Running a small retail business comes with unique challenges, especially in today’s competitive market. Independent retailers often struggle with limited budgets, attracting customers, and maintaining a strong digital presence. However, by leveraging SEO, content creation, and social media, small retailers can overcome these pain points and achieve sustainable growth. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the pain points faced by small independent retailers and how the services offered by Sapient eCommerce can help address these challenges.
Understanding the Pain Points of Small Independent Retailers
Small independent retailers face several key challenges that can hinder their growth and success:
Why Small Retailers Must Invest in SEO, Content Creation, and Social Media
To overcome these pain points, small independent retailers must adopt a multichannel marketing approach that includes SEO, content creation, and social media. Here’s why these three services are essential:
1. SEO: Enhancing Online Visibility Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for small retailers looking to improve their online visibility. By optimizing their website for relevant keywords, local search terms, and user experience, retailers can attract more organic traffic and reach potential customers who are actively searching for their products or services.
How Sapient eCommerce Can Help: Sapient eCommerce offers comprehensive SEO services, including keyword research, on-page optimization, and local SEO strategies. We help small retailers rank higher in search engine results, driving more traffic to their websites and increasing their chances of converting visitors into customers.
2. Content Creation: Building Authority and Trust Content creation involves producing valuable and relevant content that resonates with your target audience. This can include blog posts, product descriptions, and educational resources that establish your brand as an authority in your niche. High-quality content not only attracts customers but also builds trust and encourages repeat business.
How Sapient eCommerce Can Help: Our content creation services are designed to engage your audience and enhance your brand’s credibility. We create compelling blog posts, informative articles, and optimized product descriptions that speak directly to your customers’ needs, driving both traffic and conversions.
3. Social Media: Engaging and Expanding Your Audience Social media platforms offer small retailers an opportunity to connect with their audience, showcase products, and build a community around their brand. Through consistent posting, targeted ads, and customer engagement, social media can drive traffic to both online and physical stores.
How Sapient eCommerce Can Help: Sapient eCommerce provides expert social media management and advertising services. We help small retailers create and execute social media strategies that increase brand awareness, drive engagement, and generate sales. Whether it’s through organic posts or targeted ads, we ensure your social media efforts deliver measurable results.
Retail Marketing Strategies for Small Shops: A Fresh Approach
Attracting more customers to your small retail business requires a creative, multichannel approach. With limited resources, it’s essential to maximize both in-store and online opportunities using simple yet effective marketing strategies. Below are actionable tips to help you enhance your retail marketing efforts:
The in-store experience is crucial for attracting and retaining customers. An eye-catching storefront, thoughtful merchandising, and a welcoming atmosphere can significantly impact sales.
Key Actions:
With billions of active users, Meta (formerly Facebook) is a powerful platform for small retailers. By optimizing your business page and utilizing Meta’s ad-targeting tools, you can reach specific demographics and drive both online and in-store traffic.
Key Actions:
Pinterest is an effective platform for promoting products, especially if you have an online store. High-quality images, tutorials, and seasonal inspiration boards can help your products rank higher in Pinterest search results.
Key Actions:
Don’t rely solely on foot traffic; use SEO to attract local customers searching online. By optimizing your website for local search terms, you can drive more traffic to your physical storefront.
Key Actions:
Conclusion: Maximizing Marketing Impact with Sapient eCommerce
Small independent retailers face numerous challenges, but with the right marketing strategies, they can thrive in today’s competitive market. By investing in SEO, content creation, and social media, small retailers can overcome their pain points and achieve sustainable growth.
At Sapient eCommerce, we specialize in helping small businesses like yours succeed. Our tailored SEO, content creation, and social media services are designed to enhance your online presence, attract more customers, and increase sales. Let us help you take your retail marketing to the next level.
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Introduction
In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, social media often seems like an essential tool for business growth. However, it can also be a significant drain on resources if not utilized effectively. This guide aims to shed light on why social media marketing may not be working for your business and offers actionable strategies to maximize its potential.
