Throughout this blog we tell you how you can be prepared for the strong dates with the ideal number of products in stock for your business, we share some points that you should take into account if you want to make use of a software that helps your company with the inventory, and we will share with you a tool that will automate the inventory of your online store.
Does your online store run out of inventory when you least expect it? Is it difficult for you to identify the products and the time of the year that your company has the greatest demand? Regardless of whether your store is physical or online, it is important to give inventory the value it deserves, since thanks to it, you will be able to make more informed decisions about your business and the products you handle.
What is an inventory control, and what is it for?
In previous blogs, we talked about inventory management and why it is important for a company to care about it. Here are some benefits to expect from using an inventory management system:
It allows to generate an inventory to verify that the warehouse quantities and the quantities in the records coincide, generating a well-classified and ordered inventory.
It helps answer two of the most important questions for a company that runs a warehouse: How much product do I have to sell? And how much product do I have to supply? These questions help the sales and purchasing department, since sales must know perfectly how much product is available to be able to offer it, while purchasing needs to know how much is needed to supply the warehouse.
It helps to answer the following questions: How much product do I have? What is your availability? How much product available will I have soon? When should I restock this product? When does it expire ?, among others. If you want to know some methods to answer all these questions, we recommend our blog: How to efficiently control your inventory and not fail in the attempt?
How to be prepared with stock?
One of the main objectives of the inventory manager in your company is to determine how much product should be in stock throughout the year, especially for important dates to your customers.
To always have the relevant stock and not having less or more product, you must always have two concepts in consideration: the minimum inventory and the maximum inventory.
Minimum inventory
Regardless of the date or time of year you are in, you must have a minimum number of units per product. To calculate the minimum inventory that you should have, you can base yourself on the sales statistics that your company had in similar periods of time and times of the year.
Maximum inventory
The maximum inventory is the maximum quantity of a certain item that you could have in your warehouse and that guarantees the supply.
Knowing and evaluating these aspects allows your company to be prepared for the dates in which a greater quantity of product is sold, such as: Mother's Day, Christmas, Valentine's Day, the good end, Black Friday or whatever date that is important to your clients. In this way, you will be able to maintain adequate stocks according to the temporality in which your company is located.
Another great advantage of knowing your minimum and maximum inventories is that you will be able to know which products are adequate to have in stock according to the number of sales that your business has, avoiding merchandise in storage with the risk of not being sold or generating losses due to get damaged.
The use of specialized software in inventory management will help you to visualize the sales peaks that your online store has, it will show you what products were and on what dates, which will allow you to make more informed decisions and modify the minimum and maximum inventories at your convenience.
How to choose the best software for your online store inventory?
Automating inventory management in your company is an important decision, it will help the finances and the efficiency of your business because you better manage inventory turnover and support better service for your customers.
When you have already made the decision to have a software it is essential to take into account certain aspects when choosing it, the main thing will be to locate one that contains the greatest number of functions and that can connect with your eCommerce, this will save you money, time and efforts.
Here are some points that are essential when making this important decision:
Stock
An important point to consider is that the tool you choose should notify you when your stock levels are below or above the established limit. This way you will avoid affecting your business and its profitability.
Flexible
It should allow you to easily manage a single inventory or a complex multi-warehouse environment.
Client Dashboard
Your client should be able to track the status of their order, as well as their invoices and delivery order.
Automatizado
An online store inventory software should be able to automatically trigger notifications based on product availability and order forecasts.
Connectivity with eCommerce
To be able to offer the e-commerce portal real-time inventory data, in such a way that customers can know whether there is availability and, if it is in transit, from what date it is available.
Dedicating the time necessary to find the most suitable software for your company will undoubtedly be key, since this tool can completely change the management of your warehouse, your company will be more efficient, and you will offer a better service for your customers. If you want to make a more informed decision when choosing an ERP, we recommend you visit our blog post, How much does an ERP cost? Where we offer you a clear guide to the components that you should take into account when making this important decision.
How can Odoo Inventory help your online store?
Odoo's inventory application uses state-of-the-art automation and advanced routing to help you manage your inventories.
You will be able to manage your stock efficiently, since it allows your customers to observe the stock on the website, and they will be able to verify if the product they want is available to be delivered.
Al momento de haber una venta se actualizan las existencias de tu almacén en tiempo real, gracias a que el módulo está integrado con ventas, compras, facturación, entre otras.
It will allow you to have timely supply, especially of those products that have a greater demand from customers.
It allows you to record the complete history of your operations, from collection, delivery orders and quality control, so that you can achieve full traceability.
Odoo is compatible with different types of product such as: physical, consumer goods, services or digital products, which opens up greater possibilities for your business.
The Inventory module is integrated with other applications such as accounting that allows managing inventory operations in real time or periodically, with purchases that help automate purchase orders and have control over products, sales that help schedule operations of inventory based on sales orders, in addition, the inventory module is integrated with shipping connectors such as UPS, USPS, Fedex, bPost, DHL and EasyPost, allowing you to create an instant quote on packages.
Ensuring a good supply of your company's products is of the utmost importance, as well as having a clear idea of which items are in the greatest demand and at what time of year it happens. As we mentioned before, the use of specialized inventory software will be the key for your online store.
Now that you know a little more about managing your online store inventory, are you ready to take the next step?
Manage your online store inventory in a simple way