Inventory management: how to get it under control
Inventory management has never been more challenging than it is right now: the cluster bomb of spiralling freight costs and massive shipping delays can erode your profit margin and customer trust – as well as your sanity levels.
This is especially true if you rely on importing, or if the value of your stock is a significant part of your business.
If you have $500k or more in stock, chances are you’re doing things tough right now – but we have some practical tools to help you make it all more manageable.
Inventory management software is your friend
“But I already have inventory software,” you say. Or: “My spreadsheet works just fine, thank you very much.”
But is it really up to the job? Are you totally sure?
Let’s take a look at what good inventory management software can do for you:
- Accurate product costings: Calculate your product costs with confidence, based on current freight costs, customs costs, and so on. This means you can maintain your desired margin and profitability levels across your product ranges – even when prices and exchange rates are fluctuating. And if you’ve ever wondered how to calculate the selling price of a product – the software will help you do this accurately.
- Get the timing right when re-ordering products: Ordering products at the right time can be a stock management nightmare, so you don’t end up with too much stock, or run out of product. And both of these issues could cause catastrophic cash flow problems if you get it wrong. Inventory control software helps you plan your ordering, based on current lead times, so you can order the right product at the right time.
- Accurate stock levels and stock evaluation: Reporting on your stock is easy and exact.
- Manage multiple warehouses: Inventory management software makes managing stock levelsacross multiple warehouses straightforward.
- Easy e-commerce: By linking your stock management software to your website, purchasing becomes a seamless experience for the customer, whether that customer’s an end customer, or a B2B customer. Another bonus is that the product descriptions and technical specifications you store in the inventory management system can also feed through to the website, saving the onerous task of re-inputting all the information (and it being out of date if the specifications change). This is a huge time saver!
- App for order taking: Orders taken by your field sales team feed directly into the inventory management software.
- Increased profitability: By improving profit margins, product availability, cash flow, and sales, you have the potential to significantly grow the profitability of your business.
Here’s how inventory management software has helped one New Zealand business:
Next step
Contact Empower Business for a free one-hour consultation to discuss your inventory management needs. We can help you identify the right software system for your business, set it up for you (including migrating any data you already have), and train your team.
