Imagine a retail business selling products of the highest quality and has an effective order management process. You might have envisioned a small business idea that doesn’t have a huge scope in the market. After that, you will look into the overlaps between all the retail businesses. They have a specified target regarding the products to keep in stock.
But what happens if they have both an online shop and a physical store working at full functionality? How do they keep track of the orders that are shipped?
You may imagine how important effective inventory management is to your business plans. By managing your stock plans, you will ensure that your operations are conducted safely and without hiccups. We will also guide you about inventory techniques so you can properly manage your retail store.
What is Inventory Management?
Effective inventory management helps track and organize your inventory and the number of stocks that come in or out of your warehouse. Look into many of the eCommerce articles on the Internet. You will find that the management of inventory creates a strong foundation for a retail business. They track the lifecycle of an inventory and stock when it comes in or leaves your warehouse.
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The main objective of managing inventory is to keep yourself well-informed about its status. You must be aware of the movement of the inventory as well as its quality and quantity. By having an updated record of your inventory, you can highlight the problems in your inventory and find solutions instantly. As a business owner, you cannot be reactive and leave it to the customers to identify the mistakes within your online store. You must have a proactive approach regarding your warehouse status, and ensure that.
Benefits of Inventory Management
1) Avoid Excess Inventory
When you monitor your online sales properly and keep a close eye on the manufacturing process, your inventory management techniques can work at their maximum capacity. You will not be manufacturing or buying more than your demands, so you will discard all the problems of excessive inventory.
Your stock can only be valuable if it is sellable. If your business is suffering from excess inventory, your resources will be tied up and stuck. If your stock stays on your shelves for a long period, you won’t make money out of it.
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By having effective inventory management, you will make room for goods that are more in demand. When a business cannot deliver stocks regularly and suffers from excess inventory, it may even need to minimize the profit margins. On the other hand, a well-maintained inventory can keep a good profit margin on its sales.
2) Timely Orders
If you want the orders to be delivered timely, you must be able to track them. If you have effective inventory management in place and no issues regarding the stock runs, you can focus on order management properly. By having the stock according to your customer demands, you will give them reasons to return to your online store. If you have a quality order management system, you can keep your customers happy.
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By having proper stock inventory management in place, you can also build long-term relationships with your customers. Your customers will be complaining less and engaging more with your brand. Seeing many customers engaging with your brand will only benefit your credibility as a professional. Strikingly enables you to create an online store without any investment. In that online store, you can use the built-in order management system to track your orders effectively. This feature is ideal in maintaining ideal relationships with your respective customers. It will give you the following order details:
- Order status
- Customer name
- Date of order
- Earned revenue
- Order Number
An effective inventory management is highly important to keep a good number of stocks for your customers to order.
3) Happy Customers
You can keep a high customer satisfaction score by providing them with quality customer service. If you have effective inventory management, you will have adequate stock available for the customers to buy. You must look into marketing demands and trending products to achieve this.
Strikingly helps you build an online store that satisfies your customers when they complete the checkout process. We provide you with multiple payment gateways, which help your customers convert the payment according to their country’s currency. PayPal, Stripe, and Square are the online payment options
Tips on Inventory Management
1) Add Product Information
In the order management system of an online store, product information is the most important. As a business owner, you must create product categories to achieve an effective inventory management system. The big question is, what kind of information do you need to prioritize? The details for an order can be as follows:
- SKU Number
- Barcode data
- Suppliers
- Location origin
- Important details
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If you manage to keep a record of all the details mentioned above, you will have a better insight into the movement taking place inside and outside of your inventory.
2) Product Auditing
Most importantly, you can also conduct an audit of the products that are sold or left in your stock. Apart from the sold products, you will also have an insight into product quality remaining in your stock. Moreover, a product audit will keep you aware of all the business finances and necessities.
3) Invest in an Inventory Management System
If you are struggling to deal with the inventory, there are online software to come to your rescue. By having effective inventory management software, you can count your stock regularly. This software will connect with the point of online sale and allow you to manage your stock levels when a transaction occurs. If you can keep your stock updated according to the number of online sales, you will achieve your business objectives.
As a business owner, you will regularly receive stock alert emails on your laptop, mobile phone, or wherever you are managing your inventory. You will be notified about items running low or out of stock so you can guarantee replacements quickly. Customers wait for nobody regardless of their loyalty to a particular online store. If their desired product is unavailable at your online store, they will jump onto another website offering the same product. Even though they may come to your store in the future, it will leave a bad reputation on your end.
4) Consider Drop Shipping
In the business world, there are also ways to maintain adequate inventory management without having an inventory in the first place. This is where the concept of drop shipping comes into play. When you involve drop shipping methods in your business plans, you can sell products without keeping inventory. The wholesaler or the manufacturer will be responsible for delivering products to the customers from the store.
You won’t have to worry about inventory holding or fulfillment as a business owner. Many businesses go for the drop shipping methods, but this supply chain fulfillment strategy can be considered by numerous online businesses worldwide.
Create Online Store on Strikingly
When you enter the eCommerce world for the first time, your reputation is the first and most important thing you prioritize. You cannot be a great business owner if people do not trust you. The best way you can attain the trust badges of your customers is by keeping them up to date with their ordered products. If you run an online store, you can build your credibility by owning an effective inventory management plan. You can tick all the boxes regarding your customers by creating an online store on Strikingly.
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Strikingly is a free website builder that helps you take advantage of all the website features for a fully-functional online store. We provide you with a collection of mobile-friendly website templates, which you can personalize according to your respective business idea. As the number of mobile users has exceeded desktop users in recent years, Strikingly ensures that you don’t ignore the incoming traffic from mobile phones. Once you are done with your website design, you can start adding all your business products so that your stock numbers can be updated accordingly.
Once you register on Strikingly, you can purchase a domain worth $24.95 for your online store. You can make a list of your desired domain names and figure out the best one, or you can check out Strikingly’s domain name suggestions, in case the domain yuo want it taken.
Conclusion
As effective inventory management is one of the most important aspects of your business plan, you must safeguard it at all costs. You must nurture your inventory in the right direction to make money. If you don’t have plans regarding your inventory, you will be unable to leapfrog your competitors.
If you want to build a long-term business, your fundamentals must be quite clear. By having a quality online store on Strikingly, you will focus more on your order management rather than worrying about the technical aspects of your platform. If you are struggling to understand the business-related features of Strikingly, you can collaborate with our Happiness Officers. Having proper plans regarding your inventory will ensure that your customers leave your online store feeling satisfied.
