Keep track of your stock with store inventory control

The success of any product-based business relies largely on the quality of inventory management. As inventory represents one of the biggest costs of doing business, having good control of your stock is one of the most important ways in which you can protect your investment. 

Whether you sell your products in online or offline stores (or both!), achieving effective store inventory control is key to ensuring the financial health of your business, the satisfaction of your customers, and cost-optimizing operational efficiency, as well as smart, data-based business decisions. 

What is store inventory control?

Store inventory control is essentially about keeping track of the stock of products in your store. You need to know:

• What items are located where
• How many of them there are
• How many of them are needed, and where
• Which products are selling from which storefront
• Where is customer demand increasing or decreasing
• How to best distribute your products between your storage and your stores

That’s all necessary, so you don’t run out of anything or end up holding on to much more than you’re likely to sell.

Your mission here is to maintain an optimal balance between how much inventory is readily available to satisfy customer demand, while making sure you are not overstocked. You also want to avoid running dangerously low on anything and risking a stockout that might translate to shipping delays and unhappy clients. 

How do you control store inventory?

Store inventory control is a complex process that requires you to keep an eye on multiple aspects of your business. These tend to operate interdependently and influence each other over time, which makes it all the more important to make sure you are using the right tools for the job. Here is what the process entails:

• Stock tracking — You’ll need to keep accurate records of item quantities, locations, and movement
• Demand forecasting — In order to optimize the stock level for each of your stores, you’ll have to analyze and predict customer demand trends
• Purchasing and ordering — Ideally, you’ll purchase the right quantity of products at the right time to align with the conclusions of your demand forecasting analysis 
• Receiving and storing — Track the handling of incoming stock and have your storage organized so that it is easy to pick and ship
• Stocktaking — Conduct physical inventory counts regularly to verify the accuracy of your records
• Inventory valuation — Determine the value of your inventory to ensure a healthy financial situation

Challenges of store inventory control

There’s no sugarcoating it — if store inventory control sounds challenging so far, it’s because it is. Although with the right tools at hand, you are certainly going to get the hang of it, there are some issues that you might come across, that you should keep in mind and be prepared for: 

• Data accuracy — Getting correct information about product quantities in all of the locations you manage can be tricky.
• Preventing inventory loss — Figuring out the right strategy to protect against theft, damage, or spoilage can be a trial-and-error process, but it is essential to persevere.
• Product returns — You are very likely going to have to deal with items being returned, which can complicate store inventory control.
• Demand fluctuations — Guesstimating future trends is understandably daunting, but employing the right tools for analysis helps you.
• Supply chain issues — We have all become acquainted with the far-reaching ripples of supply chain issues, in recent years. They can swiftly impact your store inventory control and are one of the hardest wildcards to hedge against.
• Human error — Mistakes can happen in data entry or stock counting that are likely to lead to inaccuracies in your store inventory management.

Benefits of store inventory control

If you have considered the challenges you might come up against and developed strategies to overcome them effectively, you are sure to collect on the many benefits of good store inventory control. Benefits include but are not limited to:

• Cost optimization — Efficient store inventory control prevents or minimizes stockouts and overstocking, which optimizes your inventory investment and profitability.
• Reduced losses — Minimizing (or preventing altogether) any theft, damage, or spoilage of inventory is one of the most important ways in which you protect your investment.
• Efficient operations — Streamlined inventory management helps you and your staff save time and resources.
• Customer satisfaction — Staying ready to meet customer demand in a timely manner and with good service is a sustainable strategy to enhance customer satisfaction.

Manage your stock effectively with Katana

Running a successful business is not a light undertaking. With a full understanding of that and great respect for all hard-working dreamers and entrepreneurs, Katana cloud-based inventory management solution provides all of the tools you need for effective store inventory control, and more!

Accurate data management

No matter the size of your business, the quality of decisions depends on the quality of the data they are based on. With the tools that Katana offers, it is easy and convenient to qualify, track, sync, and manage data on all your operations. You can monitor inventory in real time, facilitate regular stock counts, and easily adjust or correct data across all departments. 

Demand forecasting

Katana planning and forecasting features offer valuable insights that help you predict customer demand and avoid any delays in fulfilling orders. Easily use past sales data to predict future demand trends for various items in multiple locations, identify reliable seasonal trends, and confidently make data-driven decisions that maintain optimal store inventory control.

Multilocation support

With Katana’s multilocation management support, you can easily and conveniently know what inventory is located where, track what needs to be elsewhere, and distribute it effectively for timely order fulfillment and enhanced customer satisfaction. 

Multichannel inventory

Katana’s inventory management tools help you keep track of stock levels for both your online and offline sales channels. Easily follow purchase and sales orders, set up reorder points per your planning and forecasting analyses, and maintain end-to-end traceability for all the items in your inventory to ensure seamless management and efficient control. 

Cloud accounting 

Synchronize your inventory and accounting to help you deal more easily with any order returns, inventory write-downs, or write-offs to track costs, maintain accurate inventory valuation, and base your store inventory control strategy on real-time data analysis. 

Ecommerce integration

Put Katana at the heart of your operations management, with seamless integration of all your business tools and online stores. Easily set up and configure the custom workflows you need to help you maintain optimal store inventory control. 

Reach out to request a demo and discover the wealth of strategic advantages your business can gain by employing Katana software solutions. 

Ioana Neamt

Contributing Writer

With more than 10 years of copywriting experience, Ioana has a fondness for longform writing, investigative journalism, cats, and Victorian-style mansions.