Anyone with experience in inventory management for retail locations understands the challenges of trying to work off of spreadsheets, inventory lists and receiving documents.
The best and most effective option in managing inventory for retail outlets is to use a top retail supply chain management software system. These systems are designed to allow managers to access real-time data regarding supply chain shipments, receiving, inventory on hand, ordering and even POS information in one easy to access dashboard.
The cost of investing in retail supply chain management software, particularly cloud-based technology, is often much less than retail chains anticipate. In addition, the increase in efficiency, tracking, and monitoring of inventory helps to decrease operating costs, allowing the software to pay for itself in a short period of time.
Track the Flow of Inventory and Sales Across Locations
Not all retail outlets have the same customer base and the same sales. By using a software program offering full tracking from supply chain to customer, managers can more effectively order inventory and balance inventory levels based on sales data and effective demand forecasting.
Limit Internal Inventory Movement Costs
With inventory arriving at the right store at the right volume, there is less internal requirement to move inventory from areas of surplus to areas of demand with the retail company.
Limiting on-hand inventory saves time and costs, limits the need to ship and receive merchandise, and also eliminates the risk of lost inventory in the system. These factors all add up to cost savings from the retailer.
Optimize Ordering
When the retail supply chain management software can also be used to optimize ordering based on effective demand forecasting and analysis of seasonal and location sales trends, out of stock issues become less of a problem.
Out of stock merchandise drives down sales, increases the risk of losing customers to the competition and also hinders the potential for future growth. By integrating purchasing with POS data through the software, optimal ordering by retail location is just a click away.
