Inventory resides at the heart of every retail industry.
No matter if you are a small vendor looking for scaling methods or an enterprise with retention and deeper market penetration goals, if your inventory management is everywhere, your organization is nowhere.
This makes inventory management software indispensable software for successful retail stores and industries.
The problem?
With the SaaS (software as a service) market for inventory management getting more saturated each day, choosing your ideal match is incredibly difficult. Chances are you will get lost in the sea of tools. The worst? It comes with a lot of anxiety.
But fret not. You have help.
In this post, we demystify the exact process and elements that will help you find your ideal inventory management software. What’s more?
We have scoured the internet to curate the top 7 market leaders in inventory management software so you can save your valuable business time.
Table of Contents
Inventory management software to keep your retail store future-ready in 2021
Your ideal retail inventory management software is a critical element of your overall retail store success. Done right, it can open floodgates of opportunities. This means you need to see this tool as a part of a bigger process.
At the core, every high-performance inventory management tool is dictated by your goals, supporting features, compatibility with the existing tool base, and, most importantly, user-friendliness.
The best inventory software can successfully support the following benefits.
1. High precision
With today’s omnichannel approach of the retail business, only having data is not enough. If your data is incorrect, biased, or distorted, it is as good as not being present. This makes the machine-generated sales inventory past transaction data of your consumer critical. What follows is high-precision data.
2. Actionable insights
In today’s competitive market, data is the secret sauce to any sustainable business. If you do not have quality data of your consumer behavior, mapping their needs is next to impossible. An inventory management system is a gold mine of quality data of your real users from which you can deduce actionable insights to make more informed decisions.
3. Time efficiency
In business, time equals money. An inventory management system essentially masters this goal by automating redundant business processes like inventory tracking and management.
4. Improved efficiency
Automating and freeing up redundant tasks from your everyday business process, an inventory management system essentially creates room for more creative work. What follows is efficient and smooth processes that experience lesser friction.
5. Improved ROI (return on investment)
Inventory management software can create massive positive on your process optimization. What follows is higher returns on every process of your business. From reducing labor costs and backorders, improved sales channel optimization, and reducing out-of-stocks events., it covers them all.
So now, when you know what to look for in your ideal inventory management software, let’s take a look at the market leaders in 2021.
1. Lightspeed
Working on the vision of ‘Building communities through commerce’, this software powers all the businesses that form the backbone of the global economy.
With this one-stop platform, the merchants in the hospitality and retail industry are able to build flourishing businesses for the future. This platform enables the transformation of all digital as well physical transactions by enabling global payments, multi-channel sales, supplier network connections, and financial solutions.
2. Netsuite
If you are an Oracle user, Netsuite is probably the go-to inventory management software you would want to invest in any day. But not only because of the familiarity but the immense ease and power this tool brings to your retail business.
This tool boasts extensive and powerful features that make your inventory management a cakewalk. Be it supply chain, customer relationship, point of sale, multiwarehouse mapping, stock management, auto reorders, dropshipping, or just-in-time inventory system, this tool manages it all. The best part? Each of these features is designed for scalability and customization to meet your real-time business needs.
There are only two downsides to this software. One is that it doesn’t come cheap. The basic version of the software starts at $999 but is worth every penny. The other one is that although the interface is user-friendly, you will need a highly trained team to use this on-cloud software effectively.
3. Acumatica
If your retail store needs an inventory management system that is comprehensive and designed for scalability, Acumatica is a sheer champion. Available in both versions: on-premise and cloud, this software is flexible enough to operate from your mobile devices, iOS and Android versions, and desktop. But it doesn’t stop at that.
The software has a super-intuitive design that instantly makes the learning curve go flat. Plus comes its host of powerful features like barcode creation, SKU management, deep analytics, stock clearance, forecasts, and much more. This makes it the perfect solution for mid-sized enterprises.
The only downside of this software is that it falls in the expensive category when it comes to price. With a base price of $1000, this software requires a trained team to personalize your system for your business during the initial setup. Also, you would need an ERP system for its successful run.
