Inventory Management Techniques

Some experts suggest inventory management techniques that focus on reducing or eliminating waste to cut operating costs. Others focus on maximizing profits. Ideally, your tools and techniques of inventory management should do both. Whatever their focus, the experts all agree that automation is a necessary element for success in today’s high-tech world. For efficient and effective inventory stock management, your inventory tools and techniques should be seamlessly integrated into one streamlined system. What are the essential elements of a good system? That’s what the researchers and software engineers at Ordoro asked business owners when developing their integrated software platform. They learned that people wanted a system that could track and sync inventory levels, create and send out purchase orders, bundle multiple SKU’s, and utilize barcode scanning to reduce fulfillment errors. They designed it to be able to do all that—and more. An important part of any inventory management strategy is reviewing slow-moving inventory. The ability to analyze your sales data to determine what sells well, where, and when is crucial to making informed buying decisions. Now that commerce has gone global, the where is even more important. What used to be seasonal items can now be year-round items because it’s always summer somewhere! You need to be able to tell at a glance which products to restock and which ones are costing you money instead of making you money. That’s why Ordoro’s system includes data analytics. Every barcode scanned into the system becomes raw data that’s transformed into graphs and charts that make it easy to see your top performers and plan your next move. It also helps you track your suppliers’ performance, and can alert you if that performance falls below your standards. Things happen, including bad weather and natural disasters, but one too many late deliveries might mean you need to find a new supplier for one of your most popular items.

Inventory Management Process

The inventory management process starts with implementing a barcode scanning system. By creating UPC barcodes for your products, you’ll be able to adjust your inventory levels automatically—and accurately. With a scanning system, there is no possibility of someone typing a wrong item number into a database by mistake.Your stock levels can be automatically adjusted with every scanned item, including your received purchase orders. There is no more guesswork or estimating. You can tell at a glance exactly how much of an item you have in stock and where it is located from one convenient dashboard. Even if you have multiple storefronts, suppliers, and shipping carriers, Ordoro’s multi-channel capability gives you access to all of them from a single dashboard. You can search for items as easily as typing in the UPC code. Now that’s inventory control. The importance of inventory management is never more apparent than when a customer receives the wrong item, or their item goes to the wrong address. Having automated inventory processes and procedures in place helps insure that doesn’t happen. Your customer who’s expecting a stylish dress for a formal occasion will never receive a ball cap instead because their item numbers are the same — except for the last digit. Each item having its own barcode coupled with a barcode scanning system can practically eliminate fulfillment errors. Some inventory management system examples that have led to huge success aren’t hard to find. For example, one business which earned the title of the fifth fastest-growing retailer in the world credits their automated inventory system for its success. While you may not aspire to owning 10,000 stores and 48 distribution centers, it’s good to know that with Ordoro, you’ll have the same advantages provided by integrated software technology working to help your business grow.

Free Inventory Management System

When you’re first starting out and don’t have much to invest, it can be tempting to go with a free inventory management system. Just type “inventory management tools free” into your browser and you’ll see a long list of free offers. Only when you get down to the fine print will you see that, invariably, “some restrictions apply”. Usually, one of those restrictions is the number of orders you’re allowed before the service is no longer free. That’s not the only drawback to free services. Some of them, like excel, also require manual data entry. There’s no shortage of business horror stories that feature millions in losses caused by human error. Sometimes, it’s not just a financial loss, but a loss of public trust. For example, a single wrong keystroke once resulted in 20,000 tickets being sold to an Olympic event at which there were only 10,000 seats available. Awkward! We need the human element, but when it comes to entering numbers, computers are just better at it than humans. Scanning a barcode is a lot more error-proof than entering numbers into a database by hand. People used to have to rely on the stock control methods that excel databases made possible. Advanced technology has made much more efficient types of inventory management systems possible. Scanning a barcode is a lot more error-proof than entering numbers into a database by hand. Automating your inventory and shipping processes allows you to humanize your sales strategies. You’re in complete control with the ability to set up your own automation rules and shipping presets. Ordoro’s bulk shipping label creation capabilities, automated drop-shipping and omni-channel inventory management can ensure that the human element in your business is an asset instead of a liability.

Inventory Management Tools

The best part about having the right inventory management tools for the job is that one of those tools is automation. Automating your processes means that your software system keeps working around the clock, and you don’t even have to pay overtime. While you’re busy putting together your new marketing campaign and designing a new web page that shows off the best features of your newest product to its fullest advantage, Ordoro is busy updating your inventory. Because computers can do in seconds what it takes humans days or even weeks to accomplish, automation is one of the most important tools of inventory management. However, like computer programs, inventory tools are only as effective and useful as the people who create them. Automation doesn’t mean that your business won’t reflect your priorities or your style, though. With Ordoro, you have full control of creating your own automation rules. You decide whether you want to print shipping labels individually or in batches. You decide if you want to sell items separately or bundle them. The right inventory tools can help you become a master craftsman in the creation, change, and expansion of your business. As a business owner, you have to be able to adapt quickly to changing conditions, to take advantage of consumer trends, and maintain a reputation for fast and reliable service. To achieve all of that simultaneously, you need both the right tool and techniques of inventory management. If you have only one tool at your disposal, it should be Ordoro. That’s because with Ordoro as your foundation, you can seamlessly integrate with all the best tools developed and time-tested by industry icons like Shopify and eBay. You can also integrate with all the biggest shipping carriers worldwide. Their data analytics help you create techniques that are unique to your specific business.

Inventory Management System

When it comes to ecommerce, no matter what kind of online store you have, Ordoro has all your bases covered. Their research and development team designed their software to be the best inventory management software on the market. They succeeded in creating a system that can streamline processes at every stage of your online business. From your first purchase order to your last bill of sale, Ordoro’s integrated system stays hard at work generating the information you need to make the best possible decisions. Beginning with multichannel integration, it allows you to create vendor portals for multiple suppliers and communicate with all of them from a single dashboard. Once you’ve got suppliers and merchandise, it allows you to create barcodes for that merchandise and scan it into the system. From there, it enables you to set automation rules to generate purchase orders when it’s time to restock. When it’s time to ship, it tracks outgoing merchandise, marking it as shipped, while automatically adjusting your stock level to reflect the shipment. It has kitting and pick and pack capabilities, so you can bundle items for sale, which is an excellent inventory control system technique for increasing sales of slow-moving merchandise. It allows you to print shipping labels either individually or in batches. It supports multi-carrier shipping, so you can take advantage of the best rates, wherever you ship worldwide, as well as enjoy substantial industry discounts. At the end of the sales cycle, all the information that’s been scanned into the system is available via data analytics that show you at a glance what you have in stock, how much, and where. That’s unparalleled warehouse inventory management software. Best of all, it’s part of an integrated system. Ordoro is so sure that their system can help your business succeed that they offer free 30-day onboarding to help you count the ways—and show you exactly how. Since they added full lifetime support to their customers, they’ve earned the right to show off a little.