Essential Features of e-Commerce Inventory Management Software

e-Commerce inventory management software is the oil of an eCommerce machine. Just as oil lubricates and fuels a machine for smooth and efficient operation, inventories play a crucial role in the seamless functioning of an eCommerce business. Properly managing the inventory can bring the maximum returns a business expects. It is one of the most important aspects of a smooth-running online store. This helps track stock levels, improve order management, and ensure maximum customer satisfaction. A dedicated, tailored software solution is a must to tackle the complexities of this digital era. Do you think that developing software with essential tools can help you stand out from the race?

The current market is becoming more aggressive and vicious sometimes, and a wrong move can plummet your presence. Hence, to stay at the front line of this competition-driven market, you should include all the essential features in your IMS that can prevent issues like overstock or stock-outs. However, there are various challenges relating to the software that you must consider before.

Challenges an e-Commerce Inventory Management Software Encounters

Inventory management is crucial as it lays the foundation of a successful eCommerce business. However, a business often faces difficulty managing it earlier because the only mode was paper-heavy or spreadsheets. This has caused several challenges, like failure to track real-time information, over- or understocking issues, failure to fulfill client orders, and eventually loss of sales. This can have a severe impact on the growth of a business.

A worthy solution is often required, which is to create an e-commerce inventory management software to get rid of these inventory-related issues. However, if the software is not integrated with the correct features, it can not provide the information you seek. In fact, it can create some serious challenges for a business that can hamper its growth. Here are the probable difficulties that a business might face if the software is not equipped with the correct features:

Data Inconsistency

If your e-commerce inventory management software is not integrated with the right features, it might cause data inconsistency. Data is crucial, and missing out on this is not worth it if you aim for the bigger picture. Lack of integration with other systems can cause deflection or data silos. This can cause disparity among different inventory levels. As a result, you will get inaccurate reports, which affects the decision-making of your business.

Poor Demand Forecasting

Suppose you failed to include a feature, like predictive analysis or real-time data analysis, that can assist in knowing what a customer wants, what he is looking for in a site, which product he is more interested in, and more. This can lead to issues related to inventory, missing sales opportunities, and decreased customer satisfaction graphs. Overall, this can have a negative impact on growth as a business could face a potential challenge in adjusting to demand fluctuations.

Limited Visibility

For an eCommerce business, gaining accurate information about the availability of a stock is indeed important. Inaccurate data is equivalent to losing the shine and credibility a business has managed to maintain in the market. For instance, if the e-commerce inventory management software lags a real-time tracking feature, and a product named “y” becomes so famous among customers that the majority of its quantity gets sold in days. This later results in showcasing “sold-out” to the most potent customers, and also, with missing real-time information, timely updation of stock won’t be fulfilled. This can impact a business that fails to capture the exact information about a stock and loses its customers.

Multichannel Management Issues

It is crucial that you can track and manage the sales of a particular product in your listed catalog across multiple channels. The e-commerce inventory management software can assist in knowing this when integrated with a feature that can update the status of multiple channels under a single head. If your software does not seamlessly integrate with other marketplaces, like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, or others, you will not get the required data in a certain time. Missing integration or fault in it can cause over/under selling on the platform, while the other showcases stock availability. This results in losing potential customers.

Stock Re-ordering Issues

Every feature is of distinctive importance. For example, automated stock re-ordering assesses the stock level and alerts a business to refill it before stockouts. Failure to include a feature like this can cause dissatisfaction among consumers as they are unable to order their favorite stock from your store, leading to sales loss.

Features Must be Included in an e-Commerce Inventory Management Software

The market is fiercely competitive, and the downfall of various eCommerce businesses is also evident. One reason some businesses don’t succeed in this revenue-first industry because of inappropriate e-commerce inventory management software. A successful business in this industry understands the importance of inventory and its proper management. You should ensure that the WMS you create has a built-in IMS integrated with the most needed features to help you stay competitive. When integrated with correct features, it can help you optimize the stock levels more accurately.  Including the most required features depending on your business requirements can help you overcome the challenges.

Here are some of the must-have features that you should include in your dedicated software solution:

Real-time Tracking

Earlier, when dedicated software was either expensive or not feasible for every business, paper-heavy or spreadsheets were the only way to prepare inventory-related data. Through this approach, businesses get the required information in the middle or last of every month. If the demand for a stock rapidly increases in the middle of any month, so does the supply, which can cause stock-out issues. A vendor could have only that information listed in the papers or spreadsheets, stating it has “x” units left. This can cause a negative impression among customers and can decline your credibility.

This lack of information issue has been resolved with the evolution of warehouse management software, especially its built-in subset IMS. The real-time inventory tracking feature is one of the features that helps online vendors gain substantial information about a stock/s availability. You get complete information on how many units of a particular stock remain. This way, your business eliminates the risk of over or under-stock issues.

Order Management

You must include a feature in your inventory management system to manage the orders you receive properly. This feature is as important as real-time tracking, helping you decide which order is more important and requires utmost attention. You can get all the information about a particular order, like when it is made when it will be delivered, and all other order-related things. This way, a business can efficiently process orders, ship them to the desired locations, and help automatically update the order status.

