Running a wholesale business means you’re constantly buying and selling inventory. Naturally, a primary consideration for any wholesale business is how you manage that inventory. If you’re a wholesaler, you know exactly what inventory management is. You receive products from suppliers and sell them to your customers, and the way you manage that process determines your success as a business.
There are many ways to manage inventory. The most common one involves using spreadsheets and breaking down products by name, price, and quantity. Every time a sale is made, business owners adjust their spreadsheets to maintain inventory accuracy. If you’re doing it manually, this labor-intensive process requires constant monitoring to ensure every transaction is accounted for — which can lead to costly errors. Ultimately, the more automation you use in your inventory management, the less paperwork and headaches you’ll have to deal with.
With the advent of innovative technology, cloud-based inventory management software is helping many business owners enhance their business operations. Here’s why modern inventory management software is absolutely essential:
Having a singular, centralized access point
Whether your business sells a single product line or multiple product lines, having access to your business from one central dashboard offers clear stock visibility and makes management much smoother. With the ability to track products across multiple warehouses, you also eliminate the risks of stock-outs and late order fulfillment, too.
Consolidating customer orders
Using multiple accounts and spreadsheets to track and manage daily sales transactions is both confusing and time-consuming. Having the ability to consolidate all order details in one place, on the other hand, makes it easy for business owners to process customer orders and fulfillments.
Gaining instant access to order details
Another major challenge to wholesalers is having to process a mountain of customer orders in a timely fashion. Since modern businesses receive orders via email, fax, direct messages, and more, there can be a break in the communication chain — which further delays shipping and fulfillment.
Over time, missed or late orders can lead to the loss of future orders. Inventory software fixes this problem and allows wholesalers to track everything in real-time.
Updating stock automatically
When managing multiple orders in a day, it is important to update stock movement and availability to ensure adequate inventory levels at each warehouse. Your inventory management software helps you automate your stock updates in real-time. This way, it becomes easy to track requirements and make informed decisions when running your wholesale business.
Getting timely re-order notifications
Nothing angers a customer more than a late order. When processing multiple orders in a day, there are many chances to miss the window to re-order products on time. When you wait to procure products after a customer places an order, the fulfillment process can get delayed — which often results in a poor customer experience.
Inventory automation instantly updates stock levels. It also alerts you when it’s time to re-order stock. Having this feature eliminates stock out scenarios that result in lost business, and it ensures you’ll have stock when you need it.
Personalizing the shopping experiences
Many wholesale business owners are gaining a competitive advantage by offering personalized shopping experiences. You can now showcase a range of product collections and allow your customers to make purchases within a singular dashboard. With strategies like this, inventory software is changing the way many businesses offer their products. Soon enough, you’ll be able to invite your customers to both access and place orders in real-time.
Tracking order status in real-time
If you’re in the wholesale business, you’ll be fulfilling orders in bulk. When dealing with large numbers of products, it’s imperative to ensure quick and accurate delivery. At this point, it’s nearly impossible to do this manually. If a business isn’t able to track a customer’s orders status, there can be unexpected delays and miscommunications — which ultimately ruins a customer’s experience. Automating inventory management will help you spot delays and take measures to improve product fulfillment and customer satisfaction.
Accepting multi-currency purchases
If and when your business grows, customers from across the globe will become aware of your brand. This can open greater opportunities for your wholesale business — but only if you allow them to make purchases easily. You should allow your customers to make purchases with their own currency if possible. This will make them feel safe, secure, and cared for. In turn, you’ll get their loyalty.
How to implement inventory management software
No matter the size of your business, inventory management software will allow business owners like you to follow best practices and increase efficiency. If you’re curious about implementing inventory management software, book a 20-minute call with us today. Our solutions might be a perfect fit for your business, customers, and inventory management processes.