An eCommerce business should work like a well-oiled machine. It should operate optimally and seamlessly without flaws or lags. Inventory is the oil of an eCommerce business, and properly managing it can, in turn, make bigger differences. Inventory management is one of the hidden yet the most essential ways to build a successful online commerce business.
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This helps to optimize stock levels, minimize costs, and maximize customer satisfaction. As we step into the era of technology, having a dedicated tailored software solution has become increasingly crucial for eCommerce inventory management. But, how do you decide that merely developing software can help you win the race?
The competition-driven market is becoming more aggressive, and a wrong move can plummet your online presence. Hence, to stay at the forefront, you should include all the features and tools in your IMS that can assist you in preventing stockouts and delays.
Features You Should Not Miss out on Including in the Inventory Management System
A successful eCommerce business understands the value of inventory management. It is the lifeblood of seamless operations and efficient customer satisfaction. You should ensure that your warehouse management software has a built-in IMS and the right features. An IMS is crucial in accurately maintaining stock levels and optimizing order fulfilment. Here are some of the essential features that you should not miss out:
1. Real-time Inventory Tracking
Earlier, when dedicated software was not feasible for every business, the mode of managing inventory was paper or spreadsheets-heavy. This approach has undoubtedly helped several businesses maintain a good inventory report in the middle or last of every month. If in between an in-demand stock, unit is finished, a vendor won’t get real-time information because, in the spreadsheet, it has “units left.” This resulted in a negative impression on users and a loss in sales.
Now, with the rise of WMS, especially its subset IMS, this worry of different online vendors has been resolved. Its real-time inventory tracking feature provides information based on the real-time movement of a particular stock. You get complete data on how many stock values are left. This way, your business eliminates the risk of over or under-selling with accurate information about the stock’s availability.
2. Order Management
When developing an IMS for your online commerce business, it is essential to include an order management feature. This feature assists an eCommerce business to track vital information about stocks from different channels. It promotes effective management of orders by providing real-time visibility into stock levels. This way, you can efficiently process orders, ship them to the ordered locations, and have the ability to update automatically update order statuses.
3. Product Categorization
An online commerce business deals mainly with various products under different categories. Including all of them under one major category can’t be a good step, as it can make the work more confusing and time-consuming. Here, including a product categorization feature in an inventory management system can greatly assist a warehouse and an eCommerce business. A business can include products under different categories based on their attributes, like size, colour, grade, style, and more. This will help in better product organization, simplifying the search for a specific item.
4. Reporting and Analytics
You should include the reporting and analytics feature in the dedicated software you build for your eCommerce business. This feature has many benefits. You will get much-needed information about a particular inventory, which means how much a particular inventory/ies are in trend, how often users buy it, how frequently you should update stocks, and much more. It helps you make decisions based on data, which will result fruitfully for your business.
5. Reordering Alerts
This feature will never catch your store off-guard by never running low on hot-selling products. If you integrate this feature in your IMS, you get instant notifications if any stock/s quantity reaches a minimum threshold. One of the plus points is that you can set the re-ordering notification alert by filling in a specific quantity. This ensures that you will have enough time to refill the stock levels.
Conclusion
Today, inventory management systems (IMS) are crucial for every eCommerce business. An IMS is not an option but a necessity, and developing one means you stand your chances in the rapidly changing e-commerce industry. The real catch lies in the features you add to your IMS to help you provide accurate, real-time information. However, including every feature can make it cluttered and laggy, so consider which features your business requires more prominently. Investing wisely can drive data-driven, informed decisions, which can result in maximizing the ROI of a business. However, if you ever face difficulty choosing the right feature type, you can hire web developers to help you along the way. They will not only help you choose the right features but also assist you with the development process of dedicated software to keep you competitive.
