Evolve from manual inventory management techniques and Excel.
Manage your inventory with automated fashion and apparel inventory management software for small businesses. Reduce human errors, inventory carrying cost, returns, and headcount, Increase bottom-line revenue, your inventory turnover ratio, and improve the entire order fulfillment process.
Manage stock with fashion retail inventory management software
#1 Stand out from the competition
- Small fashion ecommerce companies are moving towards inventory automation to automate inventory management tasks and speed up each process to enhance accuracy of order fulfillment and delivery.
- Using Excel or free fashion retail inventory management software is a good start, but nowadays just being good is not enough because to grow exponentially and become a prominent brand, you need to implement specific tools that give you an extra edge over your competitors.
- You might have heard this saying a thousand times, “the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is ‘Extra.’” Though it’s a cliché now, it’s the extra mile that you go for your customers that keeps you ahead of the game.
- Small businesses are switching to retail inventory management software; in fact, 38% of small businesses are more likely to adopt inventory management software.
#2 Automate inventory management processes
Research by the Information Technology Research Institute suggests that a typical retail store’s perpetual inventory is inaccurate 65% of the time. It should not come as a surprise, as 43% of businesses either use manual inventory tracking methods or don’t track inventory at all.
Such inaccuracies can turn into a bottleneck when processing orders. Implementing inventory management software, accurately tracks your inventory and it can also automate your business processes. The number of product sellers adopting an inventory management platform is expected to grow at 5% CAGR from 2020 to 2026.
- Inventory management software is proactive; each process you automate is one less mundane and repetitive manual task for your staff.
- Cycle counting is made easy, fast, and accurate with the help of barcode scanning.
- Automate order processing, product variant creation, and bundling. Manage bulk incoming inventory, categorize products and apply SKUs.
- Inventory management software for fashion retail will confirm prepaid orders, create picklists, generate invoicing, prepare shipping labels and manifests, and raise purchase orders if stock hits a predetermined reorder point.
- A robust software solution will select shipping carriers according to where the product needs to be delivered and carrier charges. You’ll also be able to track shipments, confirm delivery, manage returns, and add saleable inventory back into stock.
- Create variants and bundles of fashion sale combos and find SKUs of component products instantaneously without long searches for products.
- Track each product’s life cycle right from the day it entered inventory to the date it was sold.
- The right inventory management system for small businesses can be integrated with accounting software, marketplaces like Amazon, Magento, Shopify, etc., CRMs, shipping portals, and POS systems.
- Rather than manually updating Excel spreadsheets after a sale, fashion retail inventory management software will automatically update sales in your accounting program and update inventory levels across warehouses and marketplaces.
#3 Increase your profits and reduce inventory carrying costs
Deloitte, a professional service network, said that 79% of the businesses with proper inventory management software for small businesses in place have higher revenue growth than ones still using manual inventory management techniques or relying on inefficient or free inventory management software.
- With the help of automatically generated different types of inventory reports, you can plan your inventory, forecast it, and later check its accuracy.
- The most important thing for successful fashion sellers is to gauge the change of trends and seasons and stock accordingly. A Fashion-based business that cracks this can make huge profits without wasting money on unwanted or obsolete inventory.
According to tinuiti.com, automated retail inventory management software for small businesses will reduce forecasting errors up to 50% and inventory errors up to 20%-50%.
- Accurate inventory planning can prevent overstocking and investing excessively in unnecessary products, and understocking. According to Investopedia, inventory carrying cost adds up to 20%-30% of a company’s entire annual investment.
- The reduction of human errors.
- Your bottom line improves (total revenue – total investment in inventory, i.e. actual profit), increases because you earn more on a smaller inventory investment.
#4 Inventory management software gives fashion retailers real-time inventory visibility
- Perpetual inventory updates gives fashion retailers the flexibility of devising and changing your sales and promotion strategy instantaneously which is harder to accomplish when relying on Excel or free inventory management software.
- Cloud-based inventory management software for small businesses allows you to view your inventory in every location from anywhere.
#5 A boon for dropshippers
- Automate backorders( for dropshippers, Just in Time inventories, and regular ecommerce fashion businesses) with shipment tracking and return management.
- Set limits of backorders and raise POs instantaneously and automatically.
- Integrate with Amazon FBAs, and supplier’s inventories to get real-time inventory visibility.
#6 Small investment and huge returns
You might be thinking that for all the features listed in this article, you will have to pay a lot. Read on…
- A leading fashion retail inventory management software for a small business like DEAR Systems starts with a reasonable average price of $438/month, which adds up to $5,256 a year.
- Retailers recognize at least that much in savings by reductions in unnecessary stocking, headcount, manual errors, stress, and wastage.
- The software will help you to increase sales and speed the delivery of products.
When should you start using inventory management software for small fashion businesses?
#1 You’re ready to grow
- If you are ready to grow and don’t want to remain a small business, you should adopt inventory management software that can scale over time.
- The right inventory management software solution saves money, boosts your sales and increases the bottom line.
#2 You believe in investing in technology
- Keeping your tech stack current will increase accuracy and decrease inventory carrying costs.
- Choose the right software solution that will seamlessly integrate with your preferred accounting and marketplace providers.
#3 You want to reduce lead times and reduce your SLA breach rate
According to Voxware, 69% of consumers are less likely to shop with a retailer in the future if their order is not received in 2 days.
Adopting an inventory and order management solution can manage the entire sales process from a single centralized portal, allowing you to ship the same day and order is placed.
#4 You have a high return rate
Retailers lose $642.6 billion per year from returns that could be prevented if the order fulfillment process was up to the mark.
- By leveraging automation, you will increase your perfect order percentage, which means you will deliver accurate orders more often in the desired time frame with the correct documentation.
- A 3% increase in perfect order percentage is equal to a 1% increase in revenue.
Closing thoughts
DEAR Systems has been at the forefront of helping product sellers to manage their inventory for over ten years.
Managing your inventory with software that provides you with innumerable customization options makes your life and business stress-free – book a call now and schedule a free personalized interactive demo at your convenience.
You can also visit our inventory management software page to learn more about features and read success stories of small fashion retail brands that took the step of implementing DEAR Systems to solve their problems.
To thank you for the time you’ve taken to read about relying on inventory and order management software to sell fashion brands, we are offering you a free 14 day trial of DEAR Systems.