Real-time inventory: tools to optimize management and tracking in omnichannel retail

Today, nearly 50% of French consumers engage in a hybrid shopping journey. Stock management has thus become a strategic challenge for businesses. Balancing in-store inventory, virtual orders, and logistical flows without real-time visibility leads to stockouts, overstock, and profit loss. To tackle these issues, centralized stock management integrated with real-time software is crucial for maintaining optimal product availability. This article delves into the best strategies to turn your stock management into a competitive advantage.

Optimizing real-time stock management

The importance of stock tracking

Centralized stock tracking provides complete visibility of inventory levels, aiding businesses in avoiding stockouts or excess inventory. This optimization helps reduce storage costs and enhance profitability. Additionally, real-time stock orchestration improves the customer experience by supplying accurate product availability information for a seamless shopping journey. 

Real-time stock management presents sector-specific challenges. In fashion, it is crucial to accurately monitor different sizes, colors, and collections to avoid stockouts of popular items. 

For perishable goods like food or cosmetics, expiration dates need to be managed, and stock rotation must be optimized to avoid losses.

Tools for efficient inventory management

Various tools provide effective stock and inventory management:

• Unified commerce platforms: These platforms centralize all stock-related data from both physical and virtual sales channels. They give businesses complete visibility of stock levels across all channels, enabling better demand anticipation and quicker responses to inventory fluctuation.
• Order management and stock planning tools: These automate numerous processes, such as receptions, returns, and transfers between warehouses. This automation minimizes human errors and enhances inventory accuracy.

Benefits of automatic updates

• Reduced inventory errors: Instant updates on each product movement eliminate discrepancies between actual and theoretical stocks, ensuring reliable inventories.
• Real-time product availability: Information (stock, orders) is synchronized across all channels, guaranteeing customers reliable data on product availability.
• Increased responsiveness: Logistics managers can quickly make informed decisions thanks to updated stock visibility. Teams save time and can focus on higher-value tasks.
• Optimized storage costs: Accurate data ensures adequate stock levels while minimizing financial immobilization.
• Improved customer experience: Consistent product availability across all touchpoints enhances customer satisfaction.

Integrating a unified commerce strategy

What is unified commerce?

Unified commerce is an approach that integrates all sales channels into one platform, allowing for seamless management of commercial operations. By unifying information from various sales channels, businesses obtain instant visibility of stock levels across all points of sale. This enables them to monitor product availability and manage inventory centrally. 

A unified stock vision ensures process optimization, facilitating supplier procurement and minimizing stockouts.

Impact on stock and product availability

Centralized stock management enables real-time visibility of inventory levels. Stock information is updated instantly, allowing logistics managers to make informed decisions about product transfers between different channels. 

With a unified commerce solution, businesses can easily analyze vast amounts of data. Insights on past sales, customer purchasing behaviors, seasonal trends, and marketing campaigns help predict demand levels more accurately for each reference.

Synergies between sales channels

Synergies between sales channels create a smooth experience for customers while ensuring efficient stock management for businesses. With centralized stock data, businesses can anticipate demand and dynamically adjust stock distribution. 

Thanks to Orisha Commerce’s unified commerce software, companies can sell on any channel while ensuring product availability. When a customer places an online order, the system identifies the most relevant storage point for shipment: the central warehouse for distant customers or the nearest store for faster delivery. This flexibility improves the customer experience by ensuring each order is fulfilled promptly.

Enhancing flexibility and responsiveness in operations

Implementing an intelligent replenishment system

Setting up an intelligent replenishment system offers businesses proactive stock management. This system collects real-time order information, enabling precise tracking of stock quantities and identification of out-of-stock products. Each stock movement is recorded in a centralized digital document, streamlining traceability. When critical thresholds are reached, the system automatically triggers a supplier order, adjusting quantities based on demand. Predictive algorithms’ accurate calculations enhance management efficiency. This strategy also helps businesses create value by boosting customer satisfaction and profitability.

Managing stock movements accurately

Accurate management of stock movements ensures each item’s tracking from reception to sale. Utilizing technologies such as barcodes, QR codes, or RFID, each product is easily tracked throughout its distribution chain. 

Stock movements can be automated using specialized software that triggers actions based on defined events. For example, upon receiving new goods, the system can automatically adjust stock quantities and notify the responsible teams for storage. Returns are another critical aspect of managing stock movements. They must be swiftly recorded and integrated into the inventory to avoid errors. 

With Orisha Commerce’s unified commerce platform, businesses benefit from centralized stock management tailored to the challenges of sectors such as fashion, sports, or home. Unlike fragmented solutions that complicate stock and order tracking, Orisha Commerce allows inventory synchronization. 

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In the fashion sector, the management of sizes and collections is crucial. Our solution ensures precise visibility on every reference, thereby limiting unsold items. For the sports sector, where stocks are often distributed across stores, warehouses, and virtual channels, Orisha Commerce’s solution guarantees the constant availability of key references.

In the home sector, the quantity and variety of items make management complex. Our software simplifies the automation of stock management and supplier procurement. Advanced features like stock movement tracking and predictive analysis help Orisha Commerce eliminate errors related to inventory discrepancies and delays in updating stock quantities. Teams can access an intuitive menu that groups all stock analysis functionalities, facilitating smooth operational management both in-store and online.

Optimizing delivery to meet customer expectations

Integrating unified data allows for more accurate prediction of future demand. These insights feed predictive algorithms, anticipating popular items at a given period and adjusting stock quantities accordingly. To optimize delivery, another strategy is to transfer stocks between stores or warehouses based on demand. When a product is out of stock in one store but available in another, an automated system can quickly trigger a stock transfer. Ultimately, optimized stock management contributes to flexible delivery options.

Unified stock management is the solution to the logistical challenges of omnichannel retail. Integrating a stock management solution like Orisha Commerce’s allows businesses to benefit from real-time visibility, better anticipation of needs and flows, and smooth supplier replenishment management. This approach enhances the customer experience by ensuring immediate product availability and flexible delivery options. Orisha Commerce supports brands in transforming the sector with the necessary tools to optimize their operations and stock tracking.