Why Is Good Stock Control Important?

When you take control of your stock management solutions you can save admin time and automate long processes such as stock takes. Having effective stock management solutions in place can even help you control your business finances and help to grow or scale up your business operations.

Having stock sit on shelves and pile up over time means your business is literally wasting money every minute. Idle stock can lead to higher maintenance or storage costs, increased business wastage and could also leave your business susceptible to theft. On the flip side, not having enough stock could put your business on the backfoot and leave you unable to keep up with customer orders and sales, losing your business vital customers.

Good stock control solutions should allow you to have an overview of every item of stock no matter where it is located. Many businesses will have multiple warehouses or stock rooms and having a stock control solution in place means that if your items are barcoded and scanned in upon arrival to their location, you should always be able to track that item down. This is particularly useful when you have a customer requesting an item, your team can perform a simple product look up and discover the location of the item, improving your customer service and satisfaction.

A modern stock control solution should be able to manage new stock being added to your storage facility and current stock being sold. A business needs that comprehensive overview to be able to view customer demand for high selling items and manage re-stocks easily. Effective stock management systems can now not only help you manage the location of stock items but also report on elements of stock management such as identifying best sellers, low sellers, alert to low stock levels, manage automatic reordering, best-selling items by location or type such as colour and size.

Some of the benefits of a good stock control solution include:

Better Productivity

Businesses can significantly improve productivity and efficiency in their warehouse or stock room by using a stock control management software. The electronic solution eliminates any time consuming and manual processes such as stock takes and manual data entry, freeing up staff to focus on other business demands.

Stock Organisation

A disorganised stock room or warehouse can present lots of problems meaning that staff can become overwhelmed and unable to keep on top of inventory management. If you have a stock control solution in place you can arrange items based on brand, colour, size or type. You can even have best sellers or high-volume items at the front of your stock room and seasonal products at the back. An organised space means staff can access stock and fulfil customer orders or restocks quicker, keeping your customers happy.

Customer Loyalty

Every retail business knows that customer loyalty is key to building your brand and your business, that’s why serving your customers quickly and fulfilling their needs can make a huge difference to your loyal customer base. Effective stock control systems mean customer orders are fulfilled and they are likely to return and purchase again. Staying competitive is key to meeting customer demand so stock management can make a huge difference.

Sell More

If you have a view of your top selling products and they sell really well instore or online, you could look to sell more of those products through other channels such as Amazon or eBay. Having a good stock control solution in place can be the difference between keeping on top of multiple selling channels and fulfilling orders from multiple locations. A good stock control solution should provide a smart link between your instore EPOS system, Ecommerce site and other channels like Amazon and eBay. Automated processes can help your business sell more without becoming overwhelmed trying to keep track of multiple orders.

The difference between successful profitable businesses and those who have lost control of their management processes can come down stock control management. Customers expect the best service, which includes having great stock control, and if you cannot fulfil their order they will buy from a competitor that can. Having control of your inventory can not only win customer loyalty but provide you with a profitable business that doesn’t have money invested in wasted or dead stock. Using reporting functionality means if you see items that are selling well, you can act and either stop re-ordering that item, reduce the RRP or even put a promotion against it.

If you’re looking for a reliable stock control solution for your business, KCPOS has stock control solution that can connect directly into your EPOS solution and accounts software. For more information on our solution, you can visit our stock control page here.