Commerce Operations Blog

Clarifying Inventory Management

Written by Yitz Lieblich | April 7, 2020

It is extremely important for a small business to have proper procedures in place to manage their inventory. Having too little of the product on hand can result in shortages and inability to fill orders. Having too much product on hand can result in having excess funds being tied up in excess stock. 43% of small businesses claim inventory management is their largest pain point. 

 

What is inventory management?

Inventory management is having procedures in place to ensure that you have the right products on hand at the right time. That includes not only having the correct products but also the correct quantities. You don’t want to lose sales due to products being out of stock. On the flip side you don’t want to tie up funds and waste warehouse space on excess stock either. Surprisingly, 46% of small businesses do not track their inventory at all. Having the right procedures in place can help you to effectively manage your inventory.

 

How do I do that?

One of the first things is to have an accurate accounting of your inventory. Another is having your warehouse organized either by product type, product name, or any way that works best for your business. Starting with that, implementing the correct procedures for inventory allocations can help you keep track of your stock. One important thing to be done is to use the FIFO (first in first out) method of inventory distribution. This means that older inventory should be allocated for sale first. Also, keeping track of how often your inventory turns over is also extremely important.

 

Help! It all sounds so confusing.

Implementing inventory management sounds extremely time consuming and difficult when you are first starting out.  With the correct software, managing your inventory can be easy. However, not every out of the box software will work for your business.  SkuNexus will give you the ability to accurately track each item in your inventory. Information, such as when the item was purchased, the quantity on the shelves, when it was last sold, and where it is physically located in your warehouse can be monitored with SkuNexus. It will even help you assign the correct employee to pick the item from the shelf and give information on how to package and ship each item. Additionally, SkuNexus can be fully customizable to fit your unique needs. With SkuNexus, your warehouse will be operating at maximum efficiency, helping you save money and maximize your profits.

Managing your inventory will be a breeze with SkuNexus.  Click here to discuss how we can help you manage your warehouse.