Author: Accountfully
We have an important question for the CPG business leaders and doers out there; how are you feeling about your inventory status, right now? If thinking about your inventory management process is tiring and overwhelming, yet your main source of revenue is inventory, then it is time to take a hard look at your inventory management practices. Better yet, it is time to take the tedium and manual processes out of it too. The good news is that there is an alternative to manual spreadsheet management that can streamline operations and boost profitability, among other key benefits. Let’s dig into five simple reasons why you need an inventory management system.
If you are new to the concept of Inventory management systems like Cin7, take a minute to learn what they are and how they help. In a nutshell, Cin7 reflects and organizes complex inventory details, giving you complete control and visibility over your stock. Better yet, they sync with your accounting software and ecomm website to make orders and sales flow easily. They are cloud-based, and can scale alongside your business to support you from startup to full-fledged operation.
How much time do you take each day, week, month, etc to manually add data to your inventory tracking spreadsheet? Are you gathering multiple sources of information from various warehouses and manufacturers and consolidating it into your spreadsheet manually? Manually running orders wastes precious days between the order and delivery in the process. An inventory management system helps you efficiently manage your inventory by automating tasks such as stock tracking, reordering, and order fulfillment. This saves you time and reduces the risk of human error, ensuring that you always have the right products in stock and can fulfill customer orders promptly. Cin7 allows you to streamline pick and pack operations, automatically add inventory details with barcode scanning, and track transfers between warehouses or retail locations.
A spreadsheet is great for calculating and tracking. However there’s still a lot of opportunity for errors. Even if you do catch them, the troubleshooting and reassessing calculations can add additional time to the process. Manual inventory management can lead to inaccuracies, such as misplaced or miscounted items that you don’t have time for. Cin7 utilizes barcode scanning to accurately track inventory levels and locations so your COGS and re-orders can be accurate. This also reduces the risk of stockouts, overstocking, and costly errors, ultimately improving your overall inventory accuracy.
Those basic reports on your ecomm website are great for a peek into how your inventory is moving, but they are by no means the only way you should monitor important KPIs like velocity. Cin7 gives you real-time visibility into your inventory levels, demand patterns, and sales data across multiple channels. This enables you to make data-driven decisions about when to reorder, how much to reorder, and which products to prioritize. By optimizing your inventory levels, you can reduce carrying costs, minimize dead stock, and maximize your profitability.
In today’s retail climate, orders must be expeditious. While you don’t have to be Amazon Prime, you still can’t afford to waste time fumbling through orders and planning re-stocks. Conversely, if you are supporting a big wholesale account, you only get one chance to make that positive first impression and live up to that promise of providing the agreed-upon quantity. Don’t blow it over bad inventory data and planning. A reliable inventory management system ensures that you can fulfill customer orders accurately and on time. By having the right products available when customers need them, you can reduce backorders, prevent stockouts, and deliver a seamless customer experience. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Not to mention a healthy wholesaler relationship that can grow your business.
Speaking of large wholesale accounts, understanding the data and having it easily displayed can move the needle when it comes to planning and making confident decisions. Chances are, the goal of your business is to thrive and grow, and Cin7 can help you do just that. It provides you with valuable insights into your business operations. You can analyze sales trends, identify top-performing products, and understand customer preferences. Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions about inventory planning, marketing strategies, and product development, ultimately driving business growth. From actual COGS and job costing to live stock levels and reordering alerts, your team has the information it needs to make the right decisions for your business to thrive.
Starting out with a simple spreadsheet to map out your inventory is not bad, but it is not a sustainable way to operate long-term. When manual inputs, errors, and inaccuracies are getting in the way of planning and reviewing your inventory to support your business growth, it is time to try something new. Implementing an inventory management system like Cin7 offers more reliable data, minimizes errors, and improves efficiencies that allow you to grow your business and plan for the future.
Product companies have to innovate quickly in the coronavirus era. With increases in online shopping and demand for click-and-collect, retailers and wholesalers are doing everything from shifting their sales-channel focus to fundamentally changing how they do business.
Lost, obsolete or overstocked inventory drives up costs and destroys margins. Without inventory visibility, you won’t know your business is suffering until it’s too late.
