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Clothing inventory management is the glamorous side of the glamorous industry clothing store inventory software
When it comes to the trends, styles and tastes of your business, it’s important to stay one step ahead of the demand curve. Of course, if consumer demand were so easy to predict, everyone would mortgage their house and go into business. Instead, demand planning and proper inventory management help businesses stay one step ahead. clothing store inventory software
In the apparel industry
Managing apparel inventory presents unique challenges. Of course, traditional best practices in inventory management must be followed. But there are also unique strategies for managing apparel inventory that fashion retailers need to consider. They need to quickly unload products that are declining in popularity and be ready to quickly order the most popular products for the next season (or the next month).
Why is fashion inventory management important?
Good fashion inventory management is important for three main reasons.
1. it prevents stock-outs and increases customer satisfaction.
2. it keeps inventory costs down and prevents retailers from tying up vital resources in areas such as warehouse space and insurance.
3. investors are increasingly looking at a company’s inventory to assess its health.
Preventing stock depletion and improving customer satisfaction
Running out of stock can have a negative impact on customer behaviour towards a brand in both the short and long term. In the short term, retailers lose buying opportunities and consumers have little chance of expecting the product to be back in stock. They are more likely to look for another retailer to meet their needs, especially if they shop online.
In the longer term, running out of stock can undermine customer confidence. If customers can’t rely on you to stock the trendy products you sell, they will stop visiting your virtual or physical store and go to a more reliable supplier.
Keep shipping costs low
Clothing inventory management costs money. While keeping stock is an unavoidable part of doing business, holding too much inventory can be burdensome for your business. Healthy businesses maintain a healthy cash flow, which they can’t do when money is tied up in things like extra man-hours to manage inventory, extra space to store it, or higher insurance costs.
In addition
Too much stock means potential loss through damage, lost items or theft.clothing store inventory software
Keeping investors happy
Over time
stock ratios show how well an organisation is doing from production to fulfilling customer orders. While investors may use different methods to assess a company’s inventory, they are looking for the same answers, such as, “Is this company operating efficiently?”.
Is this company operating efficiently in terms of production and sales?
Is this company using ‘creative’ (read: less than ideal or even fraudulent) accounting to hide poor results?
Effective inventory management is an essential part of running a clothing company, both for internal employees and external stakeholders.
Strategies for fashion inventory management
Retailers have been able to use a number of approaches to address the problems associated with garment inventory management.
Paper-based approach
Smaller retailers can compile their own list of goods and then carry out a manual inventory. This may involve dividing the list into categories and then adding subcategories for different styles. For example, one category might be ‘wrap dresses’ and different subcategories range from size to colour.
The advantage of this approach is that it is inexpensive and easy to implement for a small boutique. The disadvantage is that as your business grows, this inventory management method cannot be scaled up. It is also more prone to human error, regardless of your size.
Spreadsheet method
The spreadsheet method involves the use of Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to track inventory. Inventory clerks count items manually with pen and paper and then enter the data into a master spreadsheet.
The use of spreadsheets is better for small businesses because it is easier to store information, add new categories and subcategories by simply adding columns and rows, and use spreadsheet functionality to perform some basic data analysis. It’s also easier for retailers to access their inventory management information on the go when using a cloud-based tool like Google Forms.
On the other hand
This method is just as error-prone as the paper-and-pencil method, if not more so. Enumeration errors can occur both during the enumeration process and when manually entering data into a spreadsheet. POS system
In addition, if you are not using a tool such as Google Sheets, there is a risk that the versions of the files will be different, which means that your clothing inventory management system will not have a single source of truth or a master data set.