Inventory Management App: An Effective Tool for Inventory-Driven Businesses

The Inventory Management App Is Here to Stay

Just like consumers, small and medium-sized businesses are attracted to tools that can give them competitive advantages while making daily life a little easier, more efficient and digital.

This is especially true for inventory-driven businesses.

Much inventory work consists of time-consuming activities that are still done with manual labor and physical effort. Therefore, the warehouse is an area where you can save a lot of resources with the right tools.

More and more work processes are expected to be manageable on the go, and smartphones have become a fixed part of work life. Software providers are therefore queuing up with apps that can streamline your workflows.

Here, we increasingly see that manual processes around inventory management and order management are digitized and automated via an inventory management app. Because you can save a lot of time and avoid unnecessary errors when you manage inventory work with an inventory management app.

But what are the biggest challenges inventory-driven businesses experience without an inventory management app?

The 2 Biggest Challenges of Inventory Management Without an Inventory Management App

It Steals Your Time

You or your employees spend a large amount of time registering processes related to inventory work. Here, picking and packing work, inventory adjustments, stock count and receiving goods could be mentioned.

It is not very efficient to have to move back and forth between work in the warehouse and the computer screen or notebook every time a count or action in the warehouse needs to be documented.

Too Much Data, Too Much to Lose Track Of

It can easily become overwhelming to keep track of your inventory and the sales orders if you manage your warehouse manually, need to register work retrospectively or are constantly interrupted in your workflow. When things become overwhelming, it creates a breeding ground for errors. And errors are costly.

If you work with incorrect inventory counts, there is a high likelihood that you buy too few or too many goods. If you don’t buy enough products for your inventory, your customers will experience delays in their deliveries. On the other hand, if you buy too many items, you are left with products you can’t sell.

Both scenarios are very costly.

Moreover, the overwhelming inventory management will cause even bigger problems if you need to scale your business at some point. Here, storing even more products and the increased demand will only exacerbate the confusion around your inventory.

However, you can reclaim the lost time, get a much better overview of your inventory and increase flexibility with an inventory management app.

The Benefits of Using an Inventory Management App

1. The Inventory Management App Increases Efficiency and Saves Time

An inventory management app will make many work processes on the floor much faster because you can handle tasks with your phone while on the go. For instance, you can scan barcodes with your mobile camera, so you can register your goods receipts the moment the freight carrier knocks on your warehouse door. You will also be able to scan picking lists for your sales orders while packing.

You might use a handheld scanner for some of these tasks. But it is most likely not connected to your inventory as an inventory management app would be.

Therefore, you have to go to the computer and update the inventory – which leads to double work. On the other hand, the inventory management app will immediately deduct the products from your inventory as soon as the items are picked on your screen.

The entire order handling can also be managed with a few swipes since you can create, pick, pack and send your orders with the inventory management app.

Thus, you save a lot of time by integrating an inventory management app into your workflows.

2. The Inventory Management App Improves Your Inventory Overview

The inventory management app will also be able to give you a full overview of your goods inventories and sales orders in real-time. This means that as soon as you create a sales order or order a specific product for your inventory, an inventory management app will keep you updated with the latest developments in digital dashboards.

Therefore, you can always rely on the goods count being accurate, which reduces the risk of a sold-out stock, incorrect deliveries and disappointed customers.

3. The Inventory Management App Gives You Scalability and Flexibility

Considering expanding your product portfolio or enlarging your inventory as it’s time to scale your business?

Here, an inventory management app will also be a flexible tool for your company. You do not need to go out and buy extra software or pay additional fees for extra data space for the app to accommodate the growth.

Most inventory management apps can handle the functionality required to keep up with more orders and sales orders. At the same time, you do not need to hire a whole administrative staff since the warehouse worker on the floor can register product movements with their phone.

This means that an inventory management app provides you with the scalability and flexibility you need so that you  do not run out of equipment when your business is ready to grow.

Want to Know More About Rackbeat’s Inventory Management App?

If you would like to dive a little deeper into how an inventory management app can help your inventory-driven business, you can read more about Rackbeat’s mobile user.