The seller who lists the same items on eBay, Amazon, and Sears websites has to keep track of the listings, and cancel or update them whenever such items are sold. This is a truly labor intense way to handle business, but for many it has been the “norm” for far too long.
As an example, take the reseller of refurbished cell phones. This person obtains their products, houses them at a facility near their home, and then lists them on several popular sites, such as those listed above. Each time an item sells, they have to make note of it and make sure to end the listings on the other sites or adjust the number they have available.
This is a total waste of time because they could be using inventory management software to handle all of the work. Not only would they eliminate this one step, but they would eliminate almost all of them. How? Because inventory management software begins with the creation of the inventory – and yet it is able to integrate with all of that vendor’s sales channels and make updates automatically.
Again, let’s return to our example. This person resells refurbished cell phones and can now use the inventory management software to make a single detailed inventory. They can then use the inventory to create listings at their sales site with a single click. For this illustration, we can say that their inventory management software integrates with Amazon and eBay. A particularly popular model sells off of eBay, but instead of the vendor heading to Amazon to delete the item from inventory, the software does it automatically.
Management is Not the End of the Tale
This alone shows that software can save a multichannel retailer a lot of time and effort, but there is even more to it than simple inventory management. This is because some of the leading providers of the software also extend a full array of retail services.
These can include:
- eCommerce websites that are capable of being used on a computer or mobile device
- Safe and dependable shopping cart functions
- Full security
- Order software
- Shipping software
- Inventory management software
- A long list of reporting functions and features
These features will streamline daily work, and help the business owner to really enhance their bottom line.
Build Your Success with the Right Software Choices
How can simple software and eCommerce services help a vendor to build their wealth? Think about it for a moment…When you are someone selling through multiple channels it doesn’t often limit itself to one item at a time. You may have many items selling every single day. If you are not precisely on track with your numbers you run the risk of not having an item available (and there goes the sale). You also jeopardize financial stability by keeping too much inventory without realizing that you are doing so.
Consider what one journalist has to say about this facet of inventory management:
“…it’s easy to spend too much on inventory, which can eat up working capital and erode profits. Warehousing isn’t free, of course, and inventory that sits on a shelf is subject to damage, depreciation, and even obsolescence.” (Girard, 2011)
Simply relying on inventory management software eliminates such risks. You have real time reporting options that show you what has been sold, what remains, and even when something is in the midst of being returned. It lets you anticipate what you might need based on sales and return flows, and provides an accurate portrait of your current position.
The use of such software also provides a very rare opportunity for scrutinizing the sales funnel. After all, estimates show that anywhere from 60-80% of shopping carts are abandoned. There has to be a reason for each abandonment, and quality inventory software will allow you to see where in the timeline the cart is left behind.
Summary
Using inventory management software is like money in the bank because it gives you a lot of time and provides the most accurate picture of sales, returns, and the shopping process.
Source
Girard, Lisa. Five Steps to Painless Inventory Management. Entrepreneur. 2011. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220631