What’s The Single Biggest Reason Your Competitors Are Killing You?
It’s not their marketing. It’s not their pricing. The number one factor in success for any retailer right now is how much control you have over your inventory.
Here’s The Issue…
Inventory is a mess for most retailers. You’ve got stock sitting on the shelf for months, and you sell out of your top products almost as soon as you restock them. You have way too much inventory tied up in the wrong items, while customers walk away because you’re out of stock on things they want to buy.
If you don’t have automated retail inventory management, you’re just throwing darts. Making blind inventory decisions in the dark that are costing you thousands every month.
Here’s What’s Going To Be Revealed…
- Why Manual Inventory Tracking Is Costing You Money
- The Real Benefits Of Automated Inventory Systems
- How Real-Time Visibility Changes Everything
- Choosing The Right Solution For Your Store
Why Manual Inventory Tracking Is Costing You Money
Ok, let’s get into some stats right off the bat…
58% of retail brands report less than 80% accuracy in their inventory. In other words, most retailers do not even know what they have in their warehouses.
Even worse, the average company holds $142,000 in excess, obsolete, and non-demand driven inventory just lying around taking up space. That’s money that could be going back into your business sitting there collecting dust on shelves.
Think about that for a second.
If you are doing inventory manually (ex: spreadsheets, manual counts), you are making business decisions based on out of date information.
By the time you realize your top selling product is out of stock, you’ve already lost sales. Then when you finally order more, guess what happens?
You end up with too much of the wrong inventory.
Manual tracking is also a huge invitation for human error.
Someone forgets to put an order into the system.
Someone loses track of counting inventory.
Someone accidentally enters 1,000 units instead of 100.
All of these add up, fast.
The Real Benefits Of Automated Inventory Systems
Automated retail inventory systems turn things completely around.
Instead of reacting to inventory problems after they have occurred, smart retail inventory management lets you stay ahead of issues.
You can anticipate what customers will buy before they even know they want it.
Here’s how things change when you automate:
- Your accuracy levels skyrocket. Inventory automation can take your accuracy from 66% up to 97% with the right implementation.
- You save huge amounts of time. No more manual counts or hours pouring over spreadsheets.
- Your costs go down. Less excess inventory means more cash in your business coffers for what matters.
- Your customers are happy. The products they want are always in stock.
Here’s The Real Shocker…
Inventory automation software can increase operational efficiency by as much as 50%. That’s cutting your workload in half while also delivering superior results.
Inventory tracking by hand is an absolute nightmare. You have constant anxiety over out-of-stocks and can’t sleep because of all the dead inventory sitting there occupying space that should be housing sales.
Automation takes that burden off of your shoulders so you can concentrate on the growth of your business.
How Real-Time Visibility Changes Everything
The biggest game-changer in retail right now is real-time inventory visibility. This is where retail inventory management software really starts to shine.
Imagine this:
A customer comes into your shop and wants to purchase a specific product. Your staff takes a look at the system and instantly knows if it’s in stock, where to find it on the floor, and if not, when the next shipment will be arriving.
No more wandering around the store with a confused customer while you’re both trying to hunt down that item you “think” you have. No more empty apologies for not having something in stock.
Customers will love it. So will your bottom line.
77% of retailers plan to utilize real-time inventory visibility by 2025. All of them are there for one reason – it works.
The Omnichannel Advantage
Real-time visibility becomes even more critical when you sell across multiple channels.
Online store. Physical locations. Third party marketplaces.
If you try to manage inventory for all of these channels manually, you will go insane. You will end up overselling items online that are actually sold out in your warehouse.
Automation instantly syncs everything up so when a product sells online, the inventory at your physical location automatically gets updated. When you receive more stock at one location, your other channels are all aware.
This is because one of retail’s most aggravating problems is no longer an issue…
82% of in-store shoppers had an out of stock experience over the last year. That’s a massive opportunity for retailers who can get this piece of inventory management right.
Choosing The Right Solution For Your Store
No two automated inventory systems are the same.
You have some that are built for enormous enterprises with sky-high budgets. Then you have solutions that are perfect for small retailers just getting started. You have to find the one that’s right for you.
This is what you’re looking for:
Begin with the basics. You need a system that can track inventory in real-time at all of your locations and across all of your sales channels. It must integrate with your existing POS system and e-commerce platform.
But that’s just the start…
Look for advanced features like automated reordering. Your system should know when stock levels hit a certain point and automatically generate purchase orders for you. Demand forecasting is another critical one. Inventory systems that analyze your historical sales data and forecast future demand are a must-have.
Cloud vs On-Premises
This is a major decision that comes down to your specific business needs.
Cloud-based systems are flexible and have low start-up costs. They are accessible anywhere. This is what most SMBs and mid-size retailers go with.
On-premises solutions are more secure and give you more control over your data. They are used most often by the larger retailers with the infrastructure to manage them.
Integration Capabilities Matter
Your inventory system has to play well with your other business systems. POS, accounting, e-commerce platform, shipping providers.
The more all of these things can seamlessly integrate with each other, the less manual work you have to do. Information is passed automatically between systems without any need for manual exports and imports.
This integration is what makes a bunch of isolated tools transform into an end-to-end retail inventory management solution that powers every aspect of your business.
Making The Switch To Automated Inventory
Ok, are you ready to make the leap?
Here’s the truth…
Switching to automation is not something that happens overnight. You are going to have to put in some time up front to get everything set up the way you need it to work. But you will see that investment pay off in weeks rather than months or years.
Get all of your inventory data organized first. Clean up your spreadsheets. Make sure your product information is as accurate and complete as possible. This prep work will make the transition much smoother.
Try it out in a pilot phase at one location or with one product category before you go all in across your entire operation. That way you can work out any issues in a controlled way that won’t disrupt your business.
Change is hard, and people will resist. Your team will fight you on moving away from the way they have always done things. The key is to show them how this is going to make their lives easier, not harder. Train them and support them all the way through the transition.
Bottom Line
Automated retail inventory systems are no longer an option. They are a necessity to survive in today’s super-competitive retail market.
The retailers that are coming out on top today are the ones who can:
- Always have the right products in stock
- Keep excess, obsolete, and dead inventory to a minimum
- Provide frictionless experiences across all of their channels
- Make informed data-driven decisions about what and when to order
Without automation, you’re literally stabbing in the dark. At best you have partial control and hope you’re making the right decisions. With it, you have complete control of one of the most critical functions in your business. The technology is out there. The advantages are proven. The only question is whether you will take advantage of it before your competitors do.
