Best Inventory Management Software

Buyer’s Guide to Inventory Management software

This buyer’s guide for Inventory management software is intended to provide users, businesses, inventory managers, and the software enthusiasts a complete all-in-one information source to understand the key essentials they must weigh upon before initiating to buy an Inventory management software. It covers all the major aspects, terms, features, metrics, and the required analysis that one must know thoroughly before venturing to purchase an inventory management software for ones’ business needs. This guide enlightens the readers to make an informed decision about their technological needs regarding the management of the inventory-their most valuable asset.

 

 

What is an inventory?

 

Originally, inventory meant the list of items in stock, but today inventory has become synonymous with the stock itself. All the items in the stock that are being stored or packaged or transferred for selling purpose in a normal course of business operation are referred to as inventory.
Inventory is generally measured in units determined for that particular stock. Inventory is an important variable in supply chain management.  It is an asset that can be converted into liquidity for profits.

Examples of inventory:

For a Supermarket, the items on the shelves such as a one-liter bottle of soft drink are inventory, and it is measured in liters or units (number of bottles available). Similarly, for a bank, cash held for loan purposes is inventory, and it will be counted in currency notes form. For a theatre, the seats are inventory, and they are counted as a ‘number.’ For a research company, unpublished reports that the company intends to sell for profit is an inventory. It will be measured in the number of reports available, and it will be assigned a monetary value by virtue of its quality. For a petrol pump, the petrol and diesel stored in their tanks are inventory. For an IT company, software solutions are their inventory. It can be counted as a number of subscriptions available. For a commercial water reservoir, the available water in gallons/liters is their inventory.

 

Types of Inventory

 

Raw Materials

Businesses buy and store the materials used in the manufacturing process to produce the finished goods and components.  These are called as Raw material. For example, natural rubber is a raw material for a tire manufacturing company.

 

Finished Goods
The processed goods ready for selling purposes are known as finished goods. For example, a mobile phone set that is ready for shipment to the retailer, whole seller, distributor, or the online/offline customer.

 

Work-In-Process
The raw material that has been sent for processing and the goods that have been processed but only require a final finish is called Work in progress.

 

Transit Inventory
Also known as the Pipeline Inventory, transit inventories are goods that are being transported from one warehouse facility to the other. Most car companies require a lot of time to transport their automobiles from the warehouse to retail stores. During the transport phase, such inventory is taken into account.

 

Buffer Inventory
Buffer inventory or safety stock is the surplus inventory held by the companies to prevent situations such as stock-outs. This extra inventory helps them to deal with the uncertainty of demands or supply.

 

Anticipation Inventory
Anticipation inventory is the extra amount of inventory accumulated by firms in anticipation of some near term event that will increase the demand for their products. This mainly happens during festivals, celebrations, global sports events, etc. when the demand for particular products increases for a short period of time. For example, during world cup cricket, or world cup football, the demand for beverages increases drastically. So, companies make prior provisions for supplying the extra required products.

 

Decoupling Inventory
In the production process of goods, sometimes a few machines can be down for maintenance or repair. In such cases, the whole production line cannot be halted. Companies keep some inventory in spare to mitigate such scenarios. This inventory is called the decoupling inventory. Generally, this type of inventory is in the form of spare parts and unfinished goods. For instance, if machinery that makes pistons for a car is under repair, then the whole process of car manufacturing cannot be stopped. In such cases, extra pistons kept in the form of decoupling stock would be utilized until the machine becomes functional again.

 

Cycle Inventory
To maintain the Economic Order quantity framework, companies do not buy stocks in fixed quantities every time. To optimize the order set up, installation charges, and the holdings costs of inventory, companies tend to buy stocks in lot or batch sizes (often more than required). This extra inventory is known as Cycle inventory.

 

MRO inventory
The MRO (maintenance, repair, and operating supplies) are the goods that assist in the production process but are not meant for selling. For example, a pharma company making a particular drug may require every employee to change gloves every day for maintaining hygiene standards of the FDA. Though these gloves are not meant for sale, the firm has to keep a huge stock of it, and its cost would be added to the raw material cost of the goods.

