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If you don’t stay on top of your inventory stock levels, you might have products which are understocked or already out-of-stock. If not addressed immediately, your supply chains will be disrupted and this will have serious repercussions on your business. Customers will not get their orders on time, or you’ll sell more items than you have in stock (overselling) and have fulfillment issues. Either way, this will not only possibly lead to lost revenue, but also damage the relationship you worked so hard to establish with your valued customers and suppliers, possibly to the point of beyond repair. On the other hand, failure to monitor stock levels might also lead to overstocking and you’ll end up having dead stock taking up valuable storage space, costing you a lot of money and severely hurting your business’ profitability.
Fixing these damages can be quite costly, and in this situation, the old adage “prevention is better than the cure” most certainly rings true. To prevent this from happening to your business, you must implement sound inventory management.
What Is Ecommerce/Amazon Inventory Management?
In a nutshell, inventory management is ensuring that supply chains run like clockwork. It involves tracking, measuring, and monitoring inventory quantities across all of your locations (warehouses, fulfillment centers and sales channels), managing product stock levels, interpreting logistics and analytics (purchasing trends, seasonal trends, customer demand, etc.) to formulate inventory management strategies, and integrating inventory management data into your business’ financials.
What Are The Benefits of Efficient Inventory Management?
Implementing a sound inventory management system for your business carries a lot of benefits. Some of them are:
High Inventory Visibility
- Improved predictability – understand your business cycle and inventory demands better
- Know where every piece of inventory is
- Know when it’s the right time to restock – eliminate risk of stock run-outs and overselling
- Know how much inventory you need to have on hand – significantly reduce risk of overstocking, eliminate dead stock/wasted inventory
- Improved cash flow – significantly reduced inventory risks, savings on storage fees, smart restocking
- Easily maintain inventory records (sales, costs, expenses, etc.) for accounting purposes
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
- A more organized warehouse for faster order fulfillment
- Easier tracking of inventory and supply chain movement
- Streamlined warehouse workflows saves time and money
Enhanced Customer Experience to Cultivate a Bigger Client Base
- Consistently and quickly meet customer demand
- Easily set-up reorder capabilities for your VIP customers
- Build strong relationships with customers to keep them coming back for more
Make Strategic Decisions Much Faster
Implementing an effective inventory management strategy to reap these benefits though, is not an easy task, and may require you to invest in an Ecommerce/ Amazon Inventory Management Software solution.
What Is Ecommerce/Amazon Inventory Management Software?
Inventory management software is basically a suite of tools that enable users to automate and streamline virtually all aspects of managing their inventory across all locations. While specializations and capabilities may vary, most cloud-based inventory management software systems usually come with these standard features:
- Centralized Inventory Management
- Real-Time Inventory Data Sync
- Barcoding and Tagging
- Analytics and Reporting Tools
- Accounting Integration
- Supply Chain Automation
- 3rd Party App Integrations
What Are The Benefits of Using Inventory Management Software?
Using inventory management software has a lot of benefits. Some of them are:
Automation
Eliminates tedious, time-consuming tasks such as manual data entry or complex calculations. Saves you time, reduces labor costs and frees up your employees for more important work.
Lower Operational Costs
Improved accuracy and efficiency lead to lower operational costs. Spend on damage control due to inaccurate inventory data goes down. Effective implementation of just-in-time inventory (having just enough stock to cover short-term demand) made possible leading to more accurate inventory orders and lowered storage costs. Leverage of automation also lowers the number of employees needed to maintain operations.
Business Intelligence
Build data assets and leverage to improve the performance of your business. Monitor and analyze key performance metrics, fine-tune processes and workflows to improve conversion and drive more sales.
Improve Customer Service
Increase order fulfillment accuracy, fulfill orders faster, and be able to provide real-time order updates to raise customer appreciation.
The 8 Best Amazon Inventory Management Software for Sellers in 2021
If you’re an Amazon seller or a multichannel retailer looking for inventory management software, this quick guide will help you a lot.
The Seller Spaceship team has spent a lot of time researching the best inventory management software options and the information you will see on this quick guide and the in-depth reviews we did on each software option are accurate and up-to-date.
The 8 Best Amazon Inventory Management Software for Sellers in 2021: A Quick Look
Top Picks for the Best Amazon Inventory Management Software for Sellers in 2021
Founded by Ryan Stephens in 2013, InventoryLab is an innovative and highly versatile Amazon inventory management software solution that’s highly trusted in the FBA seller community. It streamlines vital processes such as managing inventory, listing products, researching and sourcing products for inventory, accounting, and comprehensive business reporting.
Founded by Brian Nolan and a group of highly experienced online sellers in 2013, Sellbrite is a cloud-based multichannel inventory management software solution that integrates with the biggest and most popular marketplaces and shopping carts such as Amazon, BigCommerce, eBay, Etsy, Shopify and Walmart. It enables its users to effectively streamline their sales processes by providing tools and automation that simplify product listing and management, sync inventory levels across different sales platforms, and optimize order fulfillment. Sellbrite consistently gets excellent review ratings from its user base, of which 90% would recommend it to friends and colleagues.
