Inventory is one of the most crucial aspects of any business model. A close tab on the movement of inventory can make or break your business and that’s why entrepreneurs always emphasise on effective inventory management. While a few business owners do understand the significance and cruciality of tracking inventory on a regular basis, some fail to realise its importance making their business fall through the unseen cracks.
Benefits and Importance of Inventory Management
The importance of inventory management cannot be stressed enough especially for eCommerce and online retail brands. Accurate inventory tracking allows brands to fulfil orders timely and accurately. Inventory management in businesses must grow as the company expands. With a strategic plan in place that optimizes the process of overseeing and managing inventory, including real-time data of inventory conditions and levels, companies can achieve inventory management benefits that include:
Accurate Order Fulfilment
With an effective inventory management software, you can easily track the stock in the warehouse. Bid goodbye to overstocking, stocking of obsolete items, understocking and start focusing on making your brand become one of the key players in the market space. Develop a robust plan with the help of an efficient accounting software and avoid inaccurately filled orders, high return volumes and a loss of customer base.
Better Inventory Planning and Ordering
Striking a balance between the demand and supply is extremely crucial for businesses, thus, inventory management provides aid in better planning and ordering of stock items. Imagine having a huge demand for a particular product but not having enough material to supply the same. Sounds like your worst nightmare, right? A detailed inventory management mitigates these issues, allowing warehouse managers to refresh inventory only when needed. It’s both space and cost-effective.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Since a systematic and robust inventory tracking system will give you a comprehensive view of your stock at-hand, it yields in an increased customer satisfaction. In retail sector, customers resent late deliveries or “out of stock” notifications and eventually never return to the website to fulfil their shopping needs. However, good inventory management leads to orders being fulfilled more quickly and shipped out to customers faster. The enhanced processes can help eCommerce and online retail brands build a strong repertoire with consumers – and keep them coming back for more.
Organised Warehouse
A good inventory management strategy leads to an organized fulfilment centre. An organized warehouse results in more efficient present and future fulfilment plans. This also includes cost-savings and improved product fulfilment for businesses utilizing the warehouse for managing inventory.
Minimise the Blockage of Financial Resources
The importance of inventory control is to minimise the blockage of financial resources. It reduces the unnecessary tying up of capital in excess inventories and also improves the liquidity position of the firm. With proper inventory tracking module, business owners can take quicker decisions about the stock lying in the warehouse more wisely.
Why Inventory Management is Important?
-
Cash Flow
Inventory control and planning allows small businesses to manage their cash flow opportunities. SMEs aren’t always able to purchase large amounts of inventory, due to limited capital. By having better control of their inventory, they can know exactly how much inventory they will need and when they need it. This can free up other capital to re-invest in other areas of the business.
-
Business intelligence
An inventory control and planning solution allows small businesses to gain insights into the fast-selling products. This allows them to adjust their product line and to make quick and smart business decisions.
-
Maximize profits
By being able to make better business decisions the inevitable outcome for a small business will be an increase in profits. This is because the stock in their inventory will only be stock that’s actually selling. Other stock that doesn’t grab customer’s attention can be deemed obsolete and can be abandoned. This makes the general business practice more efficient.
-
Limits employee mishandling
Inventory planning and control limits the ability of employees to steal from the inventory. Often employees use items from a business’ inventory for personal use. Without inventory control, the business owner would be none-the-wiser. This practice ultimately reduces the profitability of the business. By limiting the ability of the employee to steal, the employer is reducing potential ‘hidden’ costs.
-
Reduce labour costs
Improved inventory planning and control techniques allow small businesses to reduce labour costs associated with inventory. These include the time spent counting stock and the transportation of stock. Employing an intelligent inventory planning and control solution can significantly reduce all these labour-intensive activities.
FAQ:
What is the most important part of inventory?
One of the most critical aspects of inventory management is optimizing, managing and controlling the stock, thereby improving business efficiency.
What are the top inventory management benefits?
Inventory management helps businesses determine which and how much stock to order at what time. It keeps track of inventory from the time goods are bought to sold. To ensure that there is always sufficient stock to fulfill customer orders and to provide proper notice of a shortage, inventory management identifies and responds to trends.
Watch this Video to Know How to View and Analyse Inventory in TallyPrime
Read More on Inventory Management
- Inventory Management
- Inventory Management Techniques
- Inventory Planning
- Inventory Valuation
- Inventory Control
- How to Audit Inventory
- What is Physical Stock Voucher
- Types of Inventory Management
Explore More Products
