E-commerce businesses often run into inventory issues because of inefficient processes led by tab-rich Excel spreadsheets and inadequate data exports. These issues are pervasive and affect a plethora of other organizational functions, jeopardizing the smooth business flow. It has led to businesses understanding that inventory management is a vital part of growth, and they need to find better ways to manage it. In addition, optimizing inventory can help cut down unwanted costs and contribute to improved customer experience.
It is why most of the current e-commerce businesses have shifted to a more clutter-free approach – an inventory management system. This software offers significant advantages over the traditional manual or spreadsheet approaches and gives you granular control over your stock while improving transparency.
But given the plethora of inventory management systems on offer, how do you choose the right one for yourself? This article discusses the thought process and criteria behind choosing the best inventory management software for your e-commerce business.
Questions to ask before looking for an E-commerce Inventory Management Software
A myriad of factors decide the best-centralized inventory management software for your e-commerce business, and most of them have more to do with your business than the solution itself. So here are the questions to answer before embarking on choosing the best inventory management system.
1. What inventory challenges do your business face?
A great way to start your tryst to find the best inventory management system would be to understand your inventory’s challenges first. Do you feel there is a lack of transparency in managing it? Do you frequently run out of critical items? Can you efficiently handle safety stock, replenishment stock, and average stock level individually? How efficient are you in handling fluctuations in customer demand?
Finding the relevant business issues that you want to cater to would help you refine the options available and find vendors offering the features you need.
2. Do you need a server-based or an online inventory management system?
Several e-commerce businesses still prefer legacy systems and purchase on-premise, server-based inventory solutions even after years of cloud being around. So it is imperative for you to understand the pros and cons of both options and choose one that would suit your business the best.
For example, are you willing to spend higher on an on-location inventory management system, or are you happier with a cloud-based solution to handle your stock requirements effectively? Is your team well acquainted with the former and is showing reluctance to shift? Or are you better off with the 99.9% uptime guarantee that cloud providers guarantee?
All of these would help you make an informed decision about the type of inventory management system to deploy.
3. What are your integration needs?
In the traditional days, most software would run solo and had no interdependence. But in the present day, seamless collaboration has been the way forward. B2B e-commerce brands are looking for solutions that can seamlessly integrate into their present software ecosystem without tweaking what works for them.
A robust inventory management software has also been a critical business differentiator and has enabled e-commerce players to be flexible with regards to their inventory handling and ordering, allowing them to gain an edge over their competition.
In addition, seamless integration would enable e-commerce businesses to derive critical insights from the inventory management software and feed them to other business processes in a clutter-free manner to achieve impeccable actionable insights.
How to choose the Best Inventory Management System for your Business?
Now that you understand your business needs, the next step is to look for the following while choosing the best software for inventory management in India or abroad –
#1 Ease of use
Ease of use is one of the primary constraints while looking for the right inventory solution for your e-commerce business. An easy-to-use software will allow your workforce to handle it better and improve their stock handling capabilities.
#2 Scalability
E-commerce businesses are born with the idea to be scalable, and every software choice they make must resonate with the same idea. So it is imperative for you to choose a scalable solution and offer you the bandwidth you seek.
#3 Features
Every e-commerce business has specific requirements. So choose an inventory management software that caters to your particular needs, such as batch tracking, bundling, real-time inventory update, barcode tracking, and more.
#4 Valuable insights
With the advent of data-heavy solutions, it has been easy to derive critical analytics. Analytics play a vital role in the way your business is handled. So, while looking for the right inventory management system, make sure you choose the one that offers a wide range of palpable and practical insights.
Wrap up
Choosing an inventory management system that is easy to use and caters to all your stock needs is a vital decision. It makes the task easier for your workforce and contributes to better catering to your customers.
Schedule a FREE demo with Unicommerce Inventory Management consultants.
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