3 Key Tips for Cost-Effective Warehouse Inventory Management
Having a good handle on the management of your warehouse inventory and stock levels is important for any retail business. Optimising and streamlining your inventory can provide you with a multitude of cost-saving benefits, from a reduction in logistics and storage costs, to revenue uplift from less lost sales orders on old stock. Managing your warehouse inventory with your logistics provider can also help you plan for sales and seasonal products, understand consumer demands and manage your stock orders.
Identify and address ‘slow-moving’ inventory
The challenge with slow-moving inventory is that it can tie up capital while it’s sitting in storage and you’re paying storage costs, which can negatively impact your cash flow. You want to avoid items losing value and opportunities to make profit while they’re sitting on shelves. So the best way make the most of your warehousing facilities consider the following when organising the production of new stock and existing inventory:
What have the previous sales forecasts indicated?
Have there been market slowdowns for the product in the past? (e.g. seasonal)
Have competitors run aggressive promotions on similar products?
Is there often an excess of stock due to ordering more volume to save per-unit costs?
Keeping an eye on slow-moving inventory trends with your warehoused products can help you make key business decisions, such as organising sales and promotions to sell old stock at the end of the season before a new production is to come about.
Willmotts Transport latest Warehouse Management System software includes the latest AI technology to instantly forecast a product line based on previous sales and where to correctly store within the warehouse. If it’s a fast moving product we’ll ensure we keep the goods in easy reach. Should the goods take a little while longer to move, we’ll ensure that they’re stored high up in our racking, out the way of the day to day hustle and bustle of the warehouse.
2. Track sales patterns and trends
A good tip for managing warehouse inventory is to track sales patterns and trends on all stock and orders. Not only will this historical data help you understand consumer demands, you will also be able to discover patterns with your inventory in the long and short-term. Tracking these patterns will also allow you to understand the turnover during different seasons, promotional periods, upswings and plateaus of your consumers’ demands in comparison to inventory costs to make more informed business decisions.
Flexibility is key when working with a reputable logistics provider. With this data, you can work together with your logistics provider to find a more tailored, efficient and cost-effective storage solution to suit your business’ ongoing needs and avoid the negative impacts of mismanaged inventory.
Whether it’s a single case or a thousand pallets, we have the capacity and structure to offer the best solution, at the best time to help you streamline your business.
3. Utilise industry-leading warehouse management systems
A key way to optimise your stock control is by working with a warehousing facility who utilise up to date and technologically advanced warehouse management systems (WMS) and keep up to date with systems and processes to best utilise these systems.
Older inventory and warehouse management systems are less streamlined, don’t always show the most up-to-date inventory movement information, and can cause headaches from a certain amount of lag. For example, new systems allow your logistics provider to tag products so you can receive real-time updates on your products at all times throughout the supply chain process for better inventory control. This is especially important for fast-paced supply environments, where real-time visibility of inventory can help reduce unnecessary communications by phone or email to verify quantities.
A reputable and advancement-focused logistics provider will enable your retail business by allowing you to streamline all areas of your supply chain from warehouse management to distribution, allowing you to invest more time, effort and money on your larger business goals.
By partnering with the very best in warehouse technology, not only for our physical system but our warehouse scanning hardware and up to date periodic staff training we’re able to offer a high level of continuous improvement to you, and your business.
For more information on how the Willmotts Transport team can help streamline your business’ logistics needs, get in touch to have your questions answered and receive a tailored quote, here.