Investing in inventory management software is essential to growing your business. Before deciding to implement an inventory management system, make sure you aren’t missing a feature that can dramatically change how you manage your inventory- yes, that’s right! Inventory automation.
What is inventory automation?
Inventory automation means utilizing software or technology to manage warehouse stock with minimum manual intervention in real-time. The applications of inventory automation include processing orders, automated demand fulfillment, and much more.
Operational efficiency plays a significant role when it comes to a company’s profitability. Inventory automation helps to optimize your operations by improving speed and accuracy. Allowing automation to take over mundane tasks means that your team will have more time to focus on things that matter the most. It also helps to enhance warehouse visibility and control, which provides vast opportunities for businesses.
Five must-have inventory automation features
1. Marketplace automation
A research article published by SupplyGem predicts the US eCommerce market to reach $600 billion by 2024. Selling your goods online can add a new level of complexity to inventory management. Having the right tools to automate order processing and sync inventory levels across online marketplaces can help you save time, ship faster, and keep customers happy. Here are some of the most common marketplace automation features:
Centralized product management
If you sell your products on multiple marketplaces, you would want to create and manage your products in one place and automatically sync them across channels. Centralized product management eliminates the need to make manual product updates to each channel and can save you a ton of time.
Order syncing
Eliminate data entry and errors by automatically pulling orders from multiple channels into your sales and inventory management system. Keep customers notified about the status of their orders along with tracking information.
Real-time inventory syncing
You can ensure that product availability information is consistent across all your sales channels by automating inventory updates. Syncing stock levels in real-time is a great way to avoid customers placing orders for out-of-stock products with a long lead time.
2. Reordering rules
A reordering rule is a trigger that lets you know that a product’s stock is below a certain threshold and you need to replenish it as soon as possible. Reordering rules enable you to optimize your inventory performance and avoid understocking and overstocking. Automated reordering rules eliminate the need to regularly check inventory levels to ensure enough stock to meet the demand.
3. Barcode scanning
Dealing with product returns can be a nightmare for most businesses. Shipping the wrong item is one of the leading reasons for product returns. Human errors can frequently occur in the real world, especially when dealing with similar products and high order volumes. The good news is that it is something you can prevent from happening in the first place. Using inventory management software with integrated barcode scanning is a proven way to increase picking accuracy efficiently. A barcode-enabled inventory management system primarily works on the principle of scanning product barcodes as a means to validate both the products and the quantity to be shipped.
4. Automated stock reservation
It is common for companies to use separate software to manage CRM, sales, and inventory. However, a significant drawback of such systems is the lack of deep integrations with each other. For example, not having real-time visibility into available stock can cause your sales team to commit orders for items with insufficient stock. An integrated order and inventory management software can help you avoid such cases by providing your sales team visibility into available stock and automatically reserving stock as soon as an order is confirmed.
5. Real-time reporting
Real-time inventory reporting is crucial for making the right decisions. However, small businesses often spend a lot of time preparing inventory reports manually on spreadsheets. Inventory software with real-time reporting is almost essential for any business to make data-backed decisions at the right time.
Conclusion
If your inventory system already handles marketplace automation, reordering rules, barcode scanning, and reporting, you’re off to a good start. Investing in cloud-based inventory software with the right automation tools can help you achieve operational efficiency and eventually increase your bottom line.
