In business terms, eCommerce inventory management means the right stock, at the right levels, in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost, and at the right price. Having a firm handle on this important eCommerce operational area allows companies to maintain information on their valuable assets, as well as offer better service to customers.
The eCommerce inventory management process includes controlling and overseeing purchases from suppliers as well customers. It also consists of maintaining the storage for stock, balancing out sales with what is on hand in order to keep accurate tabs on how much product you have available or planned out at any given time–and finally fulfilling customer orders accordingly. Of course, the inventory management of your company will vary based on what products you sell and how they’re sold. But as long as these fundamentals are in place there’s a solid foundation to build upon.
Product inventory is a tangible asset because it represents a company’s revenue in real-time. If an e-commerce store cannot move products from its inventory, it is clearly having trouble making sales. It needs to adjust its operations otherwise it won’t be able to generate bottom-line revenue.
If you sell products online, it is easy to neglect inventory management because virtual sales occur without having to see your goods. Online inventory management allows businesses to track their inventory levels in real-time and analyze sales data quickly. Online inventory management can help companies forecast demand, streamline processes, and account for the inventory in their web stores more efficiently.
Improve Conversion Rates and Customer Satisfaction
Inventory management is brand management, a crucial component that impacts both your operational efficiency and longevity. At its core, inventory management lies in knowing what stock you have on hand, where it is in your warehouse(s), and how quickly that product will come in or leave for delivery–the lifeblood of your business.
Clear visibility allows you to:
- Reduce costs
- Optimize fulfillment
- Provide better customer service
- Prevent loss from theft, spoilage, and returns
Customers develop their confidence levels and other critical aspects of the business relationship in response to how well (or poorly) the business handles inventory. When you consistently have products in stock, this tells customers that you care about their needs. On the other hand, if you run out of stock, even on occasion, this keeps customers waiting. You may miss out on sales entirely. In other cases, you may ship late. In addition to the frustration and annoyance that customers face, you’ll come off as an unprofessional outfit.
As with brick-and-mortar retailing, eCommerce vendors have to design their shopping experiences to focus customer attention. Drawing attention to items that are out of stock sends the wrong message. So does failing to attract attention to the products you want to sell.
Smart Merchandiser is the solution to this problem. Now, merchandisers can visually add and edit product attributes and push them to live without running complex IT processes. More importantly, they can now visually enable, reorder or hide search facets to optimize the shopper search experience and help customers find the right products.
Using a well-executed visual display that brings customers to the products that you presently have in your inventory can increase conversion rates and decrease bounce rates. At the same time, customers who consistently find the products that they are looking for will more likely return to your online store. They may even recommend your platform to friends.
Smart Merchandiser Makes It Easy to View and Manage Your Online Inventory
Imagine the hassle of trying to manage tens of thousands of products via spreadsheets. Product managers assign attributes in these documents, IT uploads them to the site, then edits go through the same process again and again. If there’s an error or missing data, your product will never show up on search engines which means that you’re losing money.
Smart Merchandiser offers capabilities that transcend manual databases and formulas so you can manage your inventory more efficiently. This powerful eCommerce tool eliminates the need for complex tech and pages of cumbersome data and is designed to optimize the sequence of your catalog to encourage higher sales. Simply drag-and-drop products to arrange them on your web page or sort products.
Smart Merchandiser’s visual components revolutionize how eCommerce merchandisers manage their online product catalogs. The solution subtly overlays real-time data from disparate systems onto thumbnail-sized images of the actual products. Merchandisers can now use the power of analytics to make online layout decisions based on up-to-date sales reports, color, size, and inventory fluctuations.
Smart Merchandiser also takes into account social activity as well as promotions by combining real-time analytics with visual assets to generate more efficient layouts that drive conversion rates for merchandisers everywhere. It includes “item management” which allows you to view and edit individual stock-keeping units (SKUs). Publish or unpublish products from your online shop based on inventory levels. For instance, if you run out of a specific color, size, item, etc., then the system can automatically remove the product until you restock.
If you want to move a high inventory level product to the top of the page, you can do so easily. The same goes for moving low inventory level products further down the page. In addition to saving time and resources, merchandisers can experience a 70% increase in productivity and a 20% boost in revenue when using Smart Merchandiser.
Control what, when, and where to display on the screen real estate according to seasonality, buzz meter, sentiment analytics, and inventory to provide the best customer experience. No more back and forth between numerous programs, databases, and spreadsheets to gain insight into how products are performing. Smart Merchandiser further eliminates the need for expensive graphic design resources to create web page mock-ups.
It allows you to create more enhanced online customer experiences and offers an improved ability to respond to market changes with drag and drop simplicity and in real-time. As a cloud solution, Smart Merchandiser supports HCL Commerce (all versions) V7, V8, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC), SiteGenesis, and Salesforce Reference Architecture (SFRA).
As a visual inventory management tool, this app lets you quickly produce the look that you want for your online store. Add a product to as many different categories as you want. Then, when shoppers go looking for products of a given category, they’ll find the products that you want them to see. You can select which colors of products to display by default, down to having separate defaults for each category in which a product appears. These features complement other visual tools for designing your ideal eCommerce site.
Your Smart eCommerce Inventory Management Solution
Inventory management is an integral part of modern businesses. It provides insights into your financial standing, customer behaviors, and preferences for products or services as well as pointers for future trends.
Without proper eCommerce inventory management, you will not be able to sell products and keep track of what’s coming in or going out. When implemented properly an eCommerce inventory management system helps businesses realize many benefits such as understanding sales trends, managing customer/supplier interactions, and providing greater visibility into day-to-day activities which ultimately lead to more informed decisions about future plans.
With Smart Merchandiser, you have a simple but robust system for your website’s inventory management functions. This dynamic platform not only maintains data on your products’ inventory levels but also gives you an attractive visual interface and organizes your store in a manner that’ll optimize the customer experience.
Schedule a demo today and learn more about how to effectively leverage Smart Merchandiser to increase market share and drive profits.