 

The Financial value of inventory

 

Inventory is a financial asset for a business. It is equivalent to money if the company is able to sell everything that it has in the inventory. It is the consistent source of revenue for a business, and it is the pivot on which businesses thrive. Without an inventory, businesses can run a risk of missing a sale or making a profit. During difficult financial situations, inventory can fetch a loan for the business by keeping inventory as collateral. In a nutshell, without inventory, business operations are at risk.

 

Inventory as a part of Supply Chain Management or Logistics

 

The supply chain management or the logistics in the business world refers to the various phases through which goods and products move and transit from the initial point supplier to the end customer. Healthy customer and vendor relationships are not possible without effective supply chain management. The inventory being transported is integral to the supply chain as, without it, there is no need for the whole logistics process. It is the inventory that balances supply and demand in the supply chain. Inventory movement is not just a salient feature of the supply chain but a salient focus point that makes the whole range of other business operations possible.

 

 

What is inventory management or inventory control?

 

Inventory management or inventory control is the function responsible for all activities, decisions, and procedures related to stocks, inventory, and inventory movement in business. Organized warehouses, accurate inventory holding, smoothly tracked logistics, increased productivity and customer satisfaction, rare working capital issues, and optimized utilization of all stock resources are the focus areas of inventory management. As inventory is associated with tying up a lot of cash and resources for a firm, its effective management is not only a prudent idea but a mandatory function in business. It is the core idea on which the whole value chain for products is based. Procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales are all non- functional without effective inventory management.

In simple words, all activities and efforts planned by companies to optimize their inventory-related costs will fall into inventory management.

Below are some examples of effective inventory management:

• A company warehouse is shifted to a place near the dockyard so that the time and cost of transportation of the inventory can be reduced significantly.
• If the company decides to elevate the warehouse (located in a flood-prone area) where inventory is stocked to save the inventory from constant flood conditions that leads to inventory spoilage
• A company lowers the production of a particular product as they monitor the analytics and reports generated by its inventory management software and find that the particular product is not selling as much as its group products.  
• An eCommerce company deactivates a product from its website that is no longer available with its vendor as their software has notified that the product reached the refill point.

 

Why Inventory Management is important?

 

Inventory management is important because:

• It helps companies to meet product demands that are larger or smaller than expected. Using inventory management techniques and calculations, companies can make sure that a rational amount of inventory is available at all times.
• It helps to prevent unexpected delays in the supply chain of products.
• It mitigates the issue of the mismatch between the rate of demand and the rate of supply.
• Inventory management will prevent the halting of base operations by using decoupling techniques in case of worn-out machinery issues.
• Effective inventory management will never let your customers, vendors, or suppliers bear the brunt for unnecessary delays.
• It also automatically lets companies buy material when it is cheap and is expected for a price rise in the near future.
• It saves time, and costs for companies as efficient inventory management leads to reduced work hours and backlogs.
• It helps to avoid dead stocks and losing out to competitors.

 

Techniques of Inventory Management or Inventory control

 

Economic order quantity (EOQ)
In the inventory management field, EOQ is the widely accepted technique to approximately estimate the quantity of stock that needs to be ordered. The EOQ is a formula based equation that calculates the minimum and the most economical order quantity when certain inputs are provided. Three variables are taken into account to calculate the EOQ- demand in units (annual basis), order costs (per purchase), and holding costs (per year). There are online calculators available that can calculate the EOQ when these three variables are provided in the input.

 

Just-in-Time
Just in Time technique means companies will buy stocks only a few days prior to the requirement. This helps companies to avoid holding costs, dead stocks, and frozen capital. This technique is risky and can be only used when companies have reliable suppliers who can furnish products at short notice.

 

ABC Analysis
This analysis is very important for increasing profitability by focussing on more valuable stocks more than the least valuable ones. Companies divide their stocks into three categories, where A means most valuable, B denotes somewhere between most and least, and C means the least valuable stock. This analysis helps companies to direct their more time and efforts on stocks bringing in more revenue and profitability to their business. The most valuable stocks should never run out of stock.