The Prelude: The Social Media Dilemma
Entrepreneurs often find themselves in a love-hate relationship with social media. It promises vast reach and engagement but can also lead to wasted time, money, and energy. Let’s delve into the core issues:
Problem: Social media can consume hours of your day, leading to missed deadlines and reduced productivity. Solution:
Problem: Social media advertising and content creation can be expensive, with a slow or negligible return on investment (ROI). Solution:
Problem: Managing social media can be mentally and emotionally exhausting without immediate visible benefits. Solution:
Problem: Maintaining authenticity while navigating algorithm-driven environments can be challenging. Solution:
Problem: Social media can be unpredictable, making it hard to rely on for consistent results. Solution:
Problem: Balancing social media efforts with other business responsibilities can be overwhelming. Solution:
The Other Side of the Coin: The Benefits of Social Media
While social media has its challenges, it also offers significant benefits when used effectively:
Social media can exponentially increase your brand’s reach. By consistently sharing valuable content, you can attract a global audience.
Use cost-effective strategies like influencer marketing and user-generated content to expand your reach without breaking the bank.
Engage with your audience authentically to build loyalty and long-term relationships.
Utilize real-time analytics to track engagement, monitor campaign performance, and make data-driven decisions.
Showcase your brand’s values and mission authentically to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Leverage social media to network with industry experts, potential collaborators, and like-minded individuals.
Actionable To-Dos and Helpful Apps
To make the most of your social media efforts, consider these actionable steps and tools:
Conclusion
Social media can be a double-edged sword for businesses. By understanding the common pitfalls and implementing effective strategies, you can transform social media from a time and energy sink into a powerful tool for business growth. With the right approach, social media can significantly enhance your brand presence, drive engagement, and ultimately contribute to your business success.
For more insights, consider reading resources like the Intero Digital Report on SMB digital marketing trends and strategies for 2024.
Discover the latest trends in social media platform usage and their implications for branding. Recent data reveals significant shifts that business owners and their marketing teams must understand to stay ahead.
Key Findings from the Sprout Social Consumer Pulse Survey
The latest Consumer Pulse survey by Sprout Social indicates a noteworthy shift in social media platform preferences among users. Notably, Instagram (65%) has overtaken Facebook (64%) as the most popular platform among the 2,059 surveyed consumers.
Demographic Insights
The survey’s participants included 1,009 US consumers and 1,050 UK consumers, each with at least one social media account and following a minimum of five brands. While not a global or perfectly representative sample, the findings still offer valuable insights. The survey demographics were segmented as follows:
Social Media Usage by Age Group
Analyzing social media usage by age group reveals distinct preferences:
A significant observation is that 45% of consumers have taken a “social media detox” in the past six months, with 51% planning to do so in the next six months. This trend highlights a growing need for temporary breaks due to reasons like mental health and social media fatigue.
Engagement Trends Across Generations
The survey provides insights into which content formats engage different age groups the most:
Note: This is a significant shift in platform preference. It is age dependent. Older people still use Facebook while younger people prefer Instagram. Depending on your target audience you may need to adjust your social media marketing strategy.
Interestingly, despite YouTube Shorts averaging over 70 billion daily views, this format did not feature prominently in engagement metrics, possibly due to differing measurement criteria. Sprout Social defines engagement as interactions like clicks, shares, and comments, rather than just views.
Preferred Content Formats
According to the survey, the most entertaining types of brand content are:
Contrary to the trend of “lo-fi” content, which is raw and unpolished, the survey suggests that production quality still significantly impacts consumer engagement.
The Role of AI in Content Creation
The proliferation of AI-generated content is a concern for many consumers, with 83% agreeing it contributes to the saturation of social media and 80% believing it exacerbates misinformation. Most consumers feel that AI-generated content should be disclosed, though opinions vary on who should be responsible for this – 33% say brands, 29% say social networks, and only 6% think no disclosure is necessary. Notably, 46% of consumers are less likely to buy from brands that use undisclosed AI-generated content.
Reasons for Unfollowing Brands
Consumers are most likely to unfollow brands due to:
Younger consumers tend to unfollow influencers for posting too little, while older consumers are more likely to unfollow for posting too much.
Moving Beyond Demographics
While demographic targeting remains a common strategy, it has limitations due to the diversity within age groups. Alternative targeting methods, such as psychographics and behavioral data, offer more nuanced and effective ways to reach specific audiences.
Take-Home Message
Understanding these shifts and trends in social media usage is crucial for businesses aiming to engage effectively with their target audiences. By staying informed and adapting strategies accordingly, business owners can navigate the ever-evolving social media landscape successfully.
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We’ll have a chat to figure out where you are in your social media efforts, where you’d like to be, and map out a road to get you there.
