Emily Newton is the Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized, an online magazine showing how technology is disrupting many industries.
As an entrepreneur, you must work to ensure you have the correct products in the appropriate quantities. Solid product availability helps you meet client needs, retain good relationships with suppliers, and improve overall operations.
Tracking product inventory can be complicated, especially when your days are full of hands-on work. Luckily, stock tracker technology can help. Let’s take a more detailed look at product availability and why businesses should invest in excellent product availability tracking technology.
What Is Product Availability?
From an entrepreneurship standpoint, product availability ensures you have the correct amount of supplies in stock to satisfy your clients and customers.
When you have the correct supply available, you encourage your customers to make regular purchases from your business because you’ve established yourself as reliable.
Keeping track of your inventory can be complicated and time-consuming. A product availability tracking system can help ensure you have the correct amount of stock available at all times. Companies use various methods to track inventory, including:
- Barcode scanning
- Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags
- Stock books
- Kanban system
Some companies also invest in stock tracker technology that sends real-time alerts when they experience inventory changes, whether from changes in demand or other factors.
Types of Product Availability Alerts
Stock alerts can give you real-time updates about changes in your inventory. These alerts may include:
- Notifications about low stock
- Messages about bulk orders
- Alerts about slow-moving stock
- Notices about new shipments
With stock tracker alerts, you can easily keep track of your available stock so you always have products available to satisfy clients and customers.
Why Businesses Should Have a Great Product Availability Tracker
The process of tracking product inventory can be made easier with a great product availability tracker. Check out these seven reasons to invest in a stock tracker at your company:
1. Creates a Positive Experience for Clients
One of the top priorities of any business is creating a good experience for customers and clients. It’s why so many companies prioritize customer service and relationships with their consumers. When you have everything your clients or customers need in stock at any given time, you can improve their relationship with your company and create a loyal consumer base.
Meeting your clients’ needs is essential for fostering a positive experience for them. If you often run out of certain items that your clients need, their projects might become delayed, they could become frustrated, or they might start visiting one of your competitors to find the items or parts they need.
2. Helps You Avoid Stockouts
One of the worst feelings as a shopper is to walk into a storefront and see aisles upon aisles of empty shelves. A similar feeling can be evoked when necessary parts or items are out of stock online. Stockouts can happen for various reasons, including underestimating the demand for a product and forgetting to place an order for restocking.
Product inventory alerts can inform you when the demand changes for certain products or parts. With that information, you can make more informed forecasting decisions about which products to purchase and in what quantities. This will help you provide sufficient stock so you don’t lose any loyal customers.
On the other hand, understanding your inventory can help prevent purchasing too much stock and losing money on items you don’t sell.
3. Understand Sales Trends
With access to real-time product availability information, you can analyze and understand your business’s sales trends. This is especially helpful if your company experiences massive sales in one month and a lull the next, and you’re not sure why.
Getting a clearer picture of what products aren’t selling and which ones are in demand can be a valuable tool for the overall effectiveness of your company.
4. Keep a Good Relationship With Your Supplier
Many moving parts make up a successful business, including participation from suppliers, distribution companies, and more.
If you source parts or materials from a supplier, having a product availability tracker can make your relationship with them more seamless and efficient. You can be more specific about your needs and foster a better relationship complete with open communication with your suppliers.
5. Ensures Your Records Are Accurate
By implementing an effective inventory management system, you can gain a better understanding of your production limits and other processes so you can continually improve.
Keeping a detailed record of your inventory ensures your most essential records are accurate and up to date. If your records are inaccurate, you could face stockouts and issues with order fulfillment. Inventory alerts help you accurately keep track of that important data.
If your company has multiple locations, it’s even more important to standardize your inventory tracking to maintain consistency across your operations.
6. Improve Your Operations
When you receive inventory alerts based on how many parts or products you have available, you can stay organized during busy selling periods, maintain control over your operations, drive sales, and determine when it would be appropriate to raise or lower your prices.
You can also delegate employees to higher-priority tasks when you have the ability to let stock tracker alerts and technology take the brunt of inventory management. This makes your operations overall more efficient and well-managed.
Tracking Product Inventory With Stock Alert Technology
If you’re looking for a more effective way to track your inventory and make your operations more efficient, stock alert technology might be the necessary next step. Tracking product inventory improves your relationship with your clients and customers, makes communication easier with suppliers, helps you identify your business’s strengths and weaknesses, and ensures your most essential records are accurate and up to date.
Like any entrepreneur, your days are full of hands-on work on the company floor. With product availability software, you don’t have to spend any more time tracking and analyzing your inventory and you can get back to what you’d rather be doing – building your business and interacting with clients and customers.