Co-founded by Jayneel Patel and Niraj Patel in 2012, Orderhive is a cloud-based, multichannel inventory and order management software solution that streamlines the process of selling on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Shopify and many more. It provides its users with a centralized platform from which they can facilitate inventory control, track orders across multiple sales channels, manage sales and purchase orders, and handle shipping and order fulfillment.
Regarded as one of the top ecommerce inventory management software systems in the market today, Orderhive has received the following awards and recognitions:
2017 – “Purchase Order Reviewers’ Choice Award” from Software Advice
2018 – “Rising Star Award” and ‘Great User Experience Award” from FinancesOnline
2019 – “Fastest Growing Software”, “Most Popular Software” & “Most Searched Software” from SaaSworthy
2020 – “Best Support” from Software Suggest
Founded by Franz Jordan and Josef Vataman in 2014, Sellics is a suite of inventory management, marketing and analytics tools that can optimize key performance metrics to drive sales and increase market shares on Amazon. Sellics’ all-in-one software platform enables users to analyze profits, optimize product listings, and manage their inventory, Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaigns and reviews. Regarded as one of the leading Amazon retail analytics software solutions in the market today, Sellics reports that its users see a 1.6x ROI for their Amazon PPC campaigns and a 42% increase in revenue (on average after 3 months). It currently has 4,000 users, and a customer satisfaction rate of 93%.
Founded by Brandon Levey, Jake Gasaway and Michelle Laham in 2011, Stitch Labs is a leading cloud-based multichannel inventory management software solution for high-growth brands and retailers. Stitch was designed to answer all the operational demands of a multichannel retail business by providing automation, centralized inventory management, and in-depth analytics. Currently one of the fastest growing inventory and order management platforms in the market today, Stitch Labs processes 26 million orders and generates $4.5 billion in merchant transactional revenue per year.
Founded by Kevin Loomis and Laura Bell Greeno in 2013, Ecomdash is a multichannel inventory management software solution geared towards small and mid-sized sellers. It provides users a unified platform from which they can easily manage inventory, product listings, sales orders, shipping and fulfillment. Known for their dedication to supporting the growth of small businesses, Ecomdash has processed over $3 billion in sales orders, and currently manages over 35 million SKUs.
Founded by Andrew Mulvenna and Chris Tanner in 2007, Brightpearl is a multichannel retail management system software geared towards high growth brands,retailers and wholesalers. Brightpearl functions as a unified platform from which multichannel sellers can automate and streamline the vital processes of their retail operations such as inventory and sales order management, shipping and fulfillment, retail accounting and many more. Regarded as one of the leading merchant services providers today, Brightpearl currently provides its services to more than 1.4K business owners, and has processed over $2.5 billion in merchant sales.
Founded by Philip Jepsen in 2014, ManageByStats is a suite of integrated Amazon selling tools which primarily delivers powerful performance analytics that enable Amazon sellers to make quick and intelligent data-driven decisions to increase their bottom line. This comprehensive FBA toolkit is a multi-faceted software solution, and also has the capability to automate and streamline tasks related to Amazon inventory management, customer relationship management, listing optimization, marketplace and product research, financial reporting, PPC Campaigns management and many more. Considered to be one of the leading providers of Amazon Seller solutions today, ManageByStats currently has over 5K active users, and has managed over 245 million transactions that have generated over $3 billion in revenue.
How Do I Choose The Best Inventory Management Software For My Business?
A good inventory management software system should fit your business like a glove, so before you dive in and start spending money, it’s best that you take some time and ask yourself some quick questions to narrow down your options so that you can find the best system for your business.
What phase of growth is my business in?
The software system you pick must be suitable for the size of your business. If you are a small seller and you decide to go with an enterprise solution, the price tag will destroy you and the complex features of the software will probably be of very little use to you. On the other hand, if you’re a big company and decide to go with a platform designed for smaller sellers, your business will immediately outgrow the system and you’ll end up wasting time finding another solution that will address your needs, migrating your business data, and undergoing the onboarding and learning process.
What are the needs of my business?
Obviously, the right software solution should be able to completely address the most immediate needs of your business. As mentioned in the previous section, while inventory management software solutions may share common features, specializations and capabilities may vary greatly. Make sure that the features and capabilities of the software system you choose aligns with your business needs that you want to focus on.
Is the software platform a scalable solution?
As your business grows, its needs change. Is the software equipped to handle the evolving needs of your business? Does it have plan tiers with more advanced solutions and features or will you need to look for another platform once you hit a particular level of growth?
Can I afford it?
Sure, you think you’re ready for an inventory management system, but does your wallet agree? These solutions require a serious financial commitment and you might want to check your financial resources before taking the plunge.
We hope this quick guide helped you in your search for an Ecommerce/Amazon inventory management software solution, and if there’s something you’d like to add to the discussion, post a comment below!
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