Today, real-time inventory management is made possible with the help of best-in-class wholesale inventory management software and is what sets apart the novice, local distributor or wholesaler from those going global.
Although real-time inventory tracking does make life easier for product and warehouse managers, it has become a customer-facing differentiator by companies that integrate real-time inventory into view on product pages for buyer consideration.
For example, you might have a buyer interested in a large order of a SKU that is nearly out of stock. Although you might want to move that product, perhaps your buyer has a deadline to hit to deliver all of that product to their customer.
By displaying your real-time inventory availability, you’re saving the buyer a call into your customer service team or a canceled order if you can’t deliver the entire order. There's no inventory management excel template that can do that for you.
A strong inventory management strategy not only ensures that you’re transparent with customers on what you have in stock, but it also prevents you from running out of stock of popular-selling items. Not to mention it keeps you from cash-strapping your business by ordering too much of a given product.
Inventory Management Prepares You for Seasonal Rushes or Slumps
For seasonal products, set inventory alerts to notify you when inventory drops to 50% of the stock level you want to maintain so that you have plenty of time to order from your vendors and receive into your warehouse before the selling rush passes.
Give yourself enough time in the event your normal supplier is low on stock too due to uncontrollable conditions, like a heat wave that drives up sales of commercial fans.
Prevent Dead Stock with Inventory Management Alerts
For perishables or products with an expiration date, make sure you’re tracking items that are near expiration. Run a flash sale online to move those products out the door, so that you don’t end up sitting on dead stock that takes up valuable room in your warehouse.
Make sure your warehouse employees pick items near expiration for outgoing shipments and not newer stock, otherwise known as the first-in-first out (FIFO) approach.
Inventory Best-Sellers but Drop Ship When Testing New Products
Speaking of storage costs, you don’t want to order too much of an unproven product, like a new SKU you are testing to see if there is demand from your customer base, only to find out it’s a bust and now it’s taking up much needed space for a proven product.
Always make sure to leave room in your warehouse for your best-selling, high-margin products.
You can free up additional cash on hand by drop shopping new products you are considering stocking. As you seek to expand your business outside of your local region, drop shipping can be a great tool to use until you have additional warehouse space.
If you’d like a few tips on how you can use Systum’s alerts and notifications to proactively manage inventory, schedule a time to demo with us by filling out the form below.
Categories: Inventory Management, Wholesale Distribution
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