What does your eCommerce business need for optimal productivity? Inventory management. Any lag in production, delivery, and product quality can damage your reputation and leave customers with no choice but to find another provider for what they’re looking for. There are plenty of businesses out there who neglect inventory management best practices because they’re worried that drastically shifting their priorities will leave them floundering. Managing your eCommerce inventory is more than just sensible—it’s crucial for optimizing your operations. If you’re not careful, you run the risk of severely damaging your company. Here are some key factors that set eCommerce businesses that utilize inventory management systems apart from those that don’t.
More balanced supply and demand
Meeting your long-term sales goals is all about measuring stock levels for quick replenishment. The quicker you replace outbound products, the more orders you can fill. If you wait too long or reorder too quickly, you risk losing your customers or diminishing your available warehouse space. Understand how demand fluctuates for your company, and how that affects your long-term business goals. It helps you forecast what direction your customers are going to go in based on feedback, time of year, and other factors.
Improved cost-savings
Finding a location to use as a contract warehouse is critical for improving your inventory. It allows your eCommerce business to improve labor and transportation costs for storage, shipping, and packaging. Contract warehousing frees you up to take care of other business-critical functions at a myriad of locations.
Simple Scaling
Manually tracking your information might be a little simpler in the beginning, but as your eCommerce store grows you’ll find it more and more difficult to take real-time inventory. If you’re unaware of what your inventory levels are, you could at serious risk of losing clients. If your company grows, then you need to adjust to meet the new demand. eCommerce Inventory management software gives you all the tools you need to scale your operations up or down depending on what you need for order fulfillment. Ineffective strategies for scaling include:
- Offline spreadsheets
- Non-integrated tools
- Offline programs that can’t offer real-time updates
- Manually writing everything down with a pen or pencil
It’s easy to get caught up in trying to find cost-cutting ways to maximize your budget when you’re first starting out. Writing by hand may initially be cheap, but it’s going to cost you in the long-run. Transparency is critical for any company, and you need to make sure that the information you record is 100% accurate. eCommerce inventory management isn’t just a smart alternative to outdated methods—it’s crucial for keeping your customers around your business afloat.
Contact FW Logistics today to see how we can help streamline your operations and improve your eCommmerce solutions.
