How to get the most out of your eCommerce management software

What is eCommerce inventory management?

Inventory management is a system that helps you track inventory levels, orders, sales and deliveries across your business’s supply chain.

eCommerce management software gives you insights into every aspect of your products, helping you better understand customer needs and business workflow.

Whether you are fulfilling orders yourself or working outside of a warehouse, a good inventory management system will help your eCommerce business:

• Save money 💰
• Reduce time 🕐 on picking and packing
• Easily double check product quality before sending
• Ship products 📦 faster than ever

Every system that you implement should have one goal: to ship more products to customers faster.

Common challenges of eCommerce inventory management

Without some sort of system or inventory management software, your order fulfilment process will probably be inefficient. This means that you aren’t serving customers to the best of your ability! Let’s go through some of the common challenges you might be facing in inventory management.

To identify if stock in the wrong place

If you are scaling and have large or multiple warehouses, you need an inventory system that keeps track of exactly where products are. Without effective inventory management, stock could be in a warehouse in a different part of the country or order fulfilment will be slower than expected.

To identify stock levels

You probably know which of your products sell the fastest. eCommerce inventory management software makes sure that you stay ahead of low stock levels and customers never order something that isn’t actually there.

To avoid wastage

You don’t want perishables and seasonal products sitting on the shelves going to waste. Inventory management can help you see trends and where you need to update or pull back on stock.

To communicate openly with customers

Most customers are probably reasonable people. If something is low in stock or on back order, you can give them an estimated timeline. However without eCommerce inventory management, you will struggle to communicate these details with customers and they will more than likely go to your competitors.

Key benefits of an eCommerce inventory management

A lot of the challenges in inventory management can become benefits with the right software and technology. Inventory software will streamline your order fulfilment and ultimately keep your customers happier (which is the ultimate goal in eCommerce!).

Helps in gathering data

Not only do you need to serve customers in eCommerce, you need to analyze what is working and what’s not. Using software for inventory allows you to monitor trends, bottlenecks, and money drains.

Streamlines processes

The faster you can get orders out of your inventory warehouse the better. 98% of shoppers say that the delivery experience impacts their loyalty to a brand. That starts with getting orders out fast, i.e. not wasting time looking for products and manually entering data.

Effective sharing of information

With a streamlined management process, all the moving parts of your order fulfilment will align. That means that as soon as someone places an order, everybody in the supply chain knows exactly what to do to get an order out fast.

Improves satisfaction

Of course the one of most important benefits of using eCommerce inventory software is meeting customer expectations. You can get more orders out with less errors in less time. Everybody wins!

Features to look for in a eCommerce management system

The short answer is that if you are scaling your eCommerce business, software is the key to your inventory management. Let’s go through a few key features to look for in an eCommerce management system.

Real-time data analytics

Great business owners know that data is the key to making growth-focused decisions. For example your inventory management system should be tracking things like what stock you have and what isn’t selling as much. This way you can figure out what is and isn’t working over time.

Barcode scanning and serial numbers

If you use third party logistics, barcode scanning and SKUs are crucial. This means that you aren’t overselling if you have multiple locations and workers can get products out as quickly as possible.

Real-time inventory value tracking

Not only do you need to know how much stock you have, you also need to track the financial value of it. A good inventory software will help you see where you have financial bottlenecks and where you are losing money on wastage, expensive delivery and inefficient processes.

Supplier management

Your eCommerce product management software shouldn’t just track products going out. It also needs to track incoming products from suppliers. It should be able to tell you which are your best suppliers, which products sell the most, whether products come in on time and at a high quality every time.

How Starshipit integrates with inventory management for faster shipping

Starshipit is an all-in-one shipping softwaware for eCommerce businesses.

You can integrate Starshipit with a warehouse management system (WMS) and optimise the entire fulfilment process from order placement with your vendor to order delivery to your customers.

You can easily process customer orders through Starshipit using your own freight accounts. Typically, Starshipit integrates directly with your WMS or inventory management system. You'll have a main Starshipit account integrating directly to your WMS and courier.

The main account is connected to separate child accounts with different settings to your main account. This allows you to ship from different locations/businesses using Starshipit. Your WMS or inventory management system links to your eCommerce platform.

Using Starshipit alongside your inventory management solution is ideal if any of the following apply to you and your business:

• I run my own warehouse and I’m having issues with inventory which are impacting my business growth.
• I’m looking for a solid foundation to scale my business.
• I’m planning to hire more people in my warehouse to meet demand.
• I sell finished products that are ready to ship.
• If my product isn’t on the shelves, I have no idea if I have stock.
• I’ve reached the initial scale with my business and outgrown spreadsheets.
• I’m having trouble prioritising orders and making sure I have the most profitable items in stock.

Ship smarter, grow faster with Starshipit

Starshipit is the ultimate software for growing eCommerce businesses. Whether you are a business owner managing inventory yourself or a third party logistics company looking to streamline services for customers, Starshipit makes shipping easier than ever.

Book a call with our Success Team to help you ship the smart way, so you can grow faster. Start your FREE 30-DAY TRIAL (no credit card required).