Digital marketing has become increasingly important in recent years, and as we move into 2023, it is crucial for businesses to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices to ensure they are reaching their target audience effectively. If you’re taxed for time, the best solution is to hire a digital marketing agency. But if you have the time, this article will help you. We will cover how marketers are spending their money in 2023, what we learned in 2022, and where SEO is going in 2023. Additionally, we will share five no-brainer SMS and email marketing strategies you should implement today and 10 brilliant social ad strategies to outsmart your competition.
As digital marketing continues to evolve, so do the ways in which marketers spend their money. According to a recent study, the top areas where marketers plan to increase their spending in 2023 include social media advertising, video advertising, content marketing, and email marketing.
One of the reasons social media advertising is becoming increasingly popular is due to its targeting capabilities. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow businesses to target their ads to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, making it easier to reach the right audience with the right message.
Video advertising is also on the rise, with more businesses turning to platforms like YouTube and TikTok to reach their audience through engaging and shareable video content. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2023, video advertising will account for more than 82% of all internet traffic.
Content marketing and email marketing are also expected to see a rise in spending, as businesses look to build strong relationships with their audience through valuable and informative content. Email marketing remains a popular choice for businesses, as it continues to offer a high return on investment (ROI) with an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent.
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In 2022, we saw a shift towards user-focused SEO, with search engines like Google placing a greater emphasis on user experience (UX) and relevance. In 2023, we can expect to see this trend continue, with search engines prioritizing sites that provide a high-quality user experience, as well as relevant and informative content.
One of the biggest changes we can expect to see in 2023 is the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in search algorithms. With AI, search engines will be better able to understand the context of a user’s search query, allowing them to deliver more relevant results.
Another trend to watch out for is the growing importance of mobile optimization. As more people access the internet through their mobile devices, it’s essential for businesses to ensure their website is optimized for mobile users.
Personalization – One of the most effective ways to increase engagement with your audience is through personalization. By addressing your subscribers by name and tailoring your messaging to their interests, you can build stronger relationships and drive more conversions.
Segmentation – Segmenting your email and SMS lists based on subscriber behavior and demographics can help you deliver more targeted and relevant messages. This, in turn, can lead to higher open and click-through rates, as well as increased conversions.
Automated Emails and SMS – Automated emails and SMS messages can help you save time while delivering timely and relevant content to your subscribers. Some examples of automated messages include welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups.
Timing – Timing is everything when it comes to email and SMS marketing. By sending messages at the right time, you can increase the likelihood of your subscribers opening and engaging with your content. This may vary depending on your audience and the type of message you’re sending, so be sure to test and optimize your send times.
Mobile Optimization – With more and more people accessing their emails and SMS messages on mobile devices, it’s essential to optimize your messages for mobile. This means using a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and making sure your messages are easy to read and interact with on a mobile device.
Use A/B Testing – A/B testing can help you determine which ad creatives, copy, and targeting options perform best with your audience. By testing different variations, you can optimize your campaigns and increase your ROI.
Leverage User-Generated Content – User-generated content (UGC) can be a powerful tool for social advertising. By featuring UGC in your ads, you can build trust with your audience and showcase your product or service in a more authentic way.
Retargeting – Retargeting allows you to reach people who have already shown an interest in your business or product. By retargeting these users with relevant ads, you can increase the likelihood of them converting.
Use Lookalike Audiences – Lookalike audiences allow you to target people who are similar to your existing customers. This can be an effective way to reach new prospects who are more likely to be interested in your business.
Experiment with Ad Formats – Social media platforms offer a variety of ad formats, including video, carousel, and canvas ads. By experimenting with different formats, you can find the ones that resonate best with your audience and drive the most conversions.
Localize Your Ads – If you have a brick-and-mortar store or serve a specific geographic area, localizing your ads can help you reach people in your target location. This can be done through targeting options or by using location-based keywords and ad copy.
Use Social Proof – Social proof, such as customer reviews and testimonials, can help build trust with your audience and increase the likelihood of them converting. Consider featuring social proof in your ads to increase their effectiveness.
Include Calls-to-Action – A clear call-to-action (CTA) can help drive conversions by telling your audience exactly what action to take. Make sure your ad includes a strong and relevant CTA that aligns with your campaign goals.
Monitor and Adjust – Social ad campaigns require ongoing monitoring and optimization to be successful. Regularly check your campaign metrics and adjust your targeting, ad creatives, and messaging as needed.
