When you have stock in multiple locations, it can become hard to keep track of it all. You don't know what's selling. You also don't know what's sitting in a warehouse catching dust. If you're using a manual system, chances are stock control takes up a lot of your time. You might feel frustrated and out of control. That's because you're losing out on opportunities to maximise your business' potential.
Automated stock control systems like Profit4 can streamline your processes, helping you to see at a glance what's selling - and what isn't. With 42% of warehouses expected to invest in automation and technology, the importance of automating your stock control is clear. In this post, we'll take you step by step through the key features, including how you can utilise them for your business.
Profit4's automated stock control system
Profit4's automated stock control system cuts down on unnecessary processes. But how exactly does this work? Profit4 has several key features that make keeping track of your stock easy and efficient...
Multi-channel stock updates
It's not just your warehouse team that interacts with your stock. Your sales team will be taking orders. Meanwhile, customers will be buying from your trade stores and eCommerce sites. With a manual system, each department needs to be updated individually. Naturally, this can quickly become unruly. You might even lose track of your stock altogether. If a customer buys something in your eCommerce store and this isn't updated for the warehouse team, it could lead to unfortunate stockouts and delayed orders.
Meanwhile, with Profit4's automated stock control system, all of your sales channels synchronise simultaneously. So, if an item is sold in a trade store, your stock levels are automatically reduced across all platforms to reflect the sale. No need to update your warehouse or sales teams. If you sell multiple items in kit form, you'll also have the option to create a bill of materials. This ensures the stock levels of each component are automatically updated. Plus, you'll have full visibility of all operations, including shipping and returns.
Stock control over multiple locations
As well as being able to synchronise your stock over multiple channels, you also need to maintain control over multiple locations. This potentially includes several warehouses, trade stores and pop-up shops. These locations could be on different sides of the country or across the globe. This makes it a challenge to keep up with incoming and outgoing stock using a manual system.
With Profit4's automated stock control system, you'll have an at-a-glance view of your entire inventory, spanning both digital and physical locations. Whenever a product is sold and shipped, moved within or between warehouses, or returned by a customer, the system will be automatically updated in real time. You'll also be the first to know when stock is low in any location.
Tracing the location of your stock is easy. Our system can pinpoint the exact bin location for each product, as well as provide a sequenced picking note that advises an optimum route for picking. This saves precious time on order fulfilment.
Automatic purchasing
Stockouts can be incredibly damaging to customer loyalty and company reputation. According to one survey, 30% of consumers feel that stockouts actively hurt their shopping experience. If a popular item frequently goes out of stock, customers are likely to become frustrated and look elsewhere to buy what they need. Profit4's automatic purchasing features make stockout worries a thing of the past.
For example, you can automate restocking for items that fall beneath a certain stock threshold. The items will then be re-ordered automatically or added to a shortages list for bulk orders. There's also the option to set automatic re-ordering to maintain stock at minimum, maximum or optimum levels, depending on your specific requirements.
