In the bustling world of e-commerce returns are inevitable. Many customers who order products online choose to order the same product in different sizes or several similar products from the same category simply to find the best match, without intending to keep them all. This challenges e-commerce businesses to create an inventory management strategy that can effectively cope with a high volume of returns.
Dealing with Returns
E-commerce businesses that sell a varied range of products, have more than one return location, or allow customers to personally return products in their brick-and-mortar stores are the ones that most need an effective inventory management system. Traditional inventory management solutions developed for the straightforward brick-and-mortar business product return process can be easily overwhelmed by the volume of returns that an e-commerce business faces on a monthly basis. Nor does such a system come with the tracking capabilities necessary to ensure that all returned products are successfully reintroduced into the active inventory and resold.
Unified Inventory Management
The solution to effective inventory management for returns is a unified retail and e-commerce inventory database. Alongside product names and identification codes, this database must also feature product descriptions and images to facilitate the physical or digital handling of the returned products. In addition, automated features such as low stock or overstock notifications, sales forecasting, and business intelligence can help business owners prevent any major inventory problems that the return process may generate.
Also, it is crucial for the inventory management system to facilitate the creation of rules concerning measures for the handling or disposal of returned items. These rules can come in the form of notes for every product, or automated condition-based actions.
The Solution to Effective Inventory Management for Returns
A modern, web-based inventory app that integrates with the accounting system QuickBooks and that was designed to help e-commerce businesses effectively deal with returns is DataQlick. Featuring an intuitive, easy to use interface and advanced order management, item tracking, business analytics, and sales forecasting, DataQlick can be easily accessed on multiple computers and mobile devices, making it a convenient and cost-effective inventory management tool for e-tailers. DataQlick is a scalable, cross-platform solution that can be used across industries.
