Inventory Management Tips for SMEs

Louel Siena July 3, 2020

When you're starting your business, it can be fascinating to order your items in bulk and deliver them to your customers' doorsteps as soon as possible. However, too much or too few of your inventory could affect your company significantly.

 For many small business owners, inventory management can be quite tricky at first. An integral part of running a company is having a good strategy for supply and demand. How do you keep your small business inventory management smooth at all times?

A quick look at inventory management

Before we proceed, let's quickly define inventory management. In simple words, the term refers to supervising stock items as well as the flow of goods from suppliers to warehouses to customers. Inventory management's main task is monitoring and recording the movement of products every time it enters or exits the warehouse.

Regardless of the business size, the flow of inventory is similar across all companies: Stocks come in; customers order; stocks go out.

Tips on how to keep track of inventory

Successfully managing your inventory is the way to keep happy customers and promote business growth. It’s an indicator that you are meeting your customer’s demands without incurring costs.

Starting and maintaining a stable inventory system isn't just something that you can look up online. At the very least, you should have a good understanding of your market and your industry to craft a good strategy. Here are a few tips to add!

1. Choose a good inventory software

Gone are the days when employees need to hold stacks of logbooks to keep up with

inventory. Today, good software can take you places. Digitizing your small business inventory management can help you track, forecast, and analyze your stocks with ease. Some tools are even compatible with almost any device.

You could also take into account effective options like barcode tracking, multi-channel compatibility, and pricing.

1. Be on top of your stock levels

Setting up an automatic software is incredibly helpful, but that doesn't mean you should rely solely on your system. You should regularly check your stocks to have a firm idea of which items are in demand and which are selling slow. By familiarizing yourself with your inventory flow, you can create better strategies for your business growth.

1. Follow the FIFO approach

One of the conventional small business inventory management approaches is FIFO, or the “first in, first out” rule. Products should be sold in chronological order, starting from the items that were first created or purchased.

Simply put, the items that came in first must go out first. This principle mostly applies to perishable goods like food and organic-based items, but it's ideal for implementing it whether or not you're selling products that expire.

1. Never forget quality control

When the flow of inventory gets too tedious, it’s easy to forget quality control. However, damaged goods can tarnish your brand reputation and break your customer’s trust and loyalty. You can opt to hire someone to do regular quality control for you as stocks come in. Putting the extra effort to ensure that your items are in top condition will pay off more than you might think!

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