Cloud-based inventory management is the monitoring and maintenance of a business’s inventory levels using online software. Enabling businesses to avoid many of the errors and issues that arise with traditional methods of measuring stock levels, cloud-based inventory management seamlessly keeps track of inventory coming in and going out of your business.

Traditionally, inventory management has been one of the most time-consuming and least popular tasks carried out by e-commerce businesses to keep their business running. It can be painstakingly boring and diverts resources from more important facets of the business, like growing the brand, improving efficiencies and adding new product lines.

By contrast, cloud-based inventory management performs the same function, but with greater efficiency and effectiveness. As well as giving businesses back their time and resources; cloud-based stock management systems reduce the likelihood of human error.

Why is Cloud-Based Inventory Management Important?

When it comes to inventory management, it pays to be precise. Stock is the lifeblood of your business so maintaining the right stock levels is crucial to your operations. Making the shift to a cloud-based inventory management system is important for several reasons:

Instant stock level updates

A cloud-based system can accurately inform you how much stock you have on hand. Cloud-based inventory management software can tell you whether you have enough stock for your demand forecast or whether you need to order more. This is an essential metric for customer satisfaction so you can avoid stockouts.

Error reduction

Crucially, cloud-based inventory management reduces errors and the chance of ‘stock walking’. The automated nature of the software means that inevitable human errors are eliminated. With cloud-based apps, every stakeholder, from the manufacturer to the shipping company to the courier gets up-to-date information instantly, with no risk of duplications, missed orders or incorrect information, saving time and money.

Automation

A cloud-based approach automates the supply chain so that the execution of an order – from stock reaching its reorder point to creating an order and sending it to the supplier – can be done without involving human labour, freeing your team’s time for higher-level decisions and priorities.

Safety and security

Safety of valuable information is guaranteed when cloud-based inventory management is used: data backup on storage devices is not needed as all data is kept securely in the cloud remotely. Any changes made are saved instantly, and security is taken care of by the service provider, who constantly updates the cloud inventory management software to avoid cyber attacks.

In-built reporting and analytics

Demand forecasting is one of the trickier aspects of running an e-commerce business: knowing how much stock to order in the future based on how much it’s selling now is a fine art. Cloud-based inventory management systems analyze your data and create automated reports so you can make data-informed business decisions.

Historical data on hand

Finally, inventory management tells you a story about your business. Unless you have records of the amounts of products you’ve bought, amounts you’ve sold and amounts you hold, then you won’t know what sells well, what doesn’t and how you can change this to grow your business. Cloud-based inventory management allows you to link stock levels with your e-commerce store, accounting software, 3PL provider and more, so that you’re always aware of how you’re doing.

How Can Cloud-Based Inventory Management Software Help Your Business Grow?

Cloud-based inventory management software is efficient and effective, allowing you to manage inventory on the go and eliminate the stock errors.

When it comes to efficiency, cloud-based inventory management software understands the demands of today’s fast-paced business world and puts all your inventory information right at your fingertips. With one click you can log into the system on your mobile device or tablet to generate stock reports, complete audits, perform stock takes and access stock movement history, all while in the back of a taxi en route to your next sales meeting!

As well as saving you time, cloud-based inventory management software effectively manages your inventory to reduce errors and prevent stock from going missing. Moving away from spreadsheets and the errors that come with manual data entry, stock management software measures how inventory moves through your overall business. All products and variants have an audit trail activity feed, so you know exactly what products went where, and when.

It’s a win-win, as effective management of inventory reduces the amount of stock count you’ll need to perform, reduces warehouse costs and gets you back to the core business tasks that really deserve your time and focus.

With cloud-based inventory management software, you might even enjoy managing your stock! Try QuickBooks Online for free today!