“Do I have any of this product left in stock? Did the order arrive on time? What are our customers saying? How do I track down the one specific product I need amongst the rest of my products in my inventory?”
While many growing businesses find themselves seeking a simple solution to the questions above, what sets the average business apart from the exceptional one is choosing the right inventory tracking software solution for their business. Inventory tracking software is an all-encompassing system integral to ensuring that your customers receive the product they desire and that you, the business owner, can efficiently restock, distribute, and follow up as to the location your product has been received.
To assist in selling physical goods, some form of inventory tracking technology is used by most types of businesses including retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers. This technology can range from free tools to expansive (and *expensive*) systems. While there are businesses already utilizing the best inventory tracking software for their business, many fail to recognize the importance of implementing this kind of solution.
Inventory Tracking in Optimizing Business Efficiency
Inventory tracking software allows you always to know which SKUs you currently possess, where they are physically, and what quantity is available at each location. According to Gene Tyndall, a well-known supply chain thought leader, “If a product is in your inventory, you should know where it is in your system—in China, on a ship, in a distribution center, or with a retailer waiting to be sold.”
An inventory tracking system allows for improved fulfillment accuracy, increased warehouse productivity, faster shopping and deliveries, more savings, and better customer satisfaction.
Inventory tracking helps to alleviate typical business woes of disorganized inventory, poor picking and packing processes, and lack of stock control. Additionally, inventory tracking software can help in detecting theft and administrative errors that would otherwise be difficult and time-consuming to deal with. Your warehouse inventory management software will help your employees always to be able to know the levels of all existing stock items and their specific locations.
Inventory Tracking Methods and Applications
Inventory management software covers the acquisition, tracking, and shipping of products, can serve as a forecasting tool for customer demand, and it’s able to offer alerts and notifications to improve operational processes such as cycle counts. It effectively organizes inventory to make the picking and packing process more efficient, automates the order-picking process, and also helps you to determine the operational performance for each item in your catalog while offering inventory reports.
Inventory tracking is useful not only to producers of physical commodities but to a wide variety of other industries as well. For example, a restaurant owner needs to be able to accurately track their store’s inventory to ensure that they are able to sell their customers the food they would like to order.
Overall, inventory management software is the most effective manner in which to track inventory—easy-to-mishandle card systems and disjointed spreadsheets simply don’t cut it anymore for growing businesses.
Inventory Tracking Software Helps Your Bottom Line
A solution for inventory tracking means your business reaps monetary benefits due to your operations being efficient and organized. Optimizing your warehouse or facility means you can accurately estimate the space you’ll need in the not-so-distant future. Additionally, labor costs are mitigated as staff becomes more efficient and able to help get your orders out in a more timely and accurate manner. It helps to save staff from going through the trouble of carrying out inventory recounts and prevents stockouts. Also, implementing an inventory tracking solution will make it easier to retain a large base of loyal customers, as your business will be able to happily boast about having both a great product and a great track record for customer service.
Takeaway
Inventory tracking software allows businesses to stay ahead of their competition and meet the increasing demands of their customer base. With the right system, a business can efficiently restock their supplies right when they are in need of them, ensure accurate and timely deliveries, and even protect themselves from theft and errors. All in all, inventory tracking software allows for time to be spent on other crucial aspects of your business as well as Helping you make better decisions for the company in the future.
