By PDI CStore Essentials Team on May 04, 2017

Real-Time Inventory Management is Transforming Business Landscape

In the retail landscape, inventory is one of the most important elements of a business, and you need to have precise information about its status to be able to better cater to your customers’ needs. Since inventory affects several important business processes and decisions, efficient inventory management is critical for success.

Fortunately, the times when everything had to be recorded in a ledger and items were tracked manually are long gone. Business efficiency has been significantly increased over the past decade, thanks to the bleeding edge technology. Now c-stores and other retail businesses can implement a flexible and wireless real-time inventory system to optimize their data collection processes.

What does Real-Time Inventory Management (RTIM) mean?

RTIM is the process that allows you to track items in real-time. In other words, when a customer makes a purchase from your convenience store, the availability of the item is updated in the database and marked as sold right away. With the help of RTIM, businesses can get information about the current status of their inventory at a specific point in time.

How Real-Time Inventory Helps Retail Businesses in Better Management

#1 Customer Experience

With accurate stock information, retail businesses can enhance the customer experience by making sure the goods they are looking for are always available. The RTIM system allows your employees to explore the availability of particular items and when they are scheduled to come in, making it easy for them to provide the right information to customers. You may not think of it as a big deal, but in the long run, it can have a dramatic effect on brand image and customer loyalty.

#2 Avoid Bottlenecks

Unexpected bottlenecks reduce efficiency and affect your bottom line if they are left unchecked. A fairly simple example of this would be when a customer asks a salesperson about the availability of a certain item, and they have to call the warehouse because the information is not updated in the system. This not only results in wastage of time and resources but creates a bottleneck that hinders your salespeople in efficiently and effectively catering to other customers’ needs.

But with the data generated by your RTIM system, you can recognize and predict existing and unforeseen bottlenecks in your processes, giving you an edge over your retail competitors. This form of workflow optimization can result in consistent growth of your business.

 

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#3 Ease of Documentation

Aside from providing you tangible real-time results and actionable data, your RTIM solution can generate detailed, useful reports regarding your inventory inflows, outflow, and remaining stock. Not only will these reports help you in making important business decisions, but they will also come in handy in a number of other tasks, for example, preparing official documentation and auditing.

#4 Thorough Inventory Analysis

The data you obtain from the RTIM system can be analyzed for identifying hot sellers and consumer trends, enabling you to get a competitive advantage and maximize your ROI. With the help of the detailed reports, you can restock precisely when you needed the inventory and avoid unnecessary holding costs due to overstocking, which also will save valuable resources. This is especially beneficial for perishable goods, as with real-time inventory, overstocking of such items is almost completely avoidable.

Want to know how inventory management software can help you with real-time inventory management of your c-store? Schedule a Free Demo of CStore Essentials software today.

Published by PDI CStore Essentials Team May 4, 2017