BigCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the market today. It offers a wide range of features that help businesses grow and succeed, including inventory management tools. However, there are many BigCommerce users that find themselves struggling to manage their inventory effectively. This can lead to stockouts, overselling, and other problems that can negatively impact businesses of any size. In this article, we’ll share some tips and tricks to help you master BigCommerce inventory management and keep your business running smooth like butter.
Table of Contents
- Benefits of Effective Inventory Management
- Common Inventory Management Challenges & How to Overcome Them
- Tips for Effective Inventory Tracking & Control
- How to Utilize BigCommerce’s Inventory Management Tools
- Setting Up Your Inventory on BigCommerce
- Customizing Your BigCommerce's Inventory Management Settings
- Powering Up Your Inventory Management with BigCommerce Apps
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- The Importance of Inventory Management for Your Success
- How to Seamlessly Integrate a Robust Inventory Management Tool with BigCommerce
Benefits of Effective Inventory Management
Effective inventory management is necessary for any e-commerce business. When done right, it helps you: - Increase sales: By always having the products your customers want in stock, you can bet on your sales and revenue increasing. Good-bye, stockouts!
- Improve customer satisfaction: Similarly, when you have the products your customers want - and can deliver them quickly, you can guarantee that customer satisfaction and loyalty will improve.
- Reduce costs: When inventory levels are optimized, costs associated with excess inventory or running out of stock are reduced.
- Boost efficiency: An efficient inventory management system can help you save time and reduce errors, freeing up your team to focus on other tasks.
Common Inventory Management Challenges & How to Overcome Them
Managing inventory can be challenging for anyone, but it is especially difficult for e-commerce businesses that sell many products. Here are some of the most common inventory management challenges with ways to conquer them.
Stockouts
Running out of stock can be a nightmare for any business, whether brick-and-mortar or e-commerce. If a brick-and-mortar retail business runs out of stock, they have an opportunity to work with the customer in-store to smooth it over and find a solution, whether that is pointing out a comparable substitute or referring them to a neighboring store that has their exact product in stock. Unfortunately, an e-commerce business does not have the luxury of relying on its in-person team to help address the issue. Instead, stockouts for an e-commerce business can result in lost sales, unhappy customers, and damage to a business’ reputation.
To avoid stockouts, it’s important to:
- Monitor your inventory levels closely: Keep track of your sales and inventory levels across all your marketplaces, platforms, and locations so you can reorder products before they run out.
- Set up automatic reorder points: Use inventory management tools to set up automatic reorder points for each one of your products. This will trigger a purchase order when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold.
- Work closely with suppliers: Nurture your relationships with your suppliers and keep them informed of your inventory needs.
Overselling
You have probably already felt the pain from time to time of what happens when overselling occurs, but in case you are new to e-commerce and just getting started: Overselling occurs when you sell more products than you have in stock. Like stockouts, overselling can hamper the wonderful relationship you have been building between yourself and your customers. By overselling a product, you can experience canceled orders, refunds, and unhappy customers that will share their unhappiness with you. To avoid overselling, it’s important to:
- Sync inventory levels across all your channels and platforms: If you sell on multiple channels, make sure that you sync your inventory levels across all of them. That way, your inventory will always be up-to-date and you can rest assured that your inventory is the same across all your marketplaces, so if you sell out on any one of them, they’ll all accurately reflect that the product is out of stock, with no manual data entry required by you or your team.
- Use a centralized inventory management system: A centralized system like Zenventory can help you keep track of stock levels across all channels and automatically update them when a sale is made. Likewise, when new sellable stock arrives into your warehouse, you only have to enter it in one place instead of a whole bunch of them!
- Set up low stock alerts: Set up alerts with whatever inventory management system you use. That way, when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold, an alert will be triggered immediately. Then, you can take action to avoid overselling.
Manual Data Entry
Manual data entry is time-consuming and prone to errors (we are human after all.) It can also make it difficult to track inventory levels accurately. To avoid manual data entry, it’s helps to:
- Automate data import: Automatically import product data from a spreadsheet into your system.
- Utilize integrations or an API: Connect with different systems to get real-time data synchronization.
- Train your team: Make sure everyone knows the importance of accurate data entry and knows how to use your inventory management system correctly.
Tips for Effective Inventory Tracking & Control
To master inventory management, it’s important to have a system for tracking and controlling your inventory. Here is a compilation of tips to help you do just that:
Use SKUs
SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) are unique identifiers for each product in your inventory. They can help you track products more easily and avoid confusion. Make sure that each product in your inventory has a unique SKU.
Conduct Regular Audits
Regular inventory audits can help you identify discrepancies in your inventory levels and avoid stockouts or overselling before it is too late. Try to conduct at least one audit a year.
Implement FIFO
FIFO (First In, First Out) is a method of inventory management where the oldest products are sold first. This method can help you avoid stockouts and reduce waste.
How to Utilize BigCommerce’s Inventory Management Tools
BigCommerce offers a wide range of inventory management tools to help you and your team keep track of your products and orders.