Measure ROI – To determine the success of your social ad campaigns, it’s essential to measure your ROI. By tracking your conversions and comparing them to your ad spend, you can identify which campaigns are most effective and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and it’s essential for businesses to stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices. By following the tips and strategies outlined above, you can develop a comprehensive and effective digital marketing strategy that helps you reach your target audience and drive conversions.
Not all searches entered into Google or other search engines are equal. There are several important categories of searches that Internet users perform. In this article we focus on:
We will discuss several stages your audience will move through as they progress from general interest to a specific preference and finally to a resolution of their needs. We will also see how several key search types aligned with audience intent and how you can utilize your knowledge of your audience to better drive the right traffic to your website. The best way to get inside the heads of searchers and figure out the types of queries they are using is to look at the stages of search and buyer intent throughout these stages.
This may change a little because a user isn’t always looking to buy something but the path and process will be similar. Users will start with a broad topic and gradually refine their search terms to be more specific as they discover exactly what they want. At the beginning of the purchase path, Organic Search helps customers gain awareness of your brand product or service. At this beginning stage, your potential customer has identified a need and is seeking a resolution. Let’s use an example potential customer to illustrate the search process.
Let’s say Edward decides he needs a computer, but he doesn’t know what kind. Like most people, he turns to Google and enters the keywords best computers to buy. Looking through the search engine results; Edward quickly realizes that this search is too broad. To get the best results, he will need to refine his preferences and evaluate specific types of computers. Edward decides he would like a laptop instead of a desktop computer, so he refines his search to the best laptop to buy his results. He is shown a huge variety of different laptops and realizes he needs to narrow down his choices. There are different laptops for different uses. Some people use laptops for school. Others use laptops for gaming or graphic design. In this example, Edward decides he wants a gaming laptop, so he looks up gaming laptop reviews to help him decide on a specific choice. After reading reviews, Edward has decided on a specific laptop brand and model he wants.
Occasionally, your potential customers will seek the best prices, the highest quality products, or the service provider or merchant with the best online reputation. In our example, Edward has narrowed his search and is homing in on the best gaming laptop based on customer reviews as well as the best vendor from whom to make the purchase.
Edward is now in the purchase stage and searches for a specific laptop brand and model number.
So – your potential customers start with 1) general awareness of what you were looking for. They then 2) evaluate those choices and develop a specific preference. 3) They look into that preference and 4) decide and move on to the Purchase or Resolution Stage.
Having an Organic presence (via Organic SEO) is useful in all stages of the cycle but is more useful the closer you get to the actual purchase phase. You generally don’t need a lot of visibility during the initial stage of awareness, although it can be beneficial to have a brand presence here, so users recognize your brand or website later. It can be helpful to have organic visibility in both the evaluation and preference intent phase because the user may decide to convert and remember your site.
The purchase phase can be very beneficial to SEO visibility because this is where the user is actively looking to buy a product, hire a service provider, or perform a specific action. Their query means they do not have a specific site in mind for their purchase. If your site has visibility during this stage, you have a greater chance of attracting and converting users.
In addition to the stages of a search, you have specific types of search queries. Each type of search query has a different intent associated with it. These types of queries are navigational, informational, and transactional.
The first type of query is known as a navigational query. In this case, the user has a specific website in mind. Perhaps they have spent some time on a specific website in the past and enjoyed that site’s content. In this type of query, they search for the website or brand name directly and visit the brand’s website. Let’s use Adidas as an example. The high brand focus means that users are looking for your brand by exact name and will be more engaged with your website usually resulting in higher conversion rates.
Note: You should be constantly aware of your brand being mentioned on search engines results pages and social media platforms. A negative story about your brand may influence potential customers’ decision to visit your site let alone convert and make a purchase. You should also note that brand searches can pull up your Twitter account and your latest tweets. It’s important to ensure that your social media team always maintains brand focus on social channels and posts regularly.
With these types of searches, people are looking to get a bit more information about a topic or to make an informed decision before making a purchase or hiring a service provider. This is the middle stage of the buying funnel. An example would be someone searching for reviews while looking to hire a local general contractor to install an HVAC system. Note that during this stage, users are more likely to notice suggested search queries. These are queries people have typed into Google when searching for a general contractor or a gaming laptop. When potential customers see the list of suggested queries, it may change the query they use. You can use suggested queries to generate potential content ideas for your website.
At this point, browsers are ready to make a purchase. They lean heavily on Google to provide the results they need for their search query. At this stage, your potential customer has decided to purchase a specific gaming laptop or hire a particular general contractor after reviewing all relevant information.
