For customers, shopping at a grocery store is a straightforward process. All they have to do is pick up items, add them to their carts, and pay for them. To ensure that the shopping journey is efficient, grocery merchants must oversee the smooth functioning of several daily components. The grocery store inventory management process requires keen attention in particular.
The inventory management practices you use to run your grocery store determine the availability of stock for shoppers. It also determines if your inventory aligns with the requirements of your shoppers. Both of those are critical. Any discrepancies in them disrupt inventory procurement, hampering customer satisfaction, and eventually take a toll on your profits.
In the following post, we discuss how you can improve inventory management with a POS system. Before that, we understand the process by covering what constitutes inventory management and the hurdles.
What constitutes grocery store inventory management?
There are several components that go into ensuring proper inventory management alone. The slightest oversights can lead to colossal consequences, if not later than sooner. Let’s look at what processes makeup inventory management in the grocery store.
- Stock procurement – The initial step involves placing purchase orders and arranging stock on store shelves.
- Inventory updation – The acquisition and sale of grocery stock call for regular updation. It improves visibility and supports effective stock management.
- Restocking – Inventory turnover reduces the stock count. Detecting the plummeting count and reordering those items is restocking.
Hurdles in managing grocery inventory
Now that we know the components of grocery inventory management, let’s discuss why executing and overseeing them isn’t as easy as it seems. A number of challenges hinder the efficiency of inventory management. Let’s go over what the key challenges are.
- Overstocking – A significant chunk of the inventory in grocery stores consists of perishables. For example, milk, canned beverages, fruits & vegetables. The purchase of those goods in excess causes spoilage and wastage of inventory.
- Poor visibility – Inconsistent inventory monitoring hinders visibility into stock count. In turn, it leads to poor inventory management choices.
- Low-demand inventory – The goods grocery stores sell should align with customer requirements. Low-demand goods result in low sales.
Why use a POS for improving grocery store inventory management?
Employing traditional, obsolete tools for overseeing inventory is a root cause of shoddy stock management. Spreadsheet software and paper-based tools are inadequate for managing modern grocery inventory. They are manually intensive, meaning they solely rely on store staff for monitoring, updation, and execution.
If you’re using those methods, it’s high time to upgrade. Switch over to POS software for grocery stores. It is a dedicated solution for precisely managing grocery store inventory. Here’s how.
Real-time inventory tracking
Assigning the responsibility of visually inspecting grocery stock count to staff is futile. It opens up room for inspection and data entry errors. On the contrary, a POS system circumvents that problem with integrations. The software can integrate with tracking technologies such as NFC and RFID devices. That offers accurate information on what is available and unavailable in real-time.
Trend forecasting
Consumer behavior changes frequently. The demand for goods is known to change according to seasons and trends. Forecasting inventory demand helps acquire inventory that will become bestsellers. A grocery inventory management POS predicts stock popularity by crawling and analyzing historical sales data.
Automated purchases
The timely purchase of stocks is essential for meeting the demands of customers. Delays in restocking goods keep shoppers waiting for the item. Consequently, customers may turn to another store, shrinking your customer base. On the bright side, a POS system automates the sending of purchase orders to distributors and manufacturers. The application allows you to set minimum stock levels. Items falling below those levels trigger the POS to send out order requests.
Notifications
A POS software solution for inventory management sends you notifications. They pertain to low stock counts, items selling slowly, and other such situations. You can configure how you want to receive the alerts – via SMS, e-mail, and in-app notifications.
Inventory analytics
Finally, a POS system gives you in-depth insights into your inventory. The application gathers raw data and processes them into comprehensive, meaningful reports. Inventory reports shed light on what goods are fast-selling, stock performance, sales, profitability, and more.
The final word
Hurdles in inventory management practices cascade into larger problems that affect retail prospects. Accurately governing inventory at any given time is a hassle-free task with an inventory management software solution. And the best software for the job is SmartPOS. It simplifies the process of managing the critical components of grocery stores. Reach out to our experts to learn more about SmartPOS.