For any eCommerce store, proper inventory management is a must to stay competitive in the market. But, it is complex and a bit challenging business function. There are fair chances of human errors if it’s done manually. And, even a single error can cost you a lot by negatively impacting your business.

So, what do you need to eliminate every single possibility of human error from inventory management? Before answering this question, let us first discuss what is it all about.

Inventory Management: An Overview

Inventory management brings you a well-structured mechanism that assists you to manage and track all the stocked goods. Every single product is monitored with respect to their size, weight, dimensions, price, and purchase.

As most online marketplaces charge business owners for stagnant inventories, its management largely helps in restricting the cost of holding an inventory. Monitoring and keeping track of products will let you know in advance which of the products need restocking and which of them are being stagnant.

Further, this product stocking management helps businesses to meet customer demands. But, if you miss out on handling your inventory properly it may cost you big time. It will lead you to:

• Losing potential sales.
• Wastage of money as a result of overstocking.
• Storage fee on stagnant inventory.

With this basic understanding, let’s move forward to the major inventory management challenges that businesses face and how inventory management services can help them.

The Primary Challenges Faced By eCommerce Business Owners

1. Inaccurate Estimate Leads To Overstocking And Overselling

When it comes to selling online, you must have a good understanding of your target audience so that you can have a better hold on your inventory requirements. If you are unable to comprehend the shopping requirements of your customers, then most likely you will end up having the wrong estimate of your supply-demand.

An inaccurate estimate can either result in a shortage of supplies or overstocking. Both conditions involve a loss of revenue. Though overstocking is advantageous for peak season, it also carries a potential for dead stock.

Whereas, not having enough inventory may lead to overselling (retailing out of stock products). This negatively affects business reputation in the market.

2. Insufficient Data To Forecast

Lack of visibility and understanding of your inventory will result in insufficient data. Data is necessary to boost profits and growth. You need data to comprehend:

• Customer shopping behavior
• Stocking needs
• Inventory variations
• Product demand fluctuations
• When to restock products
• Process breakdowns
• Forecasting business opportunities

And, if you are unable to track the data to analyze the variations of your inventory, it gets nearly impossible to derive the rightful insights and make informed business decisions. You must have access to real-time data for every move in the inventory in order to analyze future opportunities and gain profit from them.

3. Manual Inventory Management Restricts Growth

It is quite exciting to manually track the sales and growth of your business when you start selling online. You have the time and energy to manage everything in the early stages of business. But, as your business starts to grow and you work on multi-channel eCommerce, it becomes too difficult to manually handle and monitor the trading processes. Keeping track of everything including inventory, order processing, order fulfillment, etc. while growing your business gets too challenging.

Besides, when you start to develop your business across multiple channels like eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc., inventory gets too complex with the rise of product demand. It just gets too difficult to keep track of the flow of sales with respect to these channels and how they are impacting the business. The growth of your business gets slow unless you have an inventory management solution with you. Let us discuss, how inventory management solutions help businesses to eliminate every single possibility of human error from inventory management.

Overcome These Challenges With Inventory Management Solutions

So, why do we call an inventory management system the need of the hour for your eCommerce store? Why do successful eCommerce store owners seek assistance from inventory management companies to get that perfect solution for their business? Because inventory management systems help you to overcome all the above-mentioned challenges.

How? It keeps a count of every move in your inventory through efficient management software and tools. It brings actionable business intelligence on your table without you making any effort.

Impressive right? Not just it! Here are the primary benefits that help to combat these challenges:

1. Tracking Inventory Is Seamless And Easy… Not To Mention Accurate!

When you are selling online, it is imperative to know how your supply chain is working, like – where are your products and how they are performing. Inventory management solutions provide you effective tools to automate this managing process.

Your supply chains and inventories are more effectively handled as you are able to get real-time insights on where your products actually are in the supply chain. This way you can have accurate estimates on your inventory like:

• If your product is going out of stock – you can either inform your customers with a message or simply stock your inventory in time.
• If you are overselling a product – you can simply notify your customers of delayed delivery so that they are properly informed.
• If your products are either performing low or high – you can access the growth of your inventory.

2. Get Centralized And Real-time Data For Informed Decisions

To meet the challenge of disparate data, online business owners go for inventory management services. As often businesses have varied information in different systems, it gets difficult to get proper insights on your business development.

With inventory management solutions, you can have real-time access to almost every update on your inventory. You get software that integrates and centralizes your system, bringing you all the data related to your inventory.

Getting everything in one place allows you to forecast business growth, make informed business decisions and strategies on time. Besides, all this centralized data will have a back up so that you don’t lose any valuable business information regarding your inventory.

Final Words

Sure, inventory management is a tough row to hoe. However, implementing inventory management systems is one solution that makes keeping track of your inventory as easy as a cakewalk. Apart from this, you can outsource inventory management services to have experts handle your inventory. Adopting either will help you combat the challenges and lead you to success.

Partner With SunTec Data To Outsource Inventory Management Services

If you are struggling to manage your eCommerce store inventory or stressed over the common challenges that are hindering your success? Have professionals at your assistance, just drop a mail to info@suntecdata.com and get a free consultation from experts on outsourcing inventory management services.