Retail Inventory Management Software

Dead Inventory Stunts Grocers Profitability

Before the rise of the digital era, manual inventorying was the standard, reconciling every sales receipt with inventory was a necessary evil for the retail industry and an especially bothersome one for grocery and convenience store owners.

Considering grocers operate with time-sensitive products, ones with a volatile shelf life, finding the perfect symbiosis between inventory replenishment and loss prevention used to seem impossible.

Grocers and convenience store owners are currently operating at an extreme deficit, with online retailers, limited bandwidth of their current inventory management system, and a lack of robust solutions to overcome these challenges:

• Grocers and Convenience Stores are over-stocking when the inventory consists primarily of perishable items, dragging ROI down significantly.

• Nearly half of retailers have no inventory management system.

• Insufficient inventory management is one of the leading causes of business failure.

Grocers and convenience store owners require a solution that will boost productivity and reduce significant loss from expired inventory.

Automated inventory control for grocery and convenience stores is crucial to their bottom line. When dealing with perishables they need to accurately account for optimal stock levels. Overstocking leads to expired, often referred to as "dead inventory", while under stocking leads to a loss of potential profits and decreased customer experience. Grocers were in desperate need of a solution that will continually monitor inventory and provide intuitive promptings based on that data.

Software providers with intuitive inventory management solutions can capitalize immensely by servicing this market.

In order to prevent inventory expenditures and draw traditionalists away from time-intensive manual inventory practices, inventory management software providers must deliver superior software that completely automates the inventory process allowing grocers to accommodate the digital trends in grocery by opening up new channels while continuing to optimize in-store supplies.

Smarter Inventory Tracking

• Sales Forecasting Modules

Sales forecasting is important to all businesses, but to a grocer or convenience store owner, the ability to predict future sales based on existing sales trends is paramount to ensuring stock of each item is high enough to meet demand without inventory loss due to expired goods. Traditionally, grocery managers would make inventory procurement predictions based on subjective values and guesswork.

It's no secret that mismanaging inventory is the accelerated path to business failure—the overhead skyrockets without the increase in sales to match.

The capacity to predict future sales based on existing sales trends is the key to consistently meeting stock demands without exceeding them. Because goods in the food and beverage industry have little to no shelf life, a supply significantly exceeding the demand is synonymous to loss.

• Automatic Stock Replenishment

Automatic stock replenishment incorporates computer-assisted replenishing systems, eliminating human intervention, and in turn reducing data corruption. Rather than entering data by hand, inventory management software generates purchase orders from historical data to reduce labor costs and improve order accuracy.

Knowing exactly what to stock and when to minimize carrying costs, damages, and the inherent loss from goods that expire before they're purchased. Rather than operating independent of the preexisting POS system, the automation must be configured in conjunction. The automation software functions at its highest capacity when it's integrated into a mature base system, and must include functions that:

• Establish minimum stock allowed

• Establish maximum stock allowed

• Operate a replenishment timing system

These add-ons alert managers on depleting stock and issue replenishment suggestions, while also computing an Economic Order Quantities (EOQ) report listing suggested additions to inventory, while consolidating purchase orders for multiple items from a single vendor. A custom reporting dashboard could be programmed to track critical KPI's including Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), turnover rates, and net profits.

• Custom Inventory Integrations

Tracks receipts, purchase orders, invoices, packing slips, and bill of lading—everything an accountant or personal assistant does, but without the nagging and in real-time, and while tying all the applications grocery and convenience stores use to manage business.

Inventory management systems can be offered modularly from an overall ERP system. ERP systems will help tie together all the applications grocery and convenience stores use to manage business including human capital, supply chain, procurement, sales, CRM, and accounting functions.

• Cloud-Based Storage

Cloud-based storage unsurprisingly turns out to be a viable resource within the retail industry as well Giving merchants the power to easily access inventory from anywhere with internet connectivity—visibility from desktops, mobile devices, and wearable technology.

Revitalizing Quality Assurance with Automation

Inventory management software is the bridge between supplier and consumer, a means of anticipating needs and catering directly to emerging trends.

Implementing an inventory system software gives businesses the advantage to plan ahead by monitoring trends and cutting loss. Developing custom software can help improve your individual pain points while migrating with what already works for you.

Developing a software that aligns with the growing demands of grocers and convenience stores could allow your software to stand out among competitors. Chetu's inventory management software services ensure inventory syncing, visibility and quantity adjustments with precision detail.