Technology advancement has changed almost all sectors of human life, including the retail world. While retail has been transitioning into the digital world for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the minds of those who have not undergone a digital transformation. Worldwide lockdowns pushed online shopping into overdrive over the past two years. This year, analysts expect over 266 million digital buyers and forecast a steady increase for the next few years. Consequently, businesses that provide cross-channel shopping experiences are more likely to succeed.

While the digitalisation of data and workflows have been trending for the last few years, the same cannot be said in inventory management. Due to poor inventory planning, many businesses have yet to report 100% inventory accuracy or the ability to sense demand. According to a ZebraÕs Annual Global Shopper Study survey, retailers consider inventory issues as the top complaint in their workflows. As inventory visibility plays an essential role in customer satisfaction, fixing the issues must be a top priority for retailer stakeholders.

Most inventory issues can be boiled down into three groups Ð data fragmentation, data capture, and data analysis.

Data fragmentation has been a persistent issue for most organisations due to the lack of integrated information systems between operational functions and supply chain organisations. This issue hurts inventory visibility, robbing stakeholders of valuable insights into real-time inventory levels essential for decision-making and inventory forecasting. Workflows also become inefficient, particularly when there is no accurate way of doing quality control and tracing stocks across multiple warehouses.

The rising eCommerce and mCommerce activities are also in desperate need of a new workflow to keep up with customer demand. The manual method is no longer sufficient for capturing, recording, and processing stocks with multiple data fields. The lack of automation also prevents stakeholders from monitoring demands in real-time, creating challenges in data analysis that can very well prevent organisations from achieving their goals.

AdvstockÕs small business stocktaking app aims to address these inventory management issues in the retail industry. First of all, our self-service stock and inventory app allow small businesses to conduct stocktakes as frequently as needed by leveraging smartphones. Unlike other inventory tracking systems, our retail inventory software offers a mix of integrated hardware options (handheld scanners, iPhone and Android apps, and pocket scanners) that support our self-service stocktake software. This ability streamlines workflows and minimises human error by leveraging barcode scanners to record inventory data.

The retail inventory software can also capture data in real-time, boosting your inventory visibility for better decision-making. Our small business stocktaking app comes in several versions to support different inventory needs Ð stocktaking apps for convenience stores, stocktaking apps for pharmacies, stocktaking apps for food and beverage, and stocktaking apps for bars and clubs. You will have all the necessary fields plus a reporting feature to capture your inventory data for in-depth analysis.

Get in touch with us today to see what the future holds for your businessÕs inventory management.