 

FIFO and LIFO

FIFO (First-in First-out)
It is the technique of selling the oldest products first. The products that came in the warehouse first will be out of selling first. This helps companies to keep the newest products in their inventory while getting rid of the oldest ones. This technique is a lifesaver in cases of perishable goods and fashion-based goods like dairy products and the currently popular fashion accessories, respectively.

LIFO (Last-in First-out)
This technique is particularly useful when you ordered a product, and it came last, but it was costly than the previous one. This happens in cases of sudden price hikes in some particular products. In such cases, it is prudent to sell the last in first as it was the one for whom the company paid more price. The company can still hold the cheaper one so as it is not difficult for them to sell a cheaper product in the same category.

 

Re-order Point formula
A reorder point formula is the criteria that many firms use to determine the time point when the stock needs to be refilled. This formula triggers the need for reordering stock when the inventory has reached its lowest point. To obtain this point accurately your company should do regular auditing of your stock.
Re-order Point = (Average daily usage rate x Lead time) + Safety stock

 

Batch Tracking
You must have seen batches or codes on products. Mostly all consumer goods come with batch codes. The batch code offers a lot of information about the product. It can be used to trace the manufacturing facility, distribution channel, modes of shipment, etc. This helps when a company needs to recall stocks or find the source of defective stocks.

 

Demand forecasting: Independent and Dependent
There are two types of demand metrics: Independent and Dependent. An independent demand for inventory suggests that the demand for the stocks falling in this category is not limited by any other variable, whereas the stocks categorized in the dependent demand inventory are dependent on external factors and variables for their demand. For example, the demand for accessories of an automobile company is dependent on the number of units sold of that particular automobile.

 

What is lean inventory management?

 

Lean inventory management is a process of minimizing the wastage of time, efforts, and materials and increasing productivity and profitability. It uses various methods like Kaizen (continuous improvement), Kanban theory (move inventory only when requested by customers), Six Sigma (DMAIC-Define, measure, analyze, improve and control), Japanese 5S (Sort, Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain), TIMWOOD (Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-processing, Overproduction, Defect) many more. It focuses on demand management and process standardization to achieve the bottom line.

 

How to manage inventory in multiple warehouses and in different cities?

 

When you have to manage inventory in multiple locations with multiple warehouses, the synchronization and the real-time update of all stocks at all warehouses are essential. Remote data tracking of your stocks at all warehouses will let the staff members communicate effectively with each other and coordinate to create a seamless inventory management system. There are a few strategies that you can use to manage your multi-location warehouses:

• Make a return management system where an item shipped from one warehouse can be returned to another nearest warehouse.
• A cloud-based system allows accessing your inventory information from anywhere in the world. It is prudent to shift to a cloud-based inventory management system.
• Warehouse layout should be carved in such a way that it saves time and space to store, pack, and ship a product. The products that sell quickly and in bulk quantities should be stored near the shipping point.
• Strategies like cross-docking and wave picking can be deployed to save space.
• The geographical location of your warehouses should be planned using a lean inventory management system to ensure that with minimum wastage of resources, goals of reduced warehouse space and low transportation costs are achieved.
• Businesses should use inventory management software that integrates efficiently with third-party logistics carriers to optimize the complete shipping process.
• Automating your supply chain using inventory management software will improve your visibility of the entire inventory at all locations. This will help you keep exact records of all stock count and stock changes in real-time.
• Use techniques such as RFID, GPS, and barcode tagging to monitor and track the stock movement between warehouses.

 

Essential things to know about inventory management

 

Inventory management is an art that can only be mastered when you pay attention to all details and focus on the nuances of its process. While managing inventory for your business, it is very important to keep certain things in mind. Below is the list of essential things to know about inventory management:

 

1. Inventory value
Your inventory is a financial asset. You should know the value proposition that it offers clearly.

 

2. Inventory usage
You should know how much inventory is consumed, moved, and stored every year, every quarter, and every month. You should know in which months the usage is high and which events affect your inventory demands.

