Inventory Management Software Trends in 2020

Inventory management software helps businesses slash costs by reducing the number of unwanted storage parts and items. This also allows businesses to keep the revenue lost to a minimum by keeping enough stock on hand to satisfy demand. Today, I’ll show you the inventory management software trends in 2020.

Inventory Management Software Trends 

Inventory management is a common innovation goal each time innovations reach the retail market. If it is in the form of automated supply chain processes or improved demand forecasting and other inventory-related integrations and automation, these advances trigger new developments that gradually shift the retail side. This holds particularly when new trends are proving successful. These are the latest seven inventory management software trends:

1. Pick-to-Light Systems

Consumers opt for a timely delivery. This makes for an important pick-to-light system. This app was built a few years ago, makes use of a lighting system for streamlining inventory management. When you pick items in a bin in your storeroom, you'll need to turn off a specific light in the right direction to direct other store operators. This can help you easily find items in an inventory or warehouse and enable faster deliveries to clients.

2. More Personalization

The turn of the 21st century saw more retailers launching their product programs to be customized. Apart from referencing a prospect or current client in SMS or an email, more advanced forms of personalization are emerging. This positively impacts revenues, with Amazon reporting 35 percent of its sales using more advanced customization.

3. Season-Based Product Suggestions

A rising trend is inventory management software that allows adjustment of inventories based on real-time and forecasted weather conditions. Of starters, you won't see winter-related items like cardigans during the summer, or swimsuits during rainy days. Walmart is only one of the few retailers that have begun the trend already. Managing your product inventory according to seasonal factors will help you avoid experiencing obsolescence, out-of-stock, or overstocked products as the season’s pass.

4. Advanced Sales Forecasting

The rising requirement for a customized customer experience means you have to make sure you still have stocks available. You have to offer the goods to the customers when they need them. You don't want to get them confused by stockouts. To achieve this, a better method of forecasting sales is needed. You have to be aware that next week or next month, how many of the specific items have to be on the shelf. Keeping this in mind, many retailers are taking advantage of technology tools to improve their forecasts. The best inventory management software will give you a predictive analysis of your sales and stock movements and provide advice on when and how many items you need to order. 

5. Streaming Analytics

The use of real-time data or the so-called 'streaming analytics' for decision making is growing along with the increasing prominence of customization and customer centering. Now we see more companies discovering various technology and frameworks that incorporate real-time analytics into their systems while streaming data. Although the idea is nothing new it is more valuable than ever. It is because it makes you more data-driven and it increases the performance of the models of customization. 

6. Experiential Retail Inventories

As experiential retail rising in utility and popularity, software to control inventories that drive them also grows. Nowadays shopping is no longer about going to the store and looking at a huge inventory. Now it may mean trusting experts in the selection of products. From small-scale retailers to big brands like Apple and Amazon, every business introduces experiential retail initiatives in many different ways. And while this is certainly a positive step, it is different from traditional stock management to handle inventories in experience-first stores. Successful implementation necessitates a stable framework for order management.

7. Omnichannel Retailing Stock Control

Research by Google found that online shops participating in omnichannel retailing are at the forefront of the industry, drawing 9 out of 10 customers who turn to shop between at least three apps per day. The data exclude customers from going to conventional brick-and-mortar facilities. So you can imagine the revenue coming in from multiple online channels as well as from your physical shop. Yet the benefits advantage of multichannel marketing requires a significant responsibility for inventory management. Businesses should look for inventory management software with reliable inventory control systems for sales coming from multiple channels to take on this challenge.

Key Features of the Inventory Management System:

Following are the key feature of the inventory management system:

• Reorder point. Should inventory reach a specific threshold, a company's inventory management system can be programmed to tell managers to reorder that product. ...
• Asset tracking. ...
• Service management. ...
• Product identification. ...
• Inventory optimization. ...
• Cost savings. ...
• Increased efficiency. ...
• Warehouse organization.

How to Build the Right Inventory Management System?

No business can operate effectively and expand without proper knowledge of inventory, including how much is in stock, where products are stored, and how much will be required for future orders. Inventory management software should be the keystone to the inventory management system as it monitors, controls and organizes product transactions, acquisitions to materials, and other production processes. This effectively helps the employees to turn to where they spend their work hours: less time to look for goods inefficiently or to track inventory by hand and more time to evaluate and prepare for development. When you search for the right inventory management program here are three essential considerations: 

• What features are important to your company? Bells and whistles are easy to get caught up in. Figure out what is currently missing in the organization and how an inventory management program will help fix such problems. Dream of how the Program should be implemented. Would you be using equipment such as bar code scanners, for example, or does it need to work with existing software programs?
• How much would you like to pay? You likely have a tighter budget as a small business, so it's important to get the best for your money. Understanding what characteristics are important to you goes hand in hand with the costs. You may find a cheap program that lacks key functionality, and you may find that you'll need to upgrade it until your company outgrows the capabilities of the software. The costly risk may cost you more than investing in an inexpensive, more stable solution in the first place.
• So much time does it take to learn? Owing to the present inefficient processes, you have encountered ample downtime and wasted man-hours. The last thing you need for a lengthy software training is to waste more time and resources. Choose user-friendly software that can be learned relatively easily by multiple employees. Be sure the service provider provides flexible on-line and on-site training and works with the schedules of the employees.

Without the right hardware, your software will not collect the data it needs to help you operate efficiently and provide valuable analytics. So it's important to know which resources are available and the features that suit your company best. Hardware items which significantly improve your inventory management  and essential requirements of the inventory management system are as follows:

Barcode scanners: There are various types of scanners to choose from, and you need to know what features are important to your business. Whether you work in the retail, healthcare, or hospitality sectors, it may be wise to have a 2D scanner. Does a little office run? Perhaps a bar code scanner type, handheld or entry-level, would suit the bill. Some scanners are equipped for health care disinfectants and more powerful for harsh factory environments. Mobile business is also a growing phenomenon nowadays within companies. If that's a route your organization takes, maybe a mobile solution would suffice to turn smartphones into scanners.

Barcode printers: Thermal printers are usually the tool of choice when selecting a printer for your small company and inventory management system requirements. Before investing, it is still important to know how and where this will be used. For instance: 

What is the intended volume of printing? Thermal printers are reliable for up to 20 thousand or more labels, from light to heavy-duty printing. 

• What environment will be used on the printer? Thermal labels will hold up even in the toughest warehouses but you should also consider the printer's location: should it be on a desk in a regular office environment or a dark, dusty war
• Like the labels? Which size are they going to be? How critical is the quality of the prints? Do labels need to be printed in lots or on-demand? 

Mobile Computers: Do you need data collection beyond your warehouse's four walls? A handheld device will then match your needs. Such portable computers are drop-resistant, have wireless networking, as well as features for either 38 key functions or a touch screen.

Following are the techniques that many small businesses use to manage inventory:

• Fine-tune your forecasting. ...
• Use the FIFO approach (first in, first out). ...
• Identify low-turn stock. ...
• Audit your stock. ...
• Use cloud-based inventory management software. ...
• Track your stock levels at all times. ...
• Reduce equipment repair times.

Features of a Smart Inventory Management System

List of features of the smart inventory management system are given below:

• RFID tags
• kitting
• lot or batch control
• Bar-codes
• Serialization

 and more but to mention a few. Every one of these inventory features will enable you to stay on course. Again, you need to know that every one of these systems has different tracking capabilities, and their functions differ.