eCommerce Inventory Control identifies the common challenges multi-channel distributors and manufacturers face without synchronized online inventory management and why it is important to incorporate it.
If you are a multi-channel distributor or manufacturer, you know the challenges a lack of proper inventory management or limited visibility can bring – especially if one or more of your channels are virtual. And those challenges don’t just disrupt internal operations; lacking solid eCommerce inventory control affects sales, customer retention, and your bottom line regardless if your other channels are running smoothly.
Did you know that 70% of shoppers will not hesitate to turn to your competitor if the item they are looking for appears unavailable or is on backorder? Or that 55% of eCommerce brands still rely on manual inventory processes, while another 28% of multi-channel companies lack visibility across stores, warehouses, and vendors?
If your webstore inventory availability isn’t being updated regularly or is littered with errors – you will lose business. If manual inventory processes are already difficult to manage, imagine what happens when business is booming. If you don’t have full, real-time visibility across your entire operations, you are opening yourself up to mismanagement, miscommunications, and missed opportunities.
Instead of falling into one of these examples, there is a better way. Incorporating synchronized eCommerce inventory control into your multi-channel operations will not only make your day-to-day business tasks easier, it will allow you to compete harder, grow stronger, and hopefully profit more than your peers that are still relying on manual or disjointed systems to manage their online inventory.
eCommerce Inventory Control: Ditch Manual & Disjointed Systems
What happens when your online store doesn’t regularly update inventory availability to match the correct levels in your warehouse? A few scenarios are possible here. An online customer could complete the purchase of an unavailable product which inevitably leads to frustration when they receive a backorder notice or a refund. Perhaps they visit your website and see that the item they are looking for appears to be out-of-stock (it’s not), so they visit your competitor’s website and purchase. What if a purchase of an online item was actually reserved for an offline customer or vice-versa? The item was sold to the person to which it was not promised…someone will be very disgruntled.
So, as you can see, managing online inventory separately from offline inventory, whether manually or with different systems, is never going to be as efficient or accurate as it needs to be. Instead of placing your eCommerce channels, and potential customers, in the hands of manual or uncoordinated updates, try an eCommerce inventory control solution like Acctivate that synchronizes your entire inventory into one system, and updates your web stores automatically and regularly. The peace-of-mind a system like this could bring should quickly remove any lingering dependencies on manual or disjointed processes.
eCommerce Inventory Control: Real-Time Visibility
Once you’ve brought all your sales channels into one system with a solution like Acctivate, you should have a much more precise, clear view of your entire operations. The ability to view each active channel together or separately in real-time, along with company-wide activity, will allow your business to operate at top speed. When it comes to order management, your fulfillment teams will no longer be blindsided with online orders coming in sporadically and your online orders will receive equal treatment. Your online shoppers will be the happiest when the items they purchase come quickly, on-time, and are not lost in a sea of orders in your warehouse.
eCommerce Inventory Control: Data You Can Depend On
An eCommerce inventory control solution makes inventory forecasting, demand planning, and purchasing activities more reliable and more efficient. Viewing data for your entire operation, or just segments, will help to reduce overstocking, understocking, and slow-moving inventory. Software like Acctivate offers a host of business intelligence tools to better inform your decision making and makes your purchasing activities smarter. Inventory management, for better or worse, greatly affects your bottom-line. Don’t let human errors and inaccuracies pollute your data.
eCommerce Inventory Control: Winning Multi-Channel Sales
The goal of coordinating your inventory management for all channels into one system is simple: to improve your chances of multi-channel distribution. The more you grow, the more business you have, the more inventory and orders you must manage. Achieving multi-channel success relies heavily on your inventory management capabilities. If you are still relying on manual or disjointed inventory processes for your eCommerce channels or ALL your channels – you are at a massive disadvantage. Small and big businesses alike are taking advantage of technology to improve and boost operations.
eCommerce Inventory Control for QuickBooks
Acctivate Inventory Software is an eCommerce inventory control solution for small and mid-sized multi-channel distributors using QuickBooks. Acctivate offers the advanced tools needed for optimizing and growing multi-channel operations while allowing financials to remain securely in QuickBooks.
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Ally Long
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