 

3. Inventory cycle
Businesses should clearly define their inventory cycle. Right from adding products to your inventory to shipping it, there is a cycle that is repeated every time. Knowing your inventory cycle helps you to manage inventory easily.

 

4. Inventory management components
You should know that inventory management is the sum total of various individually managed entities. One should separately understand the components and their efficient management to be able to manage the inventory. These are-

• Purchase Order management
• Warehouse management,
• Shipping and logistics management
• Procurement
• Packaging
• Product listing management
• Returns management

 

Biggest problems faced in inventory management

 

Problems faced by companies and e-retailers

 

Mispicking items from warehouse

Sometimes when orders are received in bulk, the warehouse employees are overburdened with Work. It may cause to increase the possibility of human errors. A very peculiar issue that most of the e-commerce companies face is that a wrong item was picked from the warehouse.

 

Overstocking(unreasonably high inventory)
Sometimes over-enthusiasm or faulty marketing research causes companies to stock unnecessarily high inventory. In such cases, it is difficult to get rid of the extra stock, and the business suffers financially. Even the new product launches might be halted, and new products won't get placed in warehouses due to limited space.

 

Under stocking(unreasonably low inventory)
The same errors that cause companies to overstock can cause them to understock too. In this case, companies are not in a position to fulfill orders, ship due to products, deliver on time, or even commit in full capacity for the supply of their finished goods to customers. This scenario is also known as backlog

 

Failure to track inventory properly in the warehouse
This occurs when the inventory is not placed properly in the warehouse. The organized warehouses are in a position to track their inventory quicker than the unorganized ones.

 

Failure to track inventory during the logistic process
Companies not using technologies such as RFID, GPS, barcodes, etc. often fail to track the exact position and location of their stocks during the logistics process.

 

Hassles on peak shopping days
There are times in a year when the demand for particular stocks is unusually high. This may be due to an event or hefty discount offered on that product that makes it attractive for buyers. In such cases, the warehouse sees a rush that often creates chaos for the warehouse employees.

 

Backorders
This is the worst issue that companies face when they run out of stocks, and a backorder log is created that causes an increase in distresses customer calls at the customer support center.

Problems faced by customers

 

Delayed Shipments
Customers often complain about their items that were ordered by them did not reach them on time. The issues are mainly due to poor handling of the inventory on the part of the vendor.

 

Complicated Return Process
Goods returned by customers are again part of the inventory. The return process for goods ordered and delivered once is a very complicated one. Especially when businesses are not using any inventory management software to make things easy.

 

Receiving wrong items
Customers who order online often face this scenario. They end up receiving items they didn’t order. Wrong orders are delivered to them due to poor inventory control of the vendor.

 

Not being able to order
Technical glitches in the order process often frustrate the customer who is unable to order online due to technical glitches in the order form or other technical issues with the e-commerce portal.

 

Negative effects of poor inventory management

 

You can infer from section 2.7 the biggest problems faced in inventory management, that the reason for all problems is poor and ineffective inventory management. Now, this leads to a series of negative effects on the company's business. The negative effects that we are talking about range from losing potential clients and missed sales to money loss due to tied up capital and high warehousing costs. The negative impact, in this case, will not be of a short term nature, but it will actually adversely affect the long term sustainability of the business.

 

Most valuable metrics of smart inventory management

 

The inventory metrics are the indicators that provide valuable insight into your operational performance as compared to your peers and the industry average.

 

Inventory Turnover
This metric gives you information about whether you are holding a low inventory or high inventory. If the inventory turnover ratio is high, then you are holding less inventory than required, and if this ratio comes lower than you are holding more than the required inventory. It also suggests that your goods are not selling as required.

 

Customer Order Fill Rate
This metric in percentage form provides you the insight about the orders that are delivered on time to your customers. The ideal rate should be 100%. Below 100% means your customers who have ordered from you are not getting the deliveries.

 

Cost of Holding
The cost of holding inventory is a metric that defines the cost of holding a particular stock unit for a year. This cost takes into account the storage, warehousing costs, general security costs for taking care of such inventories, etc.