4. Multiorders
If you are an SME (small to medium-sized enterprise), Multiorders can be your go-to tool when it comes to inventory management.
Catering to the needs of small retailers, this modest software comes with limited yet powerful functionalities. No matter whether your goal is to manage orders and stocks from your owned store or via a third-party marketplace like Etsy, you can control the complete task easily.
The only downside of this tool is its limited functionalities which don’t make the software ideal for scalability. If you have to accomplish complex tasks like barcode creation and detailed product transaction reports, this software doesn’t have the capacity to do so.
5. Vend
If your retail store has plans to scale soon, Vend is the best software to integrate into your toolkit.
Harnessing the power of cloud computing, this software enables both online and offline processing of stocks. This allows it to create detailed and in-depth analytical data about past transactions and products. Mapping UGC (user-generated content) comments, reviews, and brand mentions in the virtual landscape, this software gives you ready answers to find your best-selling products against liabilities. But that is not all.
The tool offers robust POS (point of sale) with integrated inventory management, customer analysis, and payment solutions. The best part? All of this comes at a nominal price of $99 per month, although you can upgrade for a more feature-rich version of the software.
The only downside of this tool is that its compatibility is limited to website and iPad users with powerful core functionalities. If you are an enterprise with extensive requirements, then this might not be the best tool for you to use.
6. Brightpearl
When it comes to managing the supply chain, the core of a retail store, Brightpearl, is that one software that never goes wrong.
Starting from rudimentary functions of stock and asset management like order initiations, supplier allocation, cross-channel reports, a thorough overview, accounting, and transaction report, Point of Sale, and advanced analytics for mapping the ROI every SKU and channel. What’s more?
You can integrate this tool to almost every popular e-commerce, marketplace, and payment platform, including Amazon, Shopify, and eBay. The best part? It is entirely automated, creating more creative room for your business.
The only downside of this tool is that its compatibility is limited to iOS devices and websites with low customization power for its accounting templates.
7. TradeGecko
If you are looking for an inventory management system that goes above and beyond to deliver results, TradeGecko is a perfect choice. No matter whether you are a B2B or B2C retail vendor, it can meet all your business expectations.
Here’s how?
Creating a centralized and automated process for routine warehouse management tasks like batch tracking, individual product tracking, expiry tracking feature, order fulfillment, and customer satisfaction, this software is the end game for all inventory software.
The only downside of this feature-rich tool is that some users might find it a little bit expensive. The tool offers 3 distinct packages: Lite with 2 users at $79 per month, Small business 5 users at $199 per month, and Premium plan over 15 users at $799 per month.
8. Delivrd
Our last pick is Delivrd that has entered into our list because of the unique value it brings to retails owners looking for a free and light-featured inventory management system.
Although offering a freemium version, it is designed for scalability. You can always switch to the paid version, which is equally cost-effective, costing only $50 per month.
Operating on the cloud, this tool offers access to extensive features like SKUs (stock keeping units), location trackers, maps for stock tracking, barcodes, pick and pack options, financial analytics, and more. The best part? This software is super intuitive with the least possible learning curve.
When you opt for the freemium version, you get coverage of all the premium features but in a limited quantity. It covers 25 SKUs and one location that is a great place to start if you are a small retailer.
The only downside of this software is that this software does not support on-premise installation with limited integration capabilities.
You can only integrate it with the e-commerce sites of Shopify and WooCommerce. If you are using any other e-commerce platform, you have to integrate this tool manually.
Conclusion
Retail business management is anyway difficult. Without designing agile systems, the whole momentum of your retail business may die down. What follows is you lose significant sales opportunities. But the right tools can make sure you don’t lose money on the table.
But here’s a word of caution.
While the above tools can easily simplify your day-to-day business process, the core task still lies with you. The devices are just a means of achieving your goals.
This means to use the full potential of the tools you need to put your customers at the heart of your process.
A smart way is to put your customer as your Northstar metric. Any feature or task that improves your customer service is a good measure of the value of the task for your business.
So now there is just one question left to be answered.
Which of the above tool did you find the best for your retail business?