Note that not all transactional queries have to result in an actual transaction. Someone could be trying to sign up for a newsletter or create a free account. These are also steps along the road to becoming a paying customer.
These three types of queries are closely aligned with the stages of search and are great for ensuring that you are targeting the right keywords to match the searcher intent of your target audience and generating conversions
If your website is not attracting the amount of traffic you’d like, a lack of keyword research and lack of or poorly written and organized Meta Data is the usual suspect.
The first step in driving traffic to your website is to conduct thorough keyword research based on the words used by your ideal customers when they search for your products and/or services. That’s beating a dead horse at this point. However, if you want Google to actually recognize your target keywords and present your website to those potential customers, you must optimize, that is, weave those targeted keywords into your site’s pages and be clever about it.
Meta Data. Think of it as a Table of Contents. When Google wants to know what a webpage is about, they take a read through , crawl, the table of contents in search of keywords that match search queries. Of the three elements of meta data, your title tag is the most important to Google, hence, the most important to everyone who matters. Here’s an example of the connection between a potential customer’s search intent and your title tag.
If someone is in the market for a design/build contractor in Miami, for example, and enters those keywords in a search:
search engines begin to search for websites that contain these keywords within their title tags. After all, what good is a search engine if it doesn’t find what I’m searching for.
Speaking of reading a text, all the best students know how to read quickly and efficiently. They never ever read a textbook straight through. The best ones use the SQ3R method or one similar to it. They read the title, then go through reading “Headings” and “Subheadings” to understand the structure and purpose of the text. Google is an excellent reader. Think of the H1 heading tag as you would the heading of a chapter in a textbook and the H2 as an important but subordinate subheading ( there’s also H3, H4, H5, H6, etc., but they are pretty insignificant as far a search engines are concerned). The H1 and H2 headings should be on each page of a website. They serve as the title of the page visible to both search engines and visitors. They inform both Google and visitors about the purpose and structure of the page. It makes sense, therefore, to “naturally” wrap these headers tags in the same keywords used in the title tag. It adds a flow factor to the reading.
A friendly reminder – one size does not fit all. You do not optimize a website. You optimize each page of the site. Each page should have its own distinct title tag, header tags, and meta description. If they do not, the site is perfectly positioned to get dinged in the head by Google for duplicate content, a BIG no-no. We must agree. Who enjoys reading the same content over and again?
Finally, Meta Descriptions, shh! It’s a secret. Meta descriptions cannot be seen on a website page or within a browser. It appears in search results under the title tag and URL. A meta description is the block of text that describes the content visitors will find on the corresponding webpage.
The keywords included in meta descriptions, those BOLDED, are not ranking factors. They do, however, match the keywords used by users in their search query. They can, therefore, be used to direct traffic to your website thereby increasing your site’s click through rate (CTR), another important Google ranking factor.
Take-Home Message
It’s all about delivering value to the people who visit your website in search of information, services, or products. They are all looking for answers to solve an existing problem. Your job is to present valuable information that answers the call. If your site enhances the viewer’s experience, even just with heading tags and meta descriptions, this will lead to positive results for your company, the user, and the search engines.
By optimizing keywords into your website pages, it sends a signal to Google letting it know that your content is relevant, valuable, and trustworthy.
Final note, promise: If you do not write your own meta tags, Google will write them for you. They’re excellent readers but no so hot when it comes to writing.
Aug 2021
Inventory is the heart and soul of your business, and it’s constantly moving throughout the supply chain, including:
Along with the type of products you sell, your warehouse location(s), and your inventory’s current value — keeping tabs on ecommerce inventory data and information at all times can be challenging, error-prone, and time-consuming. Yet when the accounting period ends, your accountant is going to expect accurate reporting.
That’s why online brands ditch the manual work and implement technology that makes record-keeping a breeze.
In this article, we explore:
Inventory records are repositories of data pertaining to each item in a brand’s product line, including:
Each entry must have a description of the SKU along with relevant data. These records are either created manually or digitally.
Keeping proper inventory records provides better inventory control and visibility into inventory as changes occur.
Since inventory is noted as an asset in a business’s balance sheets, you will be expected to provide accurate inventory information at the end of a fiscal year or accounting period.
Here is why every business owner should be keeping proper inventory records.
Consistently keeping track of what’s leaving and entering the warehouse ensures inventory accuracy and inventory reconciliation.
