Ensuring everything in your business runs smoothly is one of the best ways to ensure all your customers remain delighted with your service.
Even small businesses have many moving parts behind the scenes that directly and indirectly affect how well you can serve your customers. Fortunately, business management software helps you streamline your processes to deliver a reliable, trustworthy service day in and day out.
Maintain Healthy Stock Levels
There’s nothing much more irritating to a customer when they can’t find the stock they need. There are always going to be the occasional supply problems that are out of your hands, but a business management suite keeps those instances to a minimum.
Careful management of your supply chain is tough to do without the right tools. Having critical data at your fingertips will give you tighter control over vendor management and purchasing.
It’s bad enough keeping track of suppliers when you have a few in your contacts lists. You also have to know what you get from who and at what prices. Your suppliers will overlap on the products they sell, making it difficult to keep track of which has the best prices or stocks the highest quality brands.
Altheasuite makes the difficult job of vendor management relatively straightforward. With the click of a mouse, you gain instant access to all the data you need on a vendor, such as what you purchase, the prices, their minimum order quantities, and payment terms. You can also keep track of critical data like which suppliers managed excellent turnaround times and had the best deals.
Information is centralized and simplifies the procurement of your key items so you can keep your production lines running smoothly.
When you are purchasing from your most reputable suppliers and getting the best deals, you can pass those savings on to your customers or ensure they always have access to the highest quality products. You also show yourself as a reliable source of what your customers need, which creates a lot of incentive for them to keep using you rather than your competitors.
Avoid Stock Shortages
You can’t be everywhere at once, but with Altheasuite, you don’t have to. The software can sync with your inventory levels, and when the stock drops to the point you specify, it can automatically trigger a purchase order for procuring more stock.
Setting when a purchase order triggers according to stock levels allows you to build safeguards into your ordering system. Should your supplier be out of stock or waiting on a purchase order, your safeguard will give you enough warning so you can wait for your supplier to replenish their supply. You will also have enough notice to procure more stock from an alternative vendor, should that be an option.
Managing Multiple Distribution Platforms
The modern business is operating through multiple sales channels. Maybe you are selling out of a physical location, but you are also selling on eBay and have started testing Amazon.
Every vendor will have different fee structures that can make it difficult to know how much profit you make on each platform. You could be creating a tidy profit on eBay but losing out on Amazon.
Naturally, you want to maintain a consistent price point over all of your platforms, so how can you ensure you are making enough profit on all your distribution channels? Using an inventory management system to compare your purchase costs with your selling value, highlighting any inconsistencies and showing you areas that need to be fixed.
Selling on multiple platforms can make inventory control more of a challenge as well. You started with 20 products on the shelf. They took off on eBay, and you sold 18. Then Amazon caught you by surprise and ordered three more, but you only have two, and you also haven’t placed an order for more stock.
As you can see, managing your inventory across multiple channels becomes a real challenge, especially if you are also trying to maintain inventory in a physical store as well. You end up spending most of your day juggling between systems at the risk of annoying your customers because of your inefficient inventory management.
You don’t want to risk losing customers by overselling and getting mediocre or poor reviews. Overselling and overstocking are severe issues and collectively cost companies billions of dollars every year in the U.S alone. Globally, the losses add up to the trillions.
While overstocking creates the lion’s share of revenue losses, overselling also delivers its fair share of problems. If you are selling big-ticket items worth several thousand dollars, the loss of even one sale creates a significant dent in the profit and loss statement.
You can overcome all these challenges by using inventory management software that combines everything into one system. It will improve your vendor management and ensure your supply chain operates smoothly, so you never have too much or too little inventory.
Reduce Human Error
Inventory management software helps reduce the incidence of human error. For example, an ordering system that tracks products going out the door and places an automatic order on low stock minimizes the chance that a human will overlook that product and not place an order. Products put in the wrong warehouse location are also the source of a lot of stock inconsistencies.
When new orders arrive in the warehouse, automating the process helps to ensure that all stock is accounted for. An employer simply needs to scan a barcode, so the new stock is automatically entered into inventory. A system like this prevents data entry errors, such as when employers enter the wrong digits on a keypad.
The digital world has made commerce fiercely competitive, with consumers able to locate the best deals at the touch of a button. Vendor management, efficient stock procurement, and maintaining an effective supply chain are key areas where businesses can reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Business management solutions like Altheasuite provide the means to streamline every aspect of your business and keep your customers loyal to your brand.