BigCommerce Advanced Inventory
BigCommerce Advanced Inventory is a feature that allows you to fine-tune and customize various settings related to inventory management on your online store. Once you have added your products and updated their inventory levels, you can make use of the Advanced Inventory settings to further control and enhance the customer experience.
One of the key functionalities of Advanced Inventory is the ability to hide products or redirect customers to a category page when they are out of stock. This ensures that your customers are presented with options that are readily available for purchase, improving their overall shopping experience.
Additionally, Advanced Inventory allows you to display stock levels beneath the displayed products. This feature can be particularly effective in driving sales, as customers are often motivated to make a purchase when they see that there is limited stock available. The sense of urgency created by showcasing low stock levels can create a greater desire to buy.
Moreover, you can set up notifications to be sent to a preferred email address whenever a product is out of stock or running low on inventory. This feature helps you stay informed about your stock levels, allowing you to take prompt action such as restocking or adjusting your marketing strategies accordingly.
Overall, BigCommerce Advanced Inventory empowers you to customize and optimize your inventory management strategies. By utilizing its settings, you can ensure that your online store's inventory is effectively managed, providing a seamless and engaging shopping experience for your customers.
Product Catalog
BigCommerce’s product catalog allows you to manage all your products in one place. You can add new products and edit existing ones.
Low Stock Alerts
BigCommerce’s low stock alerts feature allows you to set up alerts when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold. This can help you avoid stockouts and keep your customers happy.
Setting Up Your Inventory on BigCommerce
BigCommerce has made it easy to set up your inventory. Here’s how to do it:
Add Products
Use BigCommerce’s product catalog to add new products to your inventory. Make sure that each product has a unique SKU.
Set Up Inventory Levels
Use BigCommerce’s inventory management tools to set up inventory levels for each product. This will help you avoid stockouts and overselling.
Customizing Your BigCommerce’s Inventory Management Settings
BigCommerce’s inventory management tools are highly customizable. Here are a couple of settings you can adjust to meet your specific needs:
Low Stock Warnings
Your BigCommerce store is equipped with a warning system for when a certain product has sold out or reached predetermined low stock levels. An email notification will be triggered when you either hit your low stock threshold or when a product is out of stock.
Sharing Stock Levels with Customers
No one wants to land on a product page and find that the product is sold out. To make the situation even worse would be if a customer places the order, was charged, and then they are updated that the product is no longer in stock. In your BigCommerce’s store settings, you can configure your store to only show stock levels once it reaches the low stock level. This technique can also provide an added push for the customer to make the purchase.
⚡ Powering Up Your Inventory Management with BigCommerce Apps
BigCommerce’s inventory management tools are powerful, offering businesses the necessary features to effectively manage their inventory. However, it is important to understand that these tools may have some limitations that may not meet your specific needs. This is why many businesses opt to engage third-party inventory management tools to supplement their BigCommerce experience.
Omnichannel Management
One area where BigCommerce may have limitations is in omni-channel management. While it does support updating stock levels on the BigCommerce store through CSV imports, it may not provide real-time updates and automation for changes in other marketplaces. If you require more real-time and automated stock updates across multiple channels, a third-party inventory management tool would be a better solution.
Shipping & Fulfillment
Another aspect that businesses should consider is shipping and fulfillment. BigCommerce's inventory management tools excel in managing inventory, but they may not provide the same level of support when it comes to order fulfillment and shipping. Third-party inventory management systems often offer additional functionalities like batch label printing, automated courier rate shopping, and even shipping discounts. These features can significantly streamline the shipping process, save costs, and allow smaller teams to handle larger volumes of orders efficiently.
It is important to recognize that effective inventory management is crucial for the success of any e-commerce business. While BigCommerce's inventory management tools offer valuable features, they may not fulfill all of your specific requirements. By incorporating third-party inventory management tools alongside BigCommerce, you can optimize your inventory management processes, sync inventory levels across multiple channels, prevent overselling, and maximize sales opportunities.
Inventory management software can make the process of shipping easier for your online store, but it can also help you save some precious buckaroos with shipping discounts. For example, when you use an inventory management tool like Zenventory to ship your USPS packages, you can save up to 84% using Zenventory’s pre-negotiated discounts!
You can also gain functionality like batch label printing and automated courier rate shopping, along with the ability to print packing slips at the same time. All of which will expedite your shipping process and save you money.
If you are a smaller team that handles a large volume of orders, you might find a third-party inventory management tool to be particularly useful when it comes to handling repetitive tasks that might otherwise eat up somebody’s valuable time. Let automation handle the tedious and boring stuff - and free your team to focus on what really matters.
FAQs
To arm you with as much information as possible, here are some frequently asked questions that will help you conquer inventory management woes.
How can barcode scanning benefit inventory management and how can it be implemented?
Barcode scanning is a valuable tool for effective inventory management, offering numerous benefits while being relatively easy to implement. By utilizing a Shopify barcode scanner app, merchants can streamline their inventory management processes and gain greater control over their stock.