Inaccurate inventory counts can lead to inventory shrinkage, or when stock is less than the recorded balance in the accounting record, and it can cause major discrepancies that can throw off profit margins and other financials.
Accurate inventory records make the inventory accounting process much more bearable.
Keeping track of inventory value and count is legally required of all retailers and manufacturers, as per the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and regulated by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
By maintaining a proper inventory record-keeping process, you’re also able to track changes in value, so you know how much your inventory is worth at the end of an accounting period.
Keeping up-to-date inventory records help you prevent stockouts and have a better understanding on when it’s time to reorder more inventory.
Keep in mind that not having enough inventory can cause out-of-stock issues but storing too much inventory can increase carrying costs and lead you to potentially accumulate too much dead stock.
Since inventory is constantly moving throughout the ecommerce supply chain, the use of real-time inventory management technology makes it easier to check if all inventory is accounted for when comparing physical inventory and electronic records.
Being able to track inventory without the manual work can reduce risk while optimizing operational costs, including storage fees.
If your records aren’t up-to-date, you and your team risk making important business decisions based on incorrect data.
By using technology to track inventory in real time, you can reduce mistakes by cutting out time-consuming, manual work.
Tracking inventory in real time can be done using inventory management solutions, including inventory apps or a more robust system like ERP inventory software. These systems allow you to aggregate data by connecting your upstream manufacturing activities with your downstream sales.
With real-time data tied to inventory, you’re also given the information needed to identify trends and forecast demand, so you can make better predictions on inventory reorder quantities and levels.
Depending on the number of SKUs you sell, your order volume, and the size of your company, the complexity of inventory record-keeping varies.
No matter how intricate your business is, here are some of the top inventory management strategies you can implement.
An inventory audit is defined as the process of checking a company’s actual inventory levels against their financial records to ensure accurate inventory accounting. To make inventory auditing more efficient, it is helpful for retailers to keep physical records of all inventory along with online backups (or vice versa).
Keeping original physical copies can be a legal requirement in some states. And it also secures your information in case of a situation where your cloud server’s integrity is compromised.
Find an accountant you can trust and get their insights into how to keep inventory records for your business.
In most cases, the information you need during the accounting period includes COGS, raw materials (if applicable), beginning inventory, and the value of ending inventory (what’s left over at the end of an accounting period).
You can also ask your accountant for their advice on how to choose the best inventory valuation method based on the type of products you sell and your typical sales volume.
There are many ways to track and record inventory. No matter what method you choose, the most important thing is to stay consistent to ensure accuracy.
At the end of an accounting period or financial year, you will need to calculate how much your inventory is worth.
The most common valuation methods in ecommerce include:
When it comes to keeping records on inventory, you have two options:
As your business grows, adapting a perpetual inventory system is your best bet.
This can be done by investing in an inventory management software, which will help you track inventory flow in real time and record live updates without you lifting a finger.
A powerful inventory management software makes inventory record-keeping a breeze.
By automating the tracking of all inventory and real-time changes, you can optimize inventory to meet demand and improve supply chain efficiency.
With the right software, you can easily download records and custom reports, so you have all the information you need when it’s time to meet with your accountant.
Here is a breakdown of how an inventory management software works.
As you expand your business, you most likely will branch out from selling exclusively on your online store.
Marketplaces (e.g., Amazon and Walmart) and social media platforms (e.g., Instagram and Facebook) provide direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands different avenues to sell through, so they can broaden their customer reach.
That’s why many merchants implement a multichannel inventory management software, which tracks inventory across channels and aggregates records all in one place.
If you partner with a technology-enabled 3PL you get access to built-in inventory management tools that also allow you to track inventory across channels and distribution centers in one place.
This allows merchants to spread inventory across multiple fulfillment centers and be able to track inventory in real time through one dashboard instead of relying on multiple sources.
Arguably, your inventory management software is only as good as the inventory reports it generates. Calculating and tracking these metrics in spreadsheets or through multiple different integrations can be troublesome.
Inventory management technology automatically aggregates data, so you can pull custom reports whenever you need them.
For instance, many order fulfillment platform automatically pulls reports and data on SKU velocity, inventory days on hand, inventory turnover rate, and much more.
Inventory management software allows you to automatically set reorder point notifications, so you can replenish inventory on time without the need to be tracking inventory every hour or manually as each order is placed.
The software pulls insights from historical sales data to give you a better idea of when it will be time to reorder more inventory per SKU, so you can set a predetermined reorder point.