 

Average days to sell inventory
This is an essential metric to be kept in mind as it provides the firm an idea of how many days, on average, the inventory is taking to turn into a sale. This is important to find your cash conversion cycle, and based on it, only firms can commit about paying to its lenders and vendors, etc.

 

GMROI
The Gross Margin Return on Investment is the amount of money that a company is earning per dollar spent on inventory. This is directly related to the performance and value of your inventory.

 

Cycle Time
These metrics determine the average days it takes to ship the orders to your customers from the date of ordering. Usually, organizations strive to avoid a longer cycle time as it will cause inconvenience to their customers.

 

Supplier Quality Index
This metrics is used to calculate the accuracy and time taken for the orders delivered to your firm by suppliers. Suppliers that have a high rate of performance are the ones that are delivering you all products/raw material s on time, and you should not let them go.

 

Shrinkage
The difference between the amount of inventory that is documented and the amount of inventory actually available in the warehouse is called Shrinkage. Higher Shrinkage may be an indication of your inventory being stolen or damaged by employees. It can also bring out supplier frauds.

 

Cost per Unit
This cost is calculated by dividing the overall expense incurred on inventory with a number of units available. This metric is very important to determine the selling cost per unit inventory.

 

How to save costs via effective inventory management?

 

Even small efforts taken to remove the bottlenecks of the inventory management system can save huge costs. For example, your business has a shipment capacity of 100 items per day, and you receive orders of 120 items on an average daily. The bottleneck is shipment. By studying and analyzing your inventory management process, you realized that if all order forms are not documented manually, then it will save enough time for two employees to ship 20 more of those items. You buy software that automatically documents all generated orders. Thus, you are saving costs via effective inventory management.

Use best inventory management practices such as drop shipping, multiple-warehouses, wave picking,  third party integrations, cloud-based inventory system, rerouting for backorders or return orders, inventory forecasting, and deploying a complete inventory management software to save costs.

 

Who uses Inventory Management System?

 

All businesses, whether small or large, require inventory management to gain progress and for sustainable development of their businesses. Industries, where inventory management is very crucial, include manufacturing industries, and e-commerce, retail, and real-estate. All startups and medium-sized businesses where there is a significant amount of order inflow should use a clearly defined and strategic inventory management system.

 

 

What is inventory management software?

 

An inventory management software is an application or software suite that assists organizations in managing, tracking, organizing, and optimize their inventory on different levels. It creates a central database to monitor inventory and generate reports to forecast the demand for stocks. Whatever models and systems business is using for their inventory management needs, the inventory management software can help to find inaccuracies and inefficiencies in their models, processes, and the overall inventory system.

 

Why should businesses invest in inventory management software?

 

Businesses often may be reluctant to invest in inventory software due to a lack of perception or presence of false perception. Most businesses might drop the idea of investing in inventory management software, perceiving it to be an unnecessary expense and unwanted burden on their finances. Some also have reservations about the transition from a manual to an automated system due to the conservative policy of their business. Sometimes businesses just ignore the rationality of investing in technology. However, if businesses try to focus on the pragmatic approach towards their business and evaluate the return on investment on such technologies then perhaps they can make a wiser decision by themselves and understand that investing in an inventory management system was the most prudent decision they ever made for the growth of their business.

Accuracy is the need of the hour for modern businesses. The scale at which they transit their inventory through various levels and locations makes it difficult for them to get everything right by working with papers and documents. They need technical assistance to enhance their inventory management capabilities and gaining improved supplier and customer relationships.

With reliable inventory management software, businesses save costs on redundant stocks, dead stocks, or excessive stocks as the inventory management software would prevent all these conditions from happening. It will increase productivity and decrease employee costs by saving time due to automation. The speed and accuracy of the whole inventory value chain will increase, storage costs will decrease, and businesses will see a positive surge in their operational performance.

 

What features one should look before buying inventory management software

 

Real-time inventory synchronization
This feature updates all the transactions related to inventory in real-time. As and when the customer orders a product from your website, the software will update it in all necessary places in real-time. This helps in avoiding double-ordering of the same product. The software is also synchronized with the logistics database so that a change in place of an inventory's location will also be updated wherever necessary.

