One fact that appears to be lost with many small businesses is that customers influence the development of small business inventory. The primary reason for this is that customers ultimately determine which products sell and which don’t. Without access to this information, business owners have to guess. It may seem easy to see which products are selling well, but when you have hundreds, or even thousands, of products in your inventory stored in more than one location, it becomes much harder to track everything.
While customers are renowned for testing the patience of small business owners and their employees, they really do hold the key to optimizing a businesses inventory. A key tool in using this information is having it compiled in an easy-to-view location and organized with breakdowns of each inventory item. In the past, this was a very difficult thing to do. Man-hours were expended compiling sales data and inventory data.
Today business owners can sleep soundly, because with the technology advancing rapidly, many inventive and user-friendly inventory control solutions become available. Small business inventory control applications are available at a fraction of the price that it would cost to do so manually. These applications track inventory, compile sales data on each inventory item and are accessible from any place with an Internet connection.
Suddenly, small business owners have this information at their fingertips. They can allow customer sales information to drive what way they manage and develop in their inventory. Intelligent business decisions can be made with very little effort and time expended.
Businesses need to depend on their customers to provide this information so that, in turn, businesses can focus on further meeting customer needs. In return, businesses can minimize losses on obsolete products, limit handling costs and free up cash flow. It is a win-win situation. The customer receives a better service and the business owner and their company have more success on the long run.
