The first step to wholesale success that is simple to handle and generates money is good wholesale inventory management.
Your company is in a far superior position to acquire enough inventory, fulfill purchases on time, and flourish in your retail connections if you implement scalable business processes that include solid wholesale inventory management methods.
What is wholesale inventory management and how does it work?
The technique of managing wholesale inventory is the acquisition, storage, and tracking of B2B goods.
While it is critical for a business to handle all of its inventory, wholesale inventory management is concerned with all of the operations involved with goods that a firm purchases from manufacturers and subsequently sells to another company, retailer, or wholesaler.
Inventory management at wholesale level entails a number of activities, including:
- Submitting purchase orders (POs) for new wholesale goods is a difficult task
- How to Calculate Reorder Points, Economic Order Quantities (EOQs), and When to Replenish Inventory
- Optimizing storage is one of the many inventory control methods
- Logging the manufacturer’s shipment of inventory
- The continuous ability to track wholesale inventory levels is important
- Performing quarterly or monthly wholesale inventory inspections
Why is wholesale inventory management critical for your company’s success?
Any company that purchases and sells goods on a regular basis must have a working knowledge of wholesale inventory management.
Every other supply chain process, from order processing to warehouse management to fulfillment to delivery and last-mile delivery, requires well-regulated wholesale inventory, in-stock merchandise, and correctly tracked.
Inventory shortages, overstocking, and delays in the supply chain are just a few of the problems that can occur as a result of inventory discrepancies.
On the one hand, improved wholesale inventory management allows you to keep track of what’s going on throughout your supply chain and prevent bottlenecks and delays. This naturally lowers production costs while increasing productivity.
What are the top five advantages of running a wholesale business?
There are several ways in which businesses can profit from correctly managing their inventory. Here are 5 of the most significant advantages of good wholesale inventory management.
Knowing what’s in stock at all times
When you conduct inventory counts on a regular basis and have easy access to your inventory data, it’s much simpler to keep track of how much of each SKU you have on hand.
When you know exactly how much stock you have, you’ll be less likely to sell things you’re out of, and because you know what to reorder and when, stockouts and backorders will be reduced.
Sales order details are now available from a single point
Inventory management is simpler when you have a more efficient wholesale inventory management system that gives you access to all of your sales order information in one location, which is especially beneficial in multichannel commerce.
Consolidating and providing wholesale order information to the parties that need it helps your company process orders, minimize duplicate or missed entries, and avoid fulfillment and shipping delays.
Stock levels and orders are easily visible in real time
With the appropriate inventory management system in place (IMS) (more on this below), you can get real-time information on inventory levels and how orders are progressing through the supply chain.
Agile visibility is now available to any part of the company, allowing a new level of collaboration among functions and teams. It allows you to detect inventory delivery delays and abnormalities, as well as reorder stock at the optimal moment to meet customer demand.
Making accurate predictions based on the information
This data is important because it allows a dealer to make accurate predictions on future demand and plan purchases accordingly. Wholesale inventory management entails keeping track of past and present inventory information. This data may help you predict future demand with accuracy, allowing you to prepare your procurement strategy accordingly.
You can also use characteristics of individual SKUs to make plans for greater demand next year if they have been in high turnover during a certain season yearly after year.
With automation, you can save time and improve accuracy
Wholesale inventory management software may help you save time and enhance accuracy by automating several inventory management procedures.
The ideal software will automatically keep track of stock levels and allow you to set reorder alerts so that you can keep your warehouses in tip-top shape.
You may also synchronize order and inventory records across all channels to ensure that the most up-to-date inventory counts are available (saving you time and money).