The benefits of barcode scanning in inventory management are numerous. Firstly, it significantly reduces human errors often associated with manual data entry, resulting in more accurate and reliable inventory records. With barcode scanning, the risk of misplacing or miscounting items is minimized, ensuring that the quantities recorded are an accurate reflection of the actual stock levels.
Furthermore, barcode scanning enables faster and more efficient inventory management. Instead of manually searching for products and manually updating stock levels, merchants can simply scan the barcodes attached to each item, instantly updating inventory records. This saves time and effort, allowing merchants to focus on other critical aspects of their business.
Implementing barcode scanning in your inventory management system is relatively straightforward, especially when using a Shopify barcode scanner app. First, ensure that your products are each assigned a unique barcode. This can be done by either purchasing pre-printed barcodes or generating them using a barcode generator tool. Once the barcodes are attached to the respective products, integrate the barcode scanner app with your Shopify store. This will allow you to scan each item's barcode, automatically updating the inventory records in real-time.
To ensure the smooth implementation of barcode scanning, it is essential to train your staff on how to effectively utilize the barcode scanner app. This includes familiarizing them with the scanning process, understanding the importance of scanning accurately, and providing guidance on handling exceptions or discrepancies that may arise.
In conclusion, barcode scanning offers several advantages for inventory management, including increased accuracy, efficiency, and productivity. By implementing a Shopify barcode scanner app, merchants can enhance their inventory control and streamline their operations, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and business success.
How can I centralize sales, inventory, and manufacturing with third-party software?
Centralizing sales, inventory, and manufacturing can be efficiently achieved through the utilization of third-party software. By connecting various tools and integrating them into a centralized system, you can establish a single point of truth that allows you to monitor and manage every aspect of your business.
When it comes to manufacturers, this level of control is particularly crucial. It enables them to effectively plan production, efficiently manage different types of inventories, and handle other essential aspects of running a business seamlessly.
One effective approach is to integrate BigCommerce, a popular eCommerce platform, with your other sales channels. This integration allows you to implement an omnichannel selling strategy, whereby all your sales channels are interconnected and synchronized. By doing so, you can significantly streamline your operations and ensure a consistent experience for your customers across all touchpoints.
Additionally, embracing manufacturing process automation can greatly enhance the efficiency and productivity of your workflow. Automating repetitive tasks and processes through the use of technology can save valuable time and resources while minimizing the risk of human error. It can optimize inventory management, facilitate better production planning, and enhance overall operational effectiveness.
To fully understand the benefits and potential of manufacturing process automation, consider reading our comprehensive article on the topic. It will provide you with a deeper insight into how automation can positively impact your business, helping you make informed decisions and drive success in the ever-evolving marketplace.
How can BigCommerce users address the need for better inventory management?
BigCommerce users can address the need for better inventory management by exploring third-party integrations that offer advanced inventory management features. These integrations can provide the required oomph to track different inventory types effectively, meet legal requirements, and manage sales and manufacturing side-by-side. By leveraging the right tools, BigCommerce users can optimize their inventory management processes and ensure smooth operations for their businesses.
What challenges can arise if inventory management is not effectively handled in BigCommerce?
If inventory management is not effectively handled in BigCommerce, several challenges can arise. These include stockouts, overselling, inaccurate product availability information, and difficulties in managing perishable inventory. These issues can negatively impact customer satisfaction, lead to lost sales opportunities, and potentially result in legal compliance issues for industries with specific inventory tracking requirements.
How do BigCommerce manufacturers manage their sales and manufacturing side-by-side?
BigCommerce manufacturers often rely on third-party integrations to manage their sales and manufacturing side-by-side. These integrations provide the necessary tools and features to track and manage different inventory types effectively. By using third-party solutions, manufacturers can ensure seamless coordination between their sales and manufacturing processes, optimizing efficiency and compliance.
Why do manufacturers need additional inventory management features when using BigCommerce?
Manufacturers need additional inventory management features when using BigCommerce because tracking different inventory types is essential. In industries that deal with perishable inventory, it may even be a legal requirement. Managing sales and manufacturing side-by-side is crucial for manufacturers, and BigCommerce's built-in inventory management tools may not provide the necessary capabilities. Therefore, many BigCommerce manufacturers turn to third-party integrations to meet their inventory management needs.
Conclusion: The Importance of Inventory Management for Your Success
Effective inventory management is crucial for any e-commerce business. By following the tips and tricks outlined in this article, you can master BigCommerce inventory management and make your business run smooth like butter.
Key takeaways:
- Ensure that you have easy visibility to accurate inventory levels
- Set up low stock alerts, and use any automation available to keep products in stock
- Sync your inventory levels across all channels to prevent overselling and missed sales
How to Seamlessly Integrate a Robust Inventory Management Tool with BigCommerce
Zenventory’s mission is to make it easier to run an e-commerce operation and solve all operational challenges standing in the way of your growth, from inventory to order management and shipping.
As a proud partner of BigCommerce, our one-click integration process is simple and we have an exceptional support team that will lend a hand to ensure your success. Get started today >>>
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