Inventory control is an essential to any successful business, but it can be tricky to manage properly. Especially when you consider that the future of inventory management systems is constantly evolving.
"Effectively, ecommerce has gone from being this inventory-heavy, 'Let me store the packages, put them in a box, put a label on them, and send them to customers' to 'Let me watch the numbers move around on a screen.' It's just mind-boggling how that's all evolved," says Parag Mamnani, CEO and founder of Webgility.
If that's not enough, some reports suggest almost half of small businesses don't track their inventory. And the majority (37%) of the ones that do say stock issues are their biggest challenge, according to 2023 inventory management statistics.
And that's not surprising, given that issues like stockouts cost US retailers around $4.6 billion in 2021. These figures prove the importance of establishing efficient and accurate inventory strategies.
So if you haven't committed to a way to manage your entire inventory, consider adopting an inventory cycle count into your workflow.
Explore our comprehensive inventory cycle count guide to understand what that is, its benefits, and how to perform it.