 

Automation of all e-commerce activities related to inventory
This feature provides time-based inbuilt and custom triggers that can take care of the order and shipment process automatically. Various functions such as splitting an order, confirmation, and follow up emails to customers, order tags, etc. get automatically executed.

 

Warehouse management
Features to manage warehouses will optimize the inventory holding costs. Automated features will reduce the load on the warehouse. This feature provides low inventory alerts, import, and export product information, automated stock picking using the FIFO principle, and warehouse and inventory reports. This also lets users add and manage more than one warehouse.  

 

Integration with other channels and web-based services
This software integrates with other popular channels such as Amazon FBA, and other cloud-based or web-based services.

 

Security and Backups
Inventory management software must provide a secure environment for all transactions. It should also be able to take a backup of all data in secured cloud databases that are accessible to users remotely.

 

Scalability
Most of the software is good to use unless they have to deal with multiple orders at the same time. Software that is able to handle multiple orders on multiple channels and devices is required. So, as your business grows and your customer base grows, the software should also scale past its limits.

 

Accessible on all devices
Today businesses run 24 by 7. To catch up with the need of the hour, business people work on their desktops, laptops, tablets, or even mobile phones to deliver their customers a seamless experience. Inventory management software should be able to work on all devices, and it should have a mobile-friendly light version.

 

Use-friendly
The software should be user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to navigate. It should not annoy the user with its unnecessary complexity.

 

Reliable customer support
Inventory management software has multiple features and might require users to contact the vendors for technical support. Reliable, prompt, and helpful customer support is a must feature for inventory management software.

 

Deactivate a product
This will deactivate a product that is not available with the seller or is temporarily out of stock. This feature prevents the scenario of placing an order by a customer for a product that is out of stock.

 

Bulk changes in the price
This feature allows sellers to change the prices of multiple listed items on their e-commerce site by just one click.

 

Order management
Purchase order form, returns, payments, invoice generation, order editing, pricing, and backorders

 

Product Identification
Barcode Scanning, RFID and other wireless methods

 

Product categorization
Product categorization means that the software creates multiple labels.

 

Multi-location management
This feature provides real-time updates of your inventory and synchronizes all information from your multiple warehouses.   

 

Grouping of Inventory
It is easy to find, manage, and locate inventory if it is categorized and classified in groups. This feature helps in finding similar traits in stocks and then groups them under one label.

 

Online/offline sync
If you are offline and some client places an order for your stock, then this feature allows you to accept that order in offline mode. When you come back online again, the order is updated on your server.  

 

Demand Forecasting
The software should be able to forecast the demand for all products individually based on the available historical data, current business, and future prospectus.

 

Supplier management
This feature enables users to manage their suppliers. It provides the list of all suppliers in one click. It records all the transactions that you are done with particular suppliers. It keeps track of the nearest and cheapest available supplier for your next refill of inventory.

 

Analytics and Reports
The software should provide a detailed analysis of the inventory metrics and present varied reports about all important aspects of the inventory.

 

What is the average cost of inventory management software?

 

The costs of inventory management software depend on a large number of factors such as:

•  Whether it is a cloud-based system or not
•  Features it offers
•  Number of users and admins it allows
•  The quality of service offered
•  The interface and experience it provides to the users
•  The kind of profitability it generates for clients when deployed

These variations can change the approximate costs and estimations of the software, by 100% to 200% or 500%. The SaaS-based products may range from low cost to extremely costly ones depending upon the scalability and number of orders it can process.

The most advanced and complete features enabled software will cost you around $250 per month on an average.

We have come to this figure by analyzing the average costs of the top inventory management software that are listed on the GoodFirms page.  For example, the popular software like Tradegecko will cost around $199 (order limited to 1000 per month) for full plan for small businesses, Orderhive’s business growth plan will cost you around $269 ( unlimited orders) and Zoho inventory’s professional plan will cost you around $ 206 per month (online orders limited to 30K per month).

 

Inventory management software market size

 

Companies that were reluctant to switch from their legacy systems are now changing their policies. They are investing in the software, and this, coupled with the growing popularity and acceptance of e-commerce, will be a game-changer for the inventory management software industry.

