Unless you only sell digital things or services, you need a cloud inventory solution to get the best out of your business.
Benefits of cloud inventory
Ecommerce is in the cloud; your inventory solution should be in the cloud. Cloud inventory provides a range of benefits:
- Productivity – a cloud inventory solution provides a structured workflow for ordering, receiving, and shipping. Supporting operational tasks this way helps your business run efficiently whether you’re a solo owner or have a team.
- Multi-channel support – if you are selling on multiple channels (such as Amazon, eBay, and Shopify), the core value is that the inventory quantities are updated automatically across all channels. If you have 100 widgets and sell 20 on one channel, a cloud inventory solution updates all the other channels with the remaining 80 quantity. This means you don’t sell products you don’t have in stock.
- Analytics – cloud inventory stores all your sales data whether it’s from a single shopping cart or multiple channels. This gives you key metrics such as profitability per product, best/worst selling products, ordering guidance (reorder levels and sales velocity information), and consolidated sales.
- Accounting integration – cloud inventory systems have access to all the sales order data, inventory costs, and costs of goods sold. This is key financial information needed to manage your business and can be pushed into cloud accounting software (like Xero).
Cloud inventory features
Key features – these are the key features you should expect from any inventory solution:
- Integration with shopping carts and marketplaces
- Inventory management
- Purchase orders
- Shipping integration
- Integration with accounting platforms
- Detailed accounting data – sales, cost of goods sold, and inventory costs
Optional features – these are the features that might be key to your business but are not included in every cloud inventory solution:
- Point of Sale (POS) support
- Kitting or bundling
- Drop shipping support
- Light manufacturing – support for turning materials into products
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) support for business-to-business (B2B) orders and third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse integration
How to choose the right cloud inventory solution
There are a lot of cloud inventory options out there, so it’s important to do your due diligence when choosing the right solution for your business. Here are some of the critical questions to ask:
- Does it have all the core and optional features you need (eg, multi-channel, drop ship, point of sale)?
- Does it integrate with your marketplaces and shopping carts?
- Does the investment make sense for your budget?
- Do they support your target market, eg, do they have other customers in your space, whether that’s apparel, food products, light manufacturing, general products or something else?
- When you contact the provider are they responsive?
- Do they support your timezone? There are some great products internationally but not all have support hours that match your work.
Sampling of cloud inventory solutions
All of these offer Xero integration.
Multi-channel: TradeGecko, Dear Systems, SkuBana, Stitchlabs, Veeqo, Unleashed
Drop shipping: DuoPlane
Light manufacturing: Dear Systems, Unleashed
Amazon only: A2Xaccounting
Vertical – apparel: ApparelMagic
Getting the right cloud inventory solution in place is a great step forward for your business. Once you optimize your ordering, receiving, and inventory, you can focus on growth and reaching scale.
