Inventory Management: Reducing Supply Costs

Inventory management is an important part of any business, as it helps to ensure that you have the right amount of stock on hand to meet customer demand.

It also helps to reduce supply costs, as you can avoid overstocking or understocking.

In this guide, we’ll look at how to get started with inventory management, the best practices for reducing supply costs, and some examples of successful inventory management.

Getting Started with Inventory Management

The first step in inventory management is to determine what items you need to stock.

This will depend on the type of business you have, as well as the demand for your products.

Once you have a list of items, you can start to track the quantity of each item in your inventory.

This can be done manually or with an inventory management system.

You should also consider the cost of each item, as this will help you to determine how much you should be stocking.

You should also consider the lead time for each item, as this will help you to plan ahead and ensure that you have the right amount of stock on hand when it’s needed.

How To Reduce Supply Costs

Once you have a good understanding of your inventory, you can start to look for ways to reduce supply costs.

Here are some tips for reducing supply costs:

• Negotiate better prices with suppliers.
• Reduce the amount of stock you keep on hand.
• Optimize your ordering process.
• Take advantage of bulk discounts.
• Reduce waste and spoilage.
• Implement just-in-time inventory management.

Tools to help you get started

• ShipBob — ShipBob is a global logistics platform that fulfills ecommerce orders for direct-to-consumer brands.
• Shopify — Everything you need to start, run and scale your business.
• Revel POS — Revel Systems is a POS system that helps businesses streamline operations, increase sales, and provide a better customer experience. It offers features like inventory management, customer loyalty programs, and analytics to help businesses succeed.
• Fishbowl Inventory — Fishbowl’s inventory management and Manufacturing ERP system helps automate and scale your business with popular tool integrations.
• Deliverr — Deliverr accelerates your eCommerce sales with fast fulfillment and modern logistics solutions.
• NetSuite ERP — NetSuite ERP is the world’s most comprehensive cloud-based business management software, designed to help businesses of all sizes streamline operations, improve customer service, and increase profitability. It offers real-time visibility, scalability, and flexibility.
• OrderWise — OrderWise is an all-in-one business management software that helps companies streamline operations, increase efficiency, and improve customer service. It offers features such as inventory management, order processing, CRM, eCommerce, and more.
• Floship — Floship is a global ecommerce fulfillment provider that helps businesses of all sizes to optimize their shipping and logistics operations. They offer a range of services, from order fulfillment to warehousing and shipping, to ensure fast, reliable delivery of products to customers.
• E2open — Supply chain software with a connected network and SaaS platform help you seize opportunities, predict disruptions, and drive efficiency and sustainability.
• JDA Warehouse Management System — JDA Warehouse Management System (WMS) helps companies optimize their warehouse operations, reduce costs, and improve customer service. It provides real-time visibility, automation, and control of inventory, labor, and processes. WMS helps companies increase efficiency and accuracy, reduce costs, and improve customer service.
• Ordoro — Our all-in-one platform helps growing merchants run their online businesses. Optimize your fulfillment workflows with our bulk shipping label creation, omnichannel inventory management, automated dropshipping, and more.
• SalesWarp — SalesWarp offers a distributed order management system for retailers of all sizes to meet current and future customer demands, while optimizing operations
• Orderhive — Simple and Powerful Multichannel Inventory management software to help you track orders, control inventory, create shipments,raise purchases and much more.
• SAP Ariba — Ariba Purchase Order Management helps companies streamline their procurement process, reduce costs, and increase visibility into their spend. It automates the entire purchase order process, from requisition to payment, to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Finale Inventory —
• Vend Point of Sale — Vend is a cloud-based point of sale system that helps retailers manage their stores, track sales, and grow their business. It offers features like inventory management, customer loyalty, and analytics to help retailers succeed.
• ShipMonk — Ecommerce fulfillment for high-growth brands. ShipMonk helps your brand unlock scalable growth with our powerful 3PL software and fulfillment centers.
• Fulfillment Bridge — Simplify your eCommerce fulfillment, get closer to customers with our global warehouses and reduce shipping costs & time from one platform.
• Orderbot — Order management & orchestration made easy
• Veeqo — All in one ecommerce shipping software. Cut the cost and time it takes to fulfill orders with low shipping rates, automation and hassle-free fulfillment tools.
• DEAR Inventory — Manage your entire inventory process from purchasing to sales with Dear’s inventory management software – the perfect solution for growing businesses.
• TradeGecko — Stay on top of your business with #1 Inventory and Order Management Software.
• Coupa — Coupa Purchase Order Management helps you streamline your procurement process. Automate PO creation, approval, and tracking to reduce manual effort and ensure compliance. Get real-time visibility into spend and supplier performance.
• Unleashed Software — Unleashed is inventory management software that helps businesses save time and money. It provides real-time visibility of stock levels, automates ordering, and integrates with accounting and eCommerce platforms. It’s the perfect solution for businesses of all sizes.
• Lightspeed Point of Sale — Future-proof your business with Lightspeed’s POS software. The one-stop commerce platform that helps your business simplify, scale and thrive.
• ShipHawk — ShipHawk is a shipping and logistics platform that helps businesses save time and money on shipping. It offers automated shipping, real-time tracking, and analytics to help businesses streamline their shipping process.
• JAGGAER — JAGGAER’s all-in-one software platform revolutionizes procurement by giving users full control and visibility. Transform procurement in your supply chain.
• OrderCup — OrderCup is an all-in-one ecommerce platform that helps small businesses manage orders, shipping, payments, and more. It offers features like automated order processing, shipping label printing, and integrated payments. It’s easy to use and helps businesses save time and money.
• SellerActive — SellerActive is the best multichannel e-commerce management tool on the market. Automate, optimize and expand your business!
• inFlow Inventory — Get an unfair advantage with inFlow Inventory management software. A complete system to run your small business used by 1000’s. Click for your FREE trial!

Best Practices for Inventory Management

In addition to reducing supply costs, there are some best practices that you should follow when managing your inventory.

Here are some tips for successful inventory management:

• Track inventory levels regularly.
• Set up an inventory management system.
• Analyze inventory data to identify trends.
• Set up safety stock levels.
• Review inventory levels regularly.
• Implement a reorder point system.

Examples of Successful Inventory Management

To get an idea of how successful inventory management can be, here are some examples of businesses that have implemented successful inventory management strategies:

• Amazon: Amazon has implemented an automated inventory management system that tracks inventory levels in real-time and adjusts stock levels accordingly.
• Walmart: Walmart has implemented a just-in-time inventory management system that helps to reduce costs and ensure that stock levels are always accurate.
• Apple: Apple has implemented a sophisticated inventory management system that helps to ensure that products are always in stock and that customers can get the products they need when they need them.