Categorization

An eCommerce business majorly deals with various products, and if not maintained adequately, it can cause clutter and confusion. Hence, you should consider the importance of a product categorization feature in e-commerce inventory management software. It will help you diversify products under different categories. You can include them in different categories based on color, size, attribute, grade, style, popularity, and more. Better product organization can assist in simplifying the search for a specific product.

Reporting and Analytics

Integration of reporting and analytics features in an IMS can have many benefits. You can get all the required information about a particular product, including how many units are left, how frequently that stock is in trend, how often it requires re-filling, and more. The more information you have, the better the steps you will take to improve the inventory-related requirements. It assists you in making data-driven decisions, which can fruitfully and positively impact the growth of your business.

Barcoding and Tagging

Barcodes can help prevent errors that are manually overlooked. Scanning barcodes will give you quicker answers than manually entering data. Also, having a barcode in place will reduce the further training time of employees, as these require no more than a few hours to master. This helps improve inventory control and allows you to track things from pricing to product details.

Inventory Alerts

This feature can assist you in getting timely inventory-related alerts. You will discover possible problems you might face in the future. These alerts can be related to stock waste, timely optimizing inventory levels, shipment status, or more. By receiving notifications/alerts on time, you can take certain methods to prevent these issues in the near future and help you manage inventory with precision.

Advantages of a Feature-loaded e-Commerce Inventory Management Software

Inventory management sets the tone of an eCommerce business. Improper management of inventory can severely damage the presence of an online business. Developing a mere software is the first step to overcoming this, but the subtle nuance lies in what features you add on. Integrating your e-commerce inventory management software with necessary features can offer various benefits, from better customer relationships to driving efficiency. Here are some notable benefits of feature-loaded software that will help degrade the negative impact.

Better Customer Relationship

Software built to manage inventory, when integrated or optimized accordingly to provide the exact details of the stocks, will help you avoid any stock-related issues. If the stock is sold out, it showcases exactly the same; if not, its availability means showcasing the correct information. This helps avoid delays and long waiting times, resulting in satisfied customers. Simply put, you can offer the products a customer wants on your website because the warehouse team has effectively managed inventory levels.

Data-Driven Decision Making

The correct features installed in the e-commerce inventory management software unlock various benefits, one of which is providing a business with an edge through data-driven decisions. A feature-loaded e-commerce inventory management software with features like analytics and reporting can help a business make valuable decisions based on detailed reports. Reports can be related to the behaviors of users, inventory turnover, historical analysis, and more, providing access to accurate and more reliable information.

Improved Stock Visibility

The real-time tracking feature provides an accurate and clearer view of the stocks you have managed in your inventory. You will have complete information about the availability, deficiency, or outdated stock, helping you make better and much-improved decisions. Plus, this feature can assist in lowering operational costs by minimizing inventory-related waste.

Enhanced Efficiency

Inventory stands as the backbone of a business that deals with selling products online, making proper management invaluable. The majority of successful businesses have built e-commerce inventory management software and integrated the right features into it. This helps improve warehouse efficiency by providing the exact information a business requires to maintain the right quantity of products as a backup.

For businesses managing high volumes of stock, integrating an inventory management system with a warehouse management system (WMS) can further optimize operations. A WMS can enhance storage organization, streamline picking and packing processes, and reduce errors in order fulfillment. By leveraging both systems together, businesses can improve inventory accuracy, minimize delays, and ensure seamless order processing.

Moreover, you can optimize inventory levels by following best practices that ensure products remain available when needed while preventing overstocking or stockouts.

How do you Choose the Right Features for e-Commerce Inventory Management software?

Features play a pivotal role in the success of an online store. While every feature is crucial, this does not mean that you should include each one. Including too many of them can cause latency in receiving timely updates, so it is wise to include the right ones so that you can leverage all the benefits firsthand. Here is how you can find the right features for your e-commerce inventory management software:

Asses Business Needs

The first step is to determine your business’s requirements. Once you have a complete understanding of it, you can ascertain what features are important and what are not. This step will lay the foundation for your in-depth research and help you solve the complex puzzle of including the right features to make a complete picture.

Consider Future Growth

Consider future growth when choosing the features for your custom inventory management software or white-label software. You should choose a solution that can scale with your business’s growing needs.

Prioritize Data Security

Do not add any features to your software that showcase security issues. This can severely impact the protection of your data. Hence, while conducting your research, you must pay close attention to how secure a particular feature would be for your business.

Conclusion

Inventory management software is crucial for an eCommerce business. They are like the lifeblood of a business dealing with the sales and purchase of stocks. Considering the current market needs, having an IMS is a need, not an option. The subtle nuance lies in the features you add to your software. Ensure that all the essential features are included to help you stay competitive and thrive. However, only include the essential features most common to your business needs. You can work with web developers if you find it difficult to determine the right features for your software. Investing wisely in the software solution features is a must to improve your business’ ROI.