E-commerce and other online marketplaces have grown in popularity over the last decade. This trend has resulted in the development of print on demand warehouse inventory management processes to assist wholesalers, distributors, and retailers in meeting the needs of customers who prefer to buy directly from them rather than manufacturers. Inventory management has become essential for warehouse managers and a critical component of any organization’s supply chain. With over 5 million warehouses in the United States today, including the vast network of secondary locations operated by eCommerce companies.
WHAT IS WAREHOUSE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT?
Warehouse inventory management is the systematic coordination of tasks. These tasks includes receiving inventory items, maintaining stock quality while in storage, tracking stock, packing and shipping orders, and replenishing stock when it reaches a minimum number in storage. All of this directly impacts demand fulfillment, shipping, and the overall customer experience.
WHY IS PRINT ON DEMAND WAREHOUSE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?
1. Enhances the accuracy of ecommerce order fulfillment.
Delays and issues during the ecommerce order fulfillment process will occur if your warehouse is not well-planned and managed. Disorganized inventory, poor picking and packing processes, and a lack of stock control in your warehouse cause most order issues. You can improve order accuracy and expedite order fulfillment by implementing better warehouse management processes and technology.
2. Increases warehouse productivity.
When warehouse inventory is properly stored and recorded, and daily manual tasks are automated, your staff will have more time and mental bandwidth to focus on more strategic tasks like logistics expansion and growth. Thinking about ways to help your employees become more efficient will save you money on labor and allow you to get orders out the door faster and more accurately.
3. Faster shipping and deliveries.
The way you manage your inventory in a warehouse can also have an impact on shipping time. From automating order processing to expanding your distribution network by splitting inventory across multiple ecommerce fulfillment centers, there are several ways to optimize warehousing processes to speed up last-mile delivery. Many DTC brands choose to automate shipping by implementing tools to help speed up the shipping process, such as automatically updating stock levels and sending customers ecommerce order tracking. Furthermore, finding ways to automate the shipping process allows you to increase output and manage more orders more easily.
4. Saves you money.
Proper warehouse inventory management can help you save money on labor, storage, and fulfillment. Optimizing your supply chain can improve your bottom line by optimizing storage, investing in warehouse automation, organizing inventory to speed up the picking and packing process, and implementing technology to automate tasks and reduce human error. However, it is important to note that renting a warehouse has a cost. As a result, many online retailers outsource warehousing to save time and money, thereby improving the supply chain and profit margins.
5. Boosts customer satisfaction.
A good warehouse delivers customer orders accurately and on time. Making print on demand warehouse inventory management a priority improves customer satisfaction. As a result, it will allow faster shipping times, lower shipping costs, and a higher order accuracy rate. Furthermore, if an order has a problem or a customer needs to return or exchange an item, proper warehouse processes and print on demand inventory management can improve the returns management process. It will allow you to quickly process returns and restock items.
BEST PRACTICES FOR WAREHOUSE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
1. Turn your employees into experts.
Your warehouse is only as good as those who run and work in it. Make use of your team and solicit feedback on how to improve consistency, efficiency, and accuracy. Moreover, those on the front lines frequently generate the best ideas. Suppose you need a logistics team to begin with. In that case, many ecommerce businesses partner with print on demand fulfillment companies specializing in ecommerce warehousing. As a result, relieving their logistics team of many headaches.
2. Use demand forecasting for busy seasons.
Storage costs may become prohibitively expensive during the low season if your sales vary seasonally or monthly. Using demand forecasting tools to determine how many days of inventory you have until you are expected to run out, what your best-selling items are, and how they are performing compared to other periods is a great way to optimize costs despite seasonality. Furthermore, this type of data can assist you in better-predicting seasonality, allowing you to stock inventory accordingly.
3. Automate warehouse inventory systems.
You can quickly reduce the time spent on inventory management and picking and packing orders by automating inventory and warehousing tasks and processes. Many logistics automation solutions include features such as the ability to process orders automatically, create and manage inventory in real-time, automatically update stock levels, and set automatic reorder points, among other things. It means your staff can spend less time on tedious manual tasks and more on speeding up the fulfillment process.
4. Implement warehouse inventory control checks.
As your company expands, more SKUs will be moving in and out of warehouses. In addition, regular inventory control checks are necessary to ensure these stock items are not expired, old, or damaged. Order quality control allows you to keep track of your suppliers, monitor each batch of inventory, and ultimately keep your customers satisfied by consistently delivering a high-quality product.
PRINT ON DEMAND WAREHOUSE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Software and artificial intelligence are two solutions for more effective warehouse management. Many warehouses have embraced technology to reduce the number of employees required to complete tasks, In addition, they use it to pick and pack items in the same manner as employees. Warehouse management software can help you track inventory throughout the supply chain and even across multiple warehouses, all while keeping track of order tracking, accounting, and reorder times.
Logistics become more complicated as your company grows. Fulfillplex is a top ecommerce fulfillment company that provides best-in-class fulfillment and logistics services, including a growing fulfillment network, proprietary technology with inventory management tools built in, and deep logistics expertise and support. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about some of the inventory management solutions on the market.