Introduction
Any good inventory management process saves time and money. If done correctly, it also improves customer experience and cash flow. As more fulfillment options and sales channels become accessible, their importance also increases!
If you want to use social commerce to make the products accessible on more markets or carry out quick commerce execution, an excellent inventory management process is required.
Distinguishing Inventory Management from Inventory Control: Understanding Key Differences
Inventory management and stock control are regularly used. However, they are different things.
Inventory control is about managing stock already in storage. Inventory management is a wider term that covers the entire procedure of managing stocks from order to shipping.
Inventory control stores stock efficiently and minimizes warehouse costs. Its aim is to achieve well-balanced stock levels that prevent deadstock while avoiding stockouts. If done properly, this saves money and corrects cash flow without any negative impact on customers.
Key Inventory Management Process
Before optimizing the inventory management process, you should cover all the fundamental steps. Here, we've provided five key steps necessary for an inventory management process:
1. Get and Check Products
The initial step in an inventory management process is to receive your orders from a supplier. Having this right is essential for the following steps to work efficiently. After receiving the order, the first thing to do is to check the products. It's essential to observe that quantity product codes and serial codes are correct. It would help if you ensured handling conditions like temperature are precise for perishables, and all the products are in fine condition.
2. Sorting and Stocking Products
After reviewing the products, they must be correctly stored in a warehouse and entered into the leave management system. At this stage, you should be tactical about how products are stored. Warehouse slotting methods like organizing products according to product type and SKU can be helpful. It is essential to lessen the distance of bestselling products by storing them when they are primarily available.
3. Accept Customers' Orders
The following step of the inventory management process is to accept customer orders. These orders will usually go through a POS (Point Of Sale) system that processes orders and receives payments. This POS system can either have an in-built inventory management feature or be integrated with the inventory management software, which will allow the order information to be viewed by warehouse staff.
4. Fulfil Packages and Ship Orders
When a customer orders, the next step is expediting and accurately fulfilling the package and shipping that order. In this case, the 2nd step of the process gets optimized. Looking for and choosing the products in a warehouse needs is relatively easy—some vital aspects to consider while packaging are customer experience, sustainability, and durability. While shipping the products, send the customer an email confirmation email with tracking details.
5. Reordering New Stock
While reordering new stocks, it is important to make sure the timing and amount of new orders are correct. By using the reorder point formula, it's easy to minimize the risks of deadstock and stockouts—two problems that negatively affect the bottom line. Some inventory management systems systematize the procedure of reordering, which saves time and prevents all mistakes originating from human errors.
How to Optimize Inventory Management?
Let's understand how to optimize the inventory management process. Do you want to save money by making space or telling customers that you can use many methods to manage your stocks better? Let's go through them:
1. Continue Planning
Having the right inventory insights with stock control is a never-ending job. You must constantly track results, observe stock levels, and study problems. Depending on this data, you can update the management plans.
It's important to constantly tweak replenishment cycle lengths and safety stock levels. It's also very important to observe the supply chain, world events, news, and changing consumer behavior, which will help you adjust your plans accordingly.
2. Put Important Products First
Managing all the inventories can be intimidating. Therefore, start by recognizing important stock and optimizing the process accordingly.
Many brands utilize an ABC Analysis model to pinpoint their most important stocks. Then, they search which replacement patterns ensure they'll never run out of stock without using too many sources.
3. Build a Core Team
It would help if you built a core team first to get the right inventory insights.
First, you require a team of mathematical modeling experts. But you need to create a culture that ensures they meaningfully relate to the non-math executives. Also, you have to include staff from different stages of an inventory management process—from selectors on a floor to top warehouse managers. You can also get input from customers' support staff.
4. Matching Your Tactics with Business Model You Use
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for inventory management and stock monitoring. Each brand has unique requirements for size, location, and delivery methods.
When selecting a management system, businesses must consider transportation networks, warehouse locations, and manufacturing locations.
5. Selecting the Right Tool
Selecting tools and software that can change and scale alongside the business is very important.
Inventory Management software (cloud-based ) normally provides this. It isn't affected by local tech problems or power cuts. Just ensure that you select one that integrates with all your eCommerce stacks, and tracks required data to make solid decisions about inventory planning.
Final thoughts
An efficient inventory management process is a competitive benefit in today's eCommerce world and helps in business performance. As we have gone through the steps required to get started, you can do stock management and asset management better, resulting in positive results for a business's bottom line. Contact Actowiz Solutions for all your mobile app scraping, instant data scraper and web scraping service requirements.
