5 Ways to Improve Your Multi Channel Inventory Management

• Inventory is the heart of a business. Poor inventory management can cost businesses a lot of money and sometimes even their existence. In fact, a news report stated that businesses could lose nearly $1.75 trillion due to mismanaged inventory. And this mismanagement can further increase if you are selling through multiple channels.
• Since the pandemic outbreak, a lot of things have changed and business is one of them. With back-to-back lockdowns and curbs lingering for months, most of the businesses took the e-way for survival. Unlike earlier when their shop was the only sales stop, now they have tied with several third-party apps, like Amazon, eBay, and more. This multi-channel listing complicates the inventory management and supply chain even more.
• A multichannel inventory management solution becomes a must-to-have here. In a few clicks, it syncs the inventory across multiple sales channels like Amazon & eBay. Apart from organizing multi-channel inventory, a multi-channel inventory management system can help you with purchase orders, warehouse management, and shipping management, consequently leading to timely order fulfillment. As a result, it serves as a comprehensive inventory management solution.

Manually managing inventory across multiple channels can be arduous and next to impossible. Let's see how-

• For instance, you make and sell ceramic cups from your shop. Inventory management and order fulfillment, in this case, would be simple as you have a single sales stop. You can sell what you have, making inventory tracking easier. Then, you decide to expand your business and sell inventory across multiple channels like Amazon & eBay. With a multi-channel listing, you have orders coming in from multiple channels, making it difficult to keep a track of stock levels .
• Say, you have 30 cups to sell. You could easily set your stock level to 30 on both the sales channels. Now, you have sold 20 cups from your shop and 20 on Ebay on the same day. And before you could update the stock levels on each of the channel, you have sold 10 cups that you haven't made yet!

1. No more overselling
One of the most common problems of manually managing inventory across multiple channels is overselling. Like in the above example, when you forget to update the number on the online market places, you may end up selling more than you have. This may mislead business owners into thinking they have already delivered the product. Consequently, leading to poor order management and delayed order fulfillment, giving customers a not-so-good experience.

A multi-channel inventory management software can prevent overselling, improving your order management .

2. Better warehouse management
In the case of multichannel listing, it becomes difficult to see what goods and in how much quantity are present across sales channels. Multi-channel inventory management systems keep account of the stock levels. It allows managers to place purchase orders accordingly, so to avoid situations of stock-out, leading to better warehouse management.


3. Track demand
Data is the main driver of important decisions in a business. To optimize inventory and ensure better border management, it is important to understand the demand of the customers.
A multi-channel inventory management system can help you track what is selling the most and least on third-party channels. It helps you to prepare for events like Christmas , Black Friday. All you need to do is go back to the previous year records and track the items in demand. It allows you to place correct purchase orders so that you can cater to customer needs.

A sales channel is one of the most important factors in determining revenue. A sales channel is a third-party website that allows sellers to advertise their products. A correct sales channel can help your business grow faster.

A sales channel can extend your reach, giving you the opportunity to meet new customers. While selecting the third party sales channel, make sure to consider the following things-

The nature of your product
The reach of the third party sales channel
Read reviews on customer experience about the sales channel
Is multi-channel listing giving you desired profit margins

Manually entering the inventory data and updating stock levels across multiple channels after every transaction can be too challenging. It can maximize the room for error and overselling, further leading to poor order management. Mismanaged inventory or poor Inventory Management can dent your profits severely.

Multi-channel Inventory Management software like Shopify Plus tracks your inventory across channels including retailers, wholesalers, and online marketplace. It auto-updates the stock levels after every transaction , minimizing the scope of errors.

In this era of social media, online market players are switching to content marketing to reach their target audience. Content strategy depends on several factors, like social media platform , your product/service and your target audience. Design your content accordingly!

In case of multi channel listing , identify what kind of audience is coming from where before you frame your content strategy.

To know more, read Inventory Management

Stock control system, also know as inventory control system, is a process of maintaining adequate inventory across so to fulfill business needs across multiple channels , while minimizing the cost of holding stock. In short, it includes all functions related to Inventory Management and maintenance.

An automated inventory control system improves productivity of a business. It ensures real time inventory tracking , shipping management , order management . An automated stock control system should support integration with third party apps.

Inventory Management can be tough in case of multiple channel listing . When a business has listed products across multiplesales channels, it becomes difficulty to add product details separately for every single platform.

A multi channel listing software automates the product listings. This allows inventory managers to add product details and description in one place and push it across channels or online marketplaces.

A multi channel software streamlines the process, making Inventory Management easier.