Do you understand what is inventory management entails? In inventory management, you keep track of how much inventory and stock you have when things come in and go out of your warehouse.
Inventory management systems are designed to help you understand where your inventory is at any given time, how much you have in order to properly manage inventory levels. There are some businesses that might use a barcode scanner to scan their stock so that they can pick it up more quickly and accurately.
What is inventory management, unlike an ERP system, concentrates on a single supply chain operation. They frequently have the ability to link with other software systems—such as point of sale, channel management, and shipping—allowing you to create a customised integration stack tailored to your specific needs.
What Is Inventory Management?
What is inventory management: Inventory management is critical to a business’s success since it ensures that there are never too many or too few goods on hand, reducing the danger of stockouts and erroneous records. Keep track of inventory for public companies, like the SEC and the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, which requires it. To demonstrate compliance, businesses must record their management practises.
Inventory Management’s Advantages
Inventory management has key advantages: it assures that you can fulfil incoming or open orders and it increases earnings. Inventory management also involves:
Savings: Knowing stock trends allows you to know how much and where you have anything in stock, allowing you to make better use of what you have. What is inventory management, Because orders can be fulfilled from anywhere, you can keep less stock at each location (store, warehouse) – all of this lowers inventory costs and reduces the amount of product that goes unsold before it becomes obsolete.
Improves Cash Flow: Roper Ory Management allows you to spend money on inventory that sells, allowing cash to flow freely throughout the company.
Customer satisfaction: ensuring that customers obtain the things they desire without having to wait is an important part of building loyal customers.
Best Inventory Management Software
1. NetSuite
NetSuite is a one-stop shop for inventory management, accounting, and marketing. NetSuite is beneficial to companies of all sizes and kinds. Consider it a cloud-based inventory management solution that combines back-office and financial procedures into a single dashboard. NetSuite was bought by Oracle in 2016, so it has the financial backing of a multibillion-dollar corporation.
Features:
- Support in several languages
- Recognized revenue
- Business intelligence built-in
- Inventory management in the retail sector
- There are almost 350 integrations.
- support from all throughout the world.
- Kittings Forecasting
- Identification of the manufacturing process
- Support for several warehouses.
- Order management at the point of sale
- Management of the supply chain
- completely adaptable
- A multi-currency option is offered.
- Dropshipping is an option.
Price:
- The monthly fee starts at $99 per month.
- On their website, you can also sign up for a free Netsuite ERP demo.
2. Zoho Inventory
The sole reason Zoho Inventory is ranked second is due to certain additional features offered by NetSuite, such as forecasting. Apart from that, Zoho Inventory is the greatest inventory management software available. Other apps in the Zoho suite are intimately connected with Zoho Inventory. This software may be used to track inventory as well as create sales orders and invoices. Zoho Inventory also has a WooCommerce interface built in.
Features:
- Support for Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Shopify, and other marketplaces.
- Inventory reports
- Order fulfilment with 40+ shipping carrier connections
- Print labels and calculate real-time shipping charges.
- Backorders are accessible in several languages and currencies.
- Billing and invoicing are both possible.
- CRM software that connects to multiple stores
- Dropshipping: Dropshipping is supported on Android and iOS.
Price:
Zoho Inventory offers a variety of price plans.
- Free – $0
- Basic – $49
- Standard – $99
- Professional – $249
3. Ecomdash
ecomdash is a website that allows you to sell your products online. Ecomdash is a cloud-based, multi-channel inventory management software that lets you manage inventory, orders, and shipments all from the same dashboard. It is the most suitable solution for inventories of small to medium size. Using ecomdash, you can effortlessly manage various inventories. Ecomdash is one of the most distinctive inventory mapping systems in terms of features. A more detailed feature list may be seen below. Constant Contact/Endurance International Group bought ecomdash in 2019. (EIG).
Features:
- WooCommerce, Shopify, Amazon, and eBay multichannel inventory management integrations.
