In today’s digital-driven world, there are still many businesses that are using paper in their inventory management. Since paper equals manual, mistakes, and unnecessary expenses as well as environmental damage, it makes sense to change the paper-based operations. In this article, we explain why digital tools are a huge help for business owners and why improving your inventory management by using software has plenty of advantages for each business. For instance, each company can do anything easier, faster, and more efficiently.
Don’t Know How? Let us explain
Let’s analyze the ways in which every business may use digital technology in order to improve stock-keeping operations, push up sales and remain nimble.
1. Inventory Management With Software Instead of Paper
Investing in a stock control software solution is a method that will help you improve your inventory management as well as leave the paperwork behind. Finding the best software for your business means that you will be able to:
- learn, set up, and manage your inventory easier than before
- plan your inventory operations (sales, orders, shipments) and effortlessly
- make the most of the hardware solutions available (eg barcode scanners. POS machines, GPS tracking, etc)
With a software management solution, you will be able to track your inventory, process your orders and analyze current inventory data across various devices, locations and users.
2. Inventory Solutions Per Supply Chain Stage
Software solutions allow you to break each problem into different parts. Thus, the software may be separated into 3-4 sections (or sometimes even more):
- Placement of orders- via one or more e-commerce solutions (eg WooCommerce) or an online marketplace (eg Amazon)
- Handling stock and fulfilling orders – Megaventory can help you pick up the goods and mark orders as shipped.
- Managing bookkeeping – an accounting solution that can allow you to track and reconcile payments online
- Additional solutions can help you with tracking shipments (generating courier labels, calculating shipping costs, etc), routing orders for delivery, etc
Note that with the exception of shipping labels none of the above processes involves paper.
Moreover, a software solution can manage products in multiple locations, and issue invoices, purchases, and sales orders. Also, it can distribute information across employees, partners, or clients in one or more web-based, multi-user environments. With such a stack of management software, your business can even embrace hardware technology such as barcode scanning – and move further away from paper. In this way, sale orders and shipments will be created and sent straight away.
3. Inventory Digitalization Advantages
What are the advantages of investing in digital inventory management and leaving behind the paperwork? First of all, using software such as an inventory management solution will optimize your operations and as a result your productivity. In addition, by using inventory management software, your business will minimize its inventory costs and maximize sales as well as profits.
Updating your management with inventory software equals the automation of manual tasks. In other words, there are no employees who would be happy to do manual tasks, calculations, etc if these can be avoided. The software does automatically these tasks.
Furthermore, by using software for managing your inventory, your business is keeping up with the digital age. This means among other things, doing better than your business competitors. Another point that is very important is maintaining customer happiness. It is necessary for a company to maintain its customers’ satisfaction to improve and broaden its customer base.
What about the advantages of inventory management to the environment? By controlling properly the items which usually end up getting sold on clearance or thrown away you get the idea of which items you are actually using. Inventory management software is, as such, a way to organize your inventory as well as get more environmentally friendly. And of course, less paper means running a more eco-friendly business too.
Let’s Recap
In conclusion, inventory management software is a tool that is important in the everyday life of a company handling stock. Digital inventory management and other functions with one or more software solutions at different stages of the supply chain have multiple advantages, especially for businesses that have not yet upgraded their business processes from paper. Although the advantages of software usage may increase with time it’s a good idea, in the first place, to start small and prioritize your operations as a business.
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Stamatia Manolara is a Digital Marketer and Content Creator for Megaventory. Her passion is staying up to date with the latest digital marketing technologies as well as upgrading her skills and developing new ones.