When you have a business, especially an e-commerce business, your success will be far greater if you are managing your products properly. Pictures on websites are a nice touch, but when you are the person responsible for getting the shipment out you have to make sure you have it on hand. You also need a way to track your marketing efforts to see what is working and what is not. It is important to be in full control of your inventory. Properly managing your inventory allows you to know the status of your orders, keep up with inventory numbers, and use reports to monitor profitability.
Order Status
Managing your inventory not only includes the inventory you have on hand, but also the inventory that is being purchased by your customers. It can be very frustrating as a customer to purchase something and have no idea where your ordered product is, or when you will receive it. As the seller, you have the ability to give tracking information to your customers. You also have the ability to track the products yourself. You should manage the transaction from start to finish, and it’s only complete once the customer receives the actual product. Imagine having to refund a product because it is lost in transit. Maybe the product isn’t really lost and was delivered on time. Not all customers are honest, neither are all sellers. Keep the integrity of your business in tact by managing where your products are at all times.
Keep Up With Inventory Numbers
Don’t let yourself get down to your very last item before you get more. What if someone wants to buy 2 and you only have 1? Keep an accurate count of how much you have at all times so that you will know when to reorder. If you are selling several items, it would probably best for you to install a program to help you stay on top of what you have stored. To help me stay ahead of my inventory I use eBay inventory management.
Monitoring Reports
Reports can give you a broad and narrow view of how your business is doing. If you need to know what is selling, what has not sold in quite a while as well as what marketing efforts are driving traffic to your site for purchases, you need software that will generate a report for you. Knowing this information can help you track supply and demand and complete proper sales forecasting.
Conclusion
Inventory management is a big part of selling products and tracking your profit. You can be worry free if you have a program that automates your inventory management. Whether you order you products from other sources or if you create them yourself, you will need to be ready for time sensitive orders. Even long lead items will need a heads up on your end. When considering a program that might beneficial, keep in mind what your needs are. You need a system that will help you track order statuses, track inventory numbers and keep an accurate report of sales and profitability.