- Management of Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
- Unrestricted assistance
- Create your own notifications.
- eCommerce API for product SKU mapping
- Tracking products and sales is simple.
- Keep track of manufactured goods.
- A list of bundles and multipacks
- Inventory materials that are available for free.
- Integrations are unrestricted.
Price:
A 14-day free trial of this software is available. Paid plans are a little more advanced. Their prices are dependent on monthly sales.
If you have 100 monthly orders, for example, you will have to pay $60 every month. You’ll need to contact ecomdash to set up a bespoke plan if you have more than 10,000 orders. However, if you choose annual billing, you will save 20%.
4. Cin7
Cin7 is for you if you’re seeking anything with inventory-specific capabilities. Cin7 offers a complete inventory interface by simply syncing online sales channels, POS systems, and third-party connections. This automated inventory platform synchronises the physical and online channels to improve order processing efficiency. All of this makes it beneficial to everyone, from small businesses to large corporations.
Features:
- Support for multiple channels
- Return to inventory management and dropshipping
- Accounting synchronisation with a single click
- Reporting in real time
- Inventory fields that are unique
- Mobile inventory management.
- Inventory adjustment that is automated
- Forecasting and kitting are also included.
- Management of suppliers
- Integration with Walmart
Price:
You may unlock a plan for your inventory for as little as $299 per month, despite the fact that they offer three price levels.
5. Fishbowl
For expanding companies and enterprise customers, Fishbowl is the best inventory management software. It works in tandem with Quickbooks to improve inventory management. This software is designed specifically for inventory management. Users may generate and exchange work orders for a range of activities using the work order system. Fishbowl provides a range of training and support options for the setup process, including start-up videos, online tutorials, in-house specialists, and more.
Features:
- Inventory synchronisation over many channels
- WooCommerce, Shopify, Amazon, and other platforms are all supported.
- The cost of inventory
- Inventory management
- Forecasting
- Inventory database that is centralised
- Reporting on the history of stocks
- Data import and export of data
- Routing via many warehouses
- Support for barcodes
- For 3PL inventory management, use a WYSIWYG editor.
Price:
Fishbowl has reasonable pricing for the quantity of inventory-focused features it provides. You’ll pay $4,395 for the software’s lifetime everlasting ownership. After the first year, you’ll only need to pay again if you want to keep getting support and updates.
Which inventory management software is the best?
As I mentioned at the start of this essay, finding the correct inventory management software is critical, especially as your business grows. It’s challenging to manage inventory and marketing at the same time, so you’ll need software that keeps you informed about what items you have on hand and helps you develop an efficient marketing strategy based on that information.
FAQs
A large and intricate issue like inventory management raises a lot of questions. Here are some of the answers:
What is Inventory Management’s Objective?
Inventory management aims to have adequate goods on hand to satisfy consumers. Another option is to put as little money into stocks as possible while still making the most money.
What is Inventory Management in the Supply Chain?
Because a company has limited space and money, inventory management is very important in the supply chain.Managers can see the whole supply chain (purchase, manufacturing, fulfillment, and so on) through inventory management, which lets them match delivery lead times with production schedules.
What can be done to improve inventory management?
The best way to improve your inventory management is to keep accurate accounting records and do physical stock counts on a regular basis. Real-time inventory information can help stakeholders make important business decisions with the help of a solution that gives them that information. You should also be aware of the condition of a supply, especially if it’s perishable.
The Impact of Inventory Management on Working Capital?
Warehoused items eat up working capital until they’re sold. Making your supply chain more efficient allows you to avoid carrying too much inventory. Improving inventory management processes reduces sales by preventing mistakes in storing, picking, and shipping.
What Are Inventory Management Policies and How Do They Work?
Inventory management policies are strategies for using inventory to satisfy consumers while lowering expenses. The company’s stock management technique, for example, is outlined in policies.
