7 Reasons to Adopt Cloud Inventory Management

The tilting balance of consumer spending to online shopping spells opportunity for businesses geared to the omnichannel. After all, nearly a half-trillion dollars flow through eCommerce channels globally every year. Meanwhile, customers still love stores, but even when you “wow” them, they’ll still reserve the option to buy from you online. Thus, competitiveness these days equates to your ability to cost-effectively move products anywhere, at any time. The omnichannel, in fact, may well be the best argument to date for adopting cloud inventory management. Read a few reasons why below.

Why Product-Driven Business Needs Cloud Inventory Management

To tap the opportunity, businesses must cast a wide net. That means selling across multiple channels. However, channels mean nothing to a consumer with a mobile phone and a desktop. They just see the product and the brand, and they expect you to get their orders to them at home or in the store. That’s what the omnichannel is all about. Moreover, the most efficient and cost-effective way to manage an omnichannel is to bring your products, channels, and processes together in a single cloud inventory management solution.

Manage Your Entire Supply Chain

These days, every aspect of a multichannel business requires processes and software to run it. However, if such solutions don’t “talk to each other” to work together, a business gets bogged down by redundant, costly administration. What’s worse, if they use these siloed solutions to manage channels separately, they won’t have the data or control necessary for omnichannel fulfillment. The cloud allows for very cost-effective integration. And if the omnichannel is about seamless channel integration, then cloud inventory management that brings an entire supply chain together to form the core of your omnichannel business.

See the Full Picture Right Now

The right cloud inventory management solution will give you realtime visibility of your integrated operations. When you receive an order, make a sale, or dispatch a shipment, it should let you know as it happens. Moreover, it should let you see your entire inventory altogether. Thus, you’ll know when to replenish, when to transfer and when to phase out stock.

Improve Customer Service

A highly-integrated cloud inventory management solution improves customer service. It should give online customers accurate available stock. Additionally, it should help you serve existing customers online and at the POS. For example, it should recognize customer loyalty regardless of the channel. And it should accommodate options for shipping to a customers’ home.

Fulfill Orders Flexibly, Efficiently

A cloud inventory management solution should integrate wherever you store your products. This includes your brick-and-mortar branches, warehouses and 3PL providers. Moreover, it should allow you to transfer inventory from any of those places to any other place. Thus, it will give you the edge to get products where you need them to fulfill orders as quickly and perfectly as possible.

Make Pop-Ups a Snap

Cloud computing puts powerful business tools in your hands. All you need is a device and an internet connection. When you bring your cloud inventory management solution wherever you go, you can easily run a pop-up store or any other temporary channel.

Automate Your Supply Chain

Cloud integration only goes so far to make running your omnichannel efficient. A truly efficient inventory management solution will automate the processes that involve multiple integrations. For example, it will take orders from your eCommerce store, route to the correct branch for shipment without human intervention.

Cut the Hardware Umbilical Cord

We saved the last point because it’s basic to all cloud computing. The fact is, running any business 20 years ago required a heavy IT investment. That meant desktops, servers, and cable. By turning data processing and storage to a service, businesses cut the ties to physical networks. Thus, they reduced their costs and increased their flexibility. Cloud inventory management software adds similar values to running an omnichannel business.