventory too.
9- Maintaining consignment inventory
Sometimes, you buy products from your suppliers on a consignment basis. In this case, you first sell the products and then settle your accounts with the suppliers. In this sort of business, the best method is to create a virtual warehouse in your system. Show all products you got on a consignment basis. Develop a stock inventory for customers from these products. Enter sold items in your inventory list and filter them from the virtual warehouse.
10- Maintain Dropshipping Record
In some businesses, the sellers’ work is to book orders from the customers. The suppliers dispatch products from their warehouses. In such cases, maintaining an inventory list is quite difficult. You have to rely on the suppliers’ inventory feeds for the availability of products.