According to the best available research in the field of Inventory Management software field, the Global Inventory management Software market size is likely to be around USD $3 Billion in 2024, led by a steady growth of 6% CAGR from the current times.

 

Things to consider before buying inventory management software

 

Inventory management software is a one-time investment that you would do to let your business scale in a positive trajectory. The article has almost discussed everything you need to know about inventory management and the technological needs that inventory management requires. Still, to sum up, the below things should be kept in mind before venturing to buy inventory management software for your business:

1.  Your business goals and the requirements
You need to know what kinds of features you would require for the smooth functioning of your inventory process. If the software doesn't provide the features that you need, then it is useless to buy it no matter even if it has millions of other features.

 

2. Cost of the software:
It is important to rationally choose software after analyzing the cost that you would pay for software and comparing it with the kind of profitability you will achieve after its deployment.  

 

3. Integrations:
Suppose your products are listed on Amazon, and you require to keep a record of all your listed stocks in real-time, then you should first cross-check with the software vendor that the inventory management software can integrate with Amazon or not? If the answer is negative, then there is no reason you would buy the software.

 

4. Flexibility and customization
The software should be able to scale with your growing business, and it should be able to provide you with customized options as per your needs.

 

5. Customer Support
As inventory management software are also as complicated as the inventory management process as a whole, you would always require the prompt and expert advice from your software vendor. Look for someone who has a reputation for providing excellent customer services. Read reviews and feedback from other customers before initiating a purchase.

 

Advantages of free and open-source inventory management software

 

Free and open-source inventory management can prove to be a game-changer for your business. It is totally free to use, so you don’t have to worry about any extra costs before deploying it for your inventory management needs. With no investment, the Return on Investment will always be positive. A lot of free and open-source inventory management software provides the same services and features as the paid ones. With an open-source alternative, you can also customize features and add plugins as and when needed by you.

 

Advantages of cloud-based inventory management software

 

As cloud inventory management software is not dependent on hardware requirements, it is easily scalable. The cloud-based management is more trustworthy than the on-premise software. It can do real-time and remote inventory management. The cost of cloud-based inventory management software is comparatively lower than the on-premise ones.

 

Top predictions of NextGen inventory management

 

Artificial Intelligence is set to change inventory management and take it to the next level.
Companies are using artificial intelligence to determine and forecast the accurate level of inventories required for their businesses. In future artificial intelligence may become so strong that it will be accurately able to forecast everything about inventories.

 

Warehousing by automation and robotic technology
Self-driving vehicles and pickup bots are already in existence. Companies like Amazon are targeting human-free warehouses, where everything is automated. This will be a game-changer if adopted at a global level. This will reduce errors and inaccuracies and would speed up the inventory process like never before.

 

Amazing ordering experience for the customer through customized micro-applications
Applications and software suites are improving every day. With customer requirements and demands, the software companies that provide applications to ease the business processes like inventory management adding innovative elements and new features to the existing ones. There will be a time when companies would be able to track even the minute details about their inventories with the help of these applications and software.

 

Machine learning to forecast the demand for inventory
Machine learning algorithms can analyze past data to forecast future demand for a particular inventory. The progress in the field of machine learning as a subset of artificial intelligence is surely going to benefit the overall field of inventory management.

 

Why to refer to GoodFirms’ list of top inventory management software?

 

GoodFirms researches all software with a focus on the quality, reliability, and the ability of the software. With above 15K unbiased reviews from verified customers and listing of over 9000 services and software, GoodFirms stands as the most reliable source that provides readers with the list of in providing you the list of top inventory management software. GoodFirms has listed the top inventory management software after carefully analyzing their features and prices. It further categorizes them based on their features. Filter options are available to find a sorted list of software based on pricing models, deployment criteria, devices supported, support available, business size type, and available resources. If inventory management is totally unknown territory for you than GoodFirms’ insight will surely prove helpful for you to trail through this. GoodFirms' insights are grounded in effective surveys of the software leaders worldwide, stringent analysis, and the shared reviews of the users.