While large companies may have dedicated inventory management teams and multiple warehouses, small businesses often have no inventory expertise and only limited storage space. With the right small business product inventory software, however, both of these apparent disadvantages can be turned into advantages, helping small businesses reduce their inventory management costs without decreasing customer satisfaction. If your small business is having difficulties keeping stock management costs in check, here are three effective strategies that will help you save money.
Use Cloud Inventory Management Software for Small Business
You may be already using an inventory management tool, but is it optimize for the needs of your small business? A cloud-based solution whose installation and maintenance doesn’t have to be managed on premise helps you monitor inventory levels in real time, manage purchase orders and vendors, understand product turnaround, and accurately track products across categories and locations.
The result is consistently better inventory levels that help reduce overhead costs, optimize investments in seasonal inventory, and progressively eliminate under-performing items from your catalog. DataQlick is one example of a small business product inventory software that takes the hassle out of inventory management.
Request Supplier Assistance
An increasing number of suppliers across industries are now offering supplier-managed inventory services at affordable costs. By giving you access to essential inventory data in a unified format and reducing transportation time and costs, such services can help you eliminate costly inventory management issues stemming from manual data entry mistakes, lost or damaged shipments, or incomplete inventory data. Supplier assistance can be especially useful if your small business operates partly or fully online.
Outsource Your Inventory Control Needs
Apart from adopting a cloud inventory management software for small business, you may want to consider hiring an inventory consultant outside your business on a part-time basis or only during seasonal periods when your inventory management needs grow, i.e. during the winter shopping season.
As a small business, hiring a full-time inventory expert may not make sense, especially since it can cost too much. But equipped with a small business product inventory software, your need for an inventory expert considerably lessens. Since as a small business you probably operate locally and have a relatively small inventory, a part-time inventory consultant can be just what you need to make the right inventory decisions at the beginning of the year and then plan your inventory strategy for each quarter.
Think Long Term
In the end, remember that when it comes to keeping inventory costs in check, it’s good to put things in perspective and think long term. While a cloud inventory management software for small business and an inventory consultant do require an investment, the amount of money they can save you in the long run by preventing overstock, understock, or inventory problems stemming from ineffective control strategies will be significant.
