5 Signs it’s Time to Adopt Inventory Management Software
It can be challenging to effectively manage inventory, but getting it right helps your business generate more profit and deliver more to your customers.
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When goods-based businesses are small, they may be able to manage their inventory through regular stock counts and placing orders with suppliers over the phone or email. However, as the business adds new product lines or sales volumes increase, operating without inventory management software can become increasingly challenging.
Here are 5 signs it’s time to adopt inventory management software:
1. You want to grow your business
Your sales volumes may be increasing as your business becomes more established. Or you may see a market opportunity to sell new product lines to meet more of your customers’ needs. Either way, you’re ambitious for your business and want to take it to the next level.
However, if your processes are manual, you can quickly exhaust your team because your increased volumes add to their workload significantly. This can lead to burnt out employees and a substandard customer experience, harming your brand and future sales. Inventory management software can help you grow and scale your business, while managing your supply chain in the most efficient and profitable way.
2. You want better data insights
Inventory management software can help you run your business more strategically. Typically, you can pull off reports into what is and isn’t selling, what’s getting returned, and which sales channels are performing. With these insights you can make more informed decisions about what stock to hold, and where to invest to maximise profitability.
Forecasting demand as accurately as possible is important for any goods-based business. Inventory management software can assist with this, using data from prior sales cycles to make predictions. This can help you determine how much stock to carry, so you’re able to fulfil customer orders without overspending on unnecessary stock and warehouse space. Many businesses operate with tight profit margins, so it’s important to get the balance right.
3. You’re losing too much time to admin
If you have manual or paper-based processes, you may be losing too much of your day to admin printing off documentation, passing it from person to person to action, and updating company systems. Much of this work is time-consuming and low value.
Also, paper frequently gets lost. This means you may have no visibility of a pending sales order or supplier bill. When errors come to light, you’ll have to spend time rectifying the situation and trying to mend the relationship. Likewise, when your processes are manual, it’s easy for things to get missed. As a result, you may not have an accurate view of how things are really going in your business.
As your volumes increase, you need more controls in place to manage your sales pipeline successfully. Therefore, if you’re struggling to keep up with orders and the back-office work they generate, it may be time to invest in inventory management software to automate key workflows and give you visibility and control across your supply chain.
4. You want to provide a better customer experience
Holding the right stock in the right quantities is key to operational efficiency, and to achieving repeat sales from satisfied customers. If you don’t have the stock to fulfil customer orders, your customers are very likely to look elsewhere.
With inventory management software, you can improve your stocktaking and re-ordering processes, so you always have safety stock on hand to fulfil customer orders. You can also fine tune your pick, pack and ship processes to ensure accuracy, speed up delivery and reduce shipping costs.
Some systems also include a self-service portal so customers can submit orders, see where they’re at, download and pay invoices, view quotes and more. This helps to improve efficiency for both the buyer and seller, enabling a better all-round customer experience.
5. You want to become more profitable
Inventory management software can help you become more profitable by putting increased controls in place to avoid overstocking, stockouts, dead stock and inventory shrinkage all of which can hit your bottom line.
It also allows you to run your business more efficiently, lowering costs by automating key workflows to save time and make sure things are done properly the first time. When your business runs well, this shows up in your customer experience. When your customers get the service that they’re looking for, they’re more likely to buy from you again and recommend you to others.
Inventory management software can give you real insights into your supply chain. With all your inventory data in one place, you can have complete visibility across your supply chain and order management processes and can pull off reports at the click of a button. This allows for more strategic decision making, helping you become more profitable.
Work smarter with Tall Emu
Tall Emu is an Australian developed and supported sales and operations management system with powerful inventory features. Designed for small and medium-sized businesses, it has a range of in-built, ready-to-go integrations and seamlessly connects with MYOB and Xero to help you run your entire business end to end.
In February 2022, Tall Emu was acquired by MYOB. This exciting move enables Tall Emu to deliver and develop the best CRM for your business whilst continuing to integrate with both MYOB and Xero.
