Manual…there are very few processes that are actually handled manually these days. Automation is not the lazy entrepreneur’s path; it is the smart entrepreneur’s choice. After all, one sure and fast way to give yourself a lousy reputation and a failed business venture is to fall behind, fail to meet deadlines, and take orders that end up on backorder because you just don’t have the merchandise. (Grundy, 2013)
This is why manual inventory management is a foolhardy approach to running your business in this day of “automated everything”. Now, this is not to say that all solutions are the same, and you need to find a resource that meets your actual needs. This begins with one question:
How many channels are you using to sell product?
Are you strictly selling through your eCommerce website and/or landing page? What about Facebook? Are you selling through eBay, Newegg, and Amazon? If you said yes to more than one of these questions, you’ll want to explore your choices in integrated management. To prove this, we’ll look at one slim facet of this area – the use of Amazon inventory management tools.
How Amazon Inventory Management Tools Keep You Safe
Your business is across multiple channels. You may not sell a huge number of products (and even if you do), yet you should always be able to deliver. So, let’s say that your efforts with Amazon are a success. You list products manually, creating individual items for each part of your catalog. When something sells, you have to go into your spreadsheet, adjust the number on hand, and then also adjust the number of products available if this is shown on the different channels.
Your manual approach to Amazon inventory management, however, may not last long when you are an overnight success. Suddenly, order upon order is pouring in, and within only a few days you have fallen behind on the whole “how many in stock” issue. You roll up your sleeves one afternoon and take charge of the situation only to discover that you are incredibly depleted. In fact, your inventory demands are so high that you have to accept delays from your wholesaler or distributor.
Now you have to go and alert your buyers to this dilemma, and almost all of them withdraw from the sale and demand a refund. Not only have you lost income, but you have also “lost face” with the buyers. They probably won’t try to buy anything from you again, and this whole endeavor ends up being a massive waste of your time.
The good news is that integrated management tools, including Amazon inventory management resources, will help to avoid all of this mismanagement and failure in the future.
Essentially, if you use an integrated solution, you would enter your inventory into a single space in the system and indicate which channels to allow to access these products. If your Amazon inventory management is integrated into this system, you could add inventory with just a few clicks of the mouse. Even better, when the items sell this is reflected across the boards and not something you’d have to manually track and update.
Don’t forget that pricing can be “tweaked” using Amazon inventory management, too, and this helps to keep you super competitive – even if it is just pennies per item. Some integrated solutions even automatically due this to ensure your potential buyers consistently find you as the lowest priced or most competitively price option.
Never again find yourself under-stocked and looking untrustworthy when you use integrated solutions across all sales channels.
Summary
Rely on multichannel management resources, such as Amazon inventory management and shipping tools to guarantee sales and give clients what they want, and when they want it.
Source
Grundy, Jeff. How an Amazon Inventory Management System Can Help You Maximize Earnings. nChannel. 2013. https://www.nchannel.com/how-an-amazon-inventory-management-system-can-help-you-maximize-earnings/