For any business utilising eCommerce today, the sheer number of channels you can use for sales is staggering. In recent years, it has become common for businesses to have content across various fields, from major retail platforms like Amazon and eBay to bespoke platforms like Shopify. No matter what channel a business is using, though, they must focus on inventory management.
Inventory management is vital in the modern world of business. It allows a business to keep track of its stock easily. In the past, we relied on manual stock-taking and check-ups on a regular basis to determine what stock was available. This would often mean taking longer than necessary to give a customer a definitive answer on whether what they ordered was in stock or not.
It would also lead to companies making rash decisions on what to order and what to delay ordering. This might be based on recency bias, where a company would over-commit to buying stock for something that was only temporarily a hot seller. It could also mean that a business missed out on spotting an upcoming trend, meaning that it did not have the supply to meet demand. Inventory management changes all of this.
One of the most common problems when adapting inventory management into a business using omnichannel retailing, though, is ensuring consistency across all platforms. If something sells on Amazon, the stock should be adjusted on all platforms, not only Amazon. This, though, is a time-consuming challenge.
Here are some useful insights to help you make this process easier.
Prioritise Centralised Data
One of the most common mistakes a company makes when implementing inventory management for omnichannel retailing is not bringing data together. Figures should be updated in real-time for any order made through any channel. Whether the order is placed through a website, the mobile app, a phone order, social media, or in-store, it should all work together and update accordingly.
No matter what channel is used, it is vital to ensure that your main priority is to ensure that your central data updates to match. Luckily, omnichannel software can help make this process easier. The secret is to ensure that all of your platforms speak to this central data point.
By making your choice of omnichannel software the primary focus of sales, all data then works in harmony as opposed to being separate data that has to be updated over time.
Consider Your Stock Solution
An immediate insight that you might find revolves around stock. You might find that your new omnichannel solution makes it easier to see that certain stock could be better stored elsewhere. You might find that the locations you use now are suitable for one sales channel but not for all. For example, you might be using a warehouse based in an area that is hard to get to logistically.
With omnichannel retailing, you might find that you get more sales from different locations. As such, you might need to look for a more centralised point where all of your stock can come from. It might make one of your delivery systems, such as local delivery, 5-10% slower, but it will improve all others by a much larger margin. This will help you determine better how to scale your business and where to focus.
Over time, this should absolutely improve your stock solution and make it easier to become more efficient with shipments to every potential customer. Simple things like this are usually only considered after the fact, though, so use the earliest available data on your omnichannel platform to decide.
Prioritise Preferred Channels
While omnichannel retailing allows for sales to come from numerous places, it does not mean that every platform will be equal. Some will be more popular. You might still find that you get more sales through your mobile app than you do social media or more sales in-person via your storefront than you do through other means. That is why you should always look to prioritise where your customers are buying.
Look at the data and see which channels appear to be attracting the most interest from your client base. This will give you an idea of where to promote the most. Always think about the customer experience; if your client base seems happiest buying in one way, then ensure that this gets the highest focus and priority when it comes to marketing and upgrades to the back-end systems that you use.
Always Consider Safety Stock
When your business sells through one channel, you likely have safety stock that is in line with consumer demand. When you begin to expand to new channels, though, the products you need safety stock for change—sometimes drastically. You should consult the data to see what products are becoming the most prominently sold so you can adjust what you need to have safety stock in.
This will make it much easier to ensure that your stock levels are accurate and that you avoid having safety stock for items that are not selling across all channels. Safety stock is great to have to help make sure you can meet demand, but having safety stock ‘just in case’ for every product soon leads to massive storage costs, which eat into your profits. Do not dismiss the importance of prioritising safety stock.
This is often the first lesson that companies moving into omnichannel retail will discover. We highly recommend that you take the time to look at your safety stock and see where you can adjust to ensure that you have enough space for safety stock for all channels, not just one.
Consult An Expert
Lastly, if you are finding it tough to make these adjustments on your own, it might be wise to consult an IT expert. Specialist companies like our team at BlueHub can be just what you need to do that. With our insight and advice, you can make it much easier to commit to an omnichannel-suitable inventory management platform.
We can help implement and perfect your inventory management needs across multiple sales channels. This helps you avoid the usual pitfalls that can hobble your results. Contact us to discuss greater consistency across each sales platform you use. We can make sure you get all of the help and information you need to ensure each platform works in tandem with each other rather than individually.
