Get on top of your inventory and ensure orders are done on time to prevent unfulfilled requests and running out of stocks. It is crucial for every business owner out there to evaluate your venture on a regular basis, so you can guarantee that you are on the right track. And one of the essential keys to success is inventory management.
In order to achieve business profitability, make it a point to practice inventory management. Without it, you won’t be able to meet customers’ expectations in supplying them with enough available products and at the same time avoid overstocking of items. Effective inventory management requires a lot of work and planning to get an efficient management process, so be sure to have a system that helps you earn more profit.
When it comes to expanding your business, one of your greatest struggles lies in managing your inventory. As a matter of fact, once your order volume increases, you begin to grow across new markets and more sales channels, which means managing your operations manually becomes a difficult task to perform.
According to SellerPlex’s Roadmap To 7-Figure And Sellable AMZ Business (which you can download when you visit our website), you must have an inventory management system and learn to trust it. To thrive at forecasting demand as well as creating purchase orders, you need to have a system that you can count on at any time. This helps you optimize inventory and cost as well as assists you in projecting things properly.
Here are some crucial tips on how to manage your stock and inventory excellently for improved cash flow management and profitability with the use of an inventory management system:
Track sales
Understand what items you have sold and how many of them you were able to sell. It is important that you analyze this data, so you would know when a specific product sells faster or drops off, if it is seasonal, or do items always sell together. By determining these things, you will have a broader picture of how your products sell and at the same time track your sales efficiently. Also, this aids you in keeping your inventory under control all the time.
Order restocks
Take time to check inventory and order restocks yourself. It might help you save time and energy to let other people do this for you, but this can also hinder you from getting the stocks that are truly profitable for your business. Keep in mind that vendors do not have the same priorities like you. They only look to move their products, regardless of the items that are valuable for your enterprise. Thus, do the ordering of restocks by yourself.
Cut down inaccuracies
When you do the internal management process of inventory manually, there is a high probability for inaccuracies waiting to happen. But once you have a system that does these tasks for you, there will be no room for errors. It will automate all the tracking processes and data recording for you.
Improve productivity and overall operations
With reports and analytics from your inventory management system, you can easily determine the items that are selling fast through your business channels. More importantly, this aids you in making good business decisions that help you enhance your productivity and operations.
Apply the 80/20 inventory rule
Put importance on the 80/20 inventory rule. The 80% of your profit comes from the 20% of your stock. You need to closely monitor and know the full sales life cycle of your products, including how many you sell in a week or month. These are the products that bring you the most profit, so never forget to manage them accordingly.
Review your inventory
As a business owner, you must do a comprehensive review of your inventory at least once a year. There are some who do this daily, weekly, monthly, or all of the above. No matter how often you do it, make sure that you physically audit your inventory consistently and guarantee that it matches up with what you actually have.
Keep an eye on all product information
All product information of your items must be recorded in your inventory. This should include the suppliers, Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), barcode data, countries of origin, among others. You can also take into consideration the cost of every item, so you will be aware of some factors that may affect or change the price, such as seasonality or scarcity.
Receive stocks consistently
All incoming inventory should be processed correspondingly. If you have a standard process in doing this, make sure everyone follows it and does it the same way. There might be a small discrepancy in receiving stocks which may bring you a huge problem, so you better comply with the process diligently. In addition, you have to verify the stocks first and then receive and unpack them together. After that, you need to accurately count them and check again for accuracy.
Evaluate supplier performance
Having an unreliable supplier causes a lot of problems in your inventory. In case you have a supplier that falls short an order or is always late with deliveries, then it is high time that you make a move. Talk to the supplier and discuss the issues together properly to find out the root of the problem. Thereafter, be ready to switch suppliers. If not, simply deal with the possibility of running out of inventory or uncertain stock levels.
Make clients happy
Last, but definitely not the least, good inventory management leads to more repeat clients. If you want to keep your clients returning for your products or services, then you must meet all of their requirements. Make them happy by satisfying them with what you offer as much as you can, so you can achieve a good brand and image as well.
Managing your stocks and inventory is a tough task. But you can make things easier with the help of an inventory management system. Stay on track with your inventory with these useful tips mentioned above and make the flow of your incoming and outgoing products balanced. Then, you can monitor all your items perfectly, so get the system that suits you best.