3 Ways Full-View Inventory Management Spells Success

Companies with realtime, full-view inventory control tend to earn more revenue than companies that don’t.

A survey conducted by ARC Advisory Group found that businesses that have the ability to monitor inventory from supplier to warehouse saw 5% year on year revenue growth. The ones that didn’t reported a 3% growth.

Similarly, only 35% of respondents had that visibility of shipments going from a supplier to a store, also saw, on average, year-over-year growth of 5% for revenues, compared to about 2% for those without visibility.

Where Full-View Inventory Gives an Edge

Why does full-view inventory management make a difference? It comes down to control. A company of any size must be able to view, manage and plan activity across their entire supply chain. Full-view inventory management is the lynchpin in the supply chain.

Better replenishment. A business that simply sends purchase orders to suppliers is not managing inventory. It has to know what’s already coming from the suppliers, what’s in stock in the stores and the warehouse, and what has already been sold through its various sales channels. Having a full-view, real-time view of inventory means a business can replenish its inventory as needed, avoiding the cost of overstocking and the harm of running out of a product.

Better fulfillment. A business that doesn’t have real-time, full view of its warehouse(s) and brick-and-mortar stock rooms will carry more inventory than they need to fulfill demand from each particular sales channel. The ability to know when to fulfill orders from a store or warehouse, or when to move stock between stores, reduces the need to carry excess inventory across the company’s sales channels. This has the potential to significantly decrease a company’s overall COGS.

Better demand planning. Finally, realtime, full view of inventory gives a business the ability to see what products are selling best, where they are selling best, and what products aren’t selling at all. This means companies can phase out items that don’t work as they see trends in reports, rather than waiting for a periodic inventory stock take to realize something in the catalog just isn’t working.