A large chunk of the revenue stores generate depends on how efficiently they can sell inventory. By procuring the right stock at trending times, retailers witness a good amount of sales. Otherwise, there emerges a series of obstacles preventing smooth inventory turnover. To ensure the frictionless sale of stock, retailers need to monitor and control inventory right from when they arrive at the store. The entire process is known as inventory management.
Critical operations that fall under inventory management include tracking inventory, keeping an up-to-date record of their movement, and optimizing purchases. Conventionally, retailers use spreadsheet software or paper-based tools to oversee all of those operations. But, they are incredibly slow tools. Not to mention, they open up room for errors.
Today, dedicated inventory management software solutions are available. And the best kinds have automation capabilities. Investing in them benefits retail stores in several ways.
In this article, we talk about what an automated inventory management POS system does and why they’re critical for you. Let’s get started.
What an automated inventory management solution can do
Inventory management software boosts the operational productivity of stores using a set of automation features. If you consider purchasing one, here is a list of modules worth ensuring in your system.
Auto reordering of stock
The stock in your inventory exhausts over time. Some more frequently than the others. Fast depleting stock calls for the repurchase of those items on time. Oversight in restocking goods is a common problem when you do it manually. That’s not the case with an automated inventory management solution. The software lets you set reorder points. So when the stock count reaches a minimum threshold, the software automatically sends out purchase forms to suppliers.
Inventory analytics
Managing inventory leads to the accumulation of a large volume of raw data. You gather it at many critical points – during stock procurement, sales, etc. By consolidating them and applying an appropriate formula, you can deduce insights from the raw data. Again, manually performing this task is time-consuming. Automated inventory management solutions can generate comprehensive analytics within a few seconds. Furthermore, it helps forecast sales trends and customer behaviors.
Omnichannel inventory management
In the present retail industry, customers shop through many sales channels besides the brick-and-mortar stores way. Shopping via eCommerce, social media, and messenger apps are gaining rapid traction. Keeping tabs on stock levels across those sales channels is easy when you have an automated inventory management solution. As you make sales, receive returns, and more, the software will automatically record and update the latest stock count in its database.
Inventory notifications
Automated inventory management Point of Sale software sends notifications to you and your customers. To you, it conveys critical alerts such as slow-moving stock, fast-depleting inventory, etc. And to customers, the notifications convey inventory availability, dispatch of deliveries, etc.
Benefits of using an automated inventory management system
Let’s look at how the features of automated inventory management solutions translate to benefits for your business.
Minimizes costs
Manning a lot of employees to perform inventory management tasks increases overhead expenses. The more extensive human resources you use, the more negative impact it will have on your profit margins. With an automated inventory management solution, you can minimize human labor and rely on the software.
Eliminates errors
Inaccuracies in managing inventory can lead to disasters in the long run. Mistakes in placing purchase order requests, or updating inventory count can lead to out-of-stock scenarios. An automated inventory management system eliminates such possibilities by replacing manual labor.
Saves time
A dedicated inventory management solution with automation features performs complex operations much faster than an average human. On top of that, the software can work tirelessly unlike human resources.
Summing up
Automated inventory management solutions were systems that only large enterprises could afford. Today, small to medium-scale businesses can purchase one at cost-friendly prices. A wide range of automated inventory management software systems is available in the market. We recommend SmartPOS. It is our cloud-based POS software that has industry-leading automation modules. In addition to that, it simplifies the management of various retail activities. Learn more about SmartPOS by reaching out to us for a demo today.