Gone are the days of ticking off boxes with a pencil. If your business sells a product, you know how important — and time consuming — it is to properly track your inventory.
Inventory management software is the digital replacement for hard copy inventory sheets, but it can be so much more. Use Benzinga’s ranking of the best inventory management software to find a platform to transform your operation.
1. Best for Global Supply Chain Management: Oracle
If you sell globally, you may face unique challenges to track and supply your inventory. Oracle is an enterprise resource planning software (ERP) with a built-in inventory management system capable of streamlining your global supply chain.
Oracle Inventory Management can integrate all of your worldwide inventory tracking systems in a single cloud-based control panel. Comprehensive material management, optimized restocking and cost determination with profit optimization means you can manage every part of your supply chain across multiple types of businesses.
Pricing: Subscription and licensing prices listed here
Mobile app? Yes
2. Best for Reliable and Efficient Order Fulfillment: The Fulfillment Lab
- Best For:Reliable and Efficient Order FulfillmentVIEW PROS & CONS:securely through The Fulfillment Lab's website
In the eCommerce space, there’s quite a lot going on for every retailer. You’re selling products to consumers who expect a fast turnaround, but how can you make the most of your business and get the fulfillment services you deserve?
When you use The Fulfillment Lab, you can take advantage of a 3PL service that leverages state-of-the-art facilities, processes, order fulfillment, warehousing solutions, inventory management options, shipping and more. As you take advantage of these services, you can foster greater loyalty amongst your customers, and you also get:
- Reliable 3PL services
- Support for startups and established small businesses
- Logistics and warehousing options
- The ability to grow your business
- Scalable fulfillment services
- Agile proprietary software
- Global fulfillment services (GFS)
- Integration of over 40 platforms, including Etsy, Shopify, Amazon and more
- Real time inventory tracking
- Quality customer services
While climate-controlled facilities are not available, you still have an incredible opportunity to streamline the options you have for shipping to your eCommerce customers. As you can promise better service for your clients, your business will grow that much faster.
3. Best for Small Businesses: Zoho Inventory
Zoho is a software as a service and CRM platform that offers a wide range of business management features, including Zoho Inventory. Zoho Inventory is a gamified, modular interface to manage stock, fulfill orders and control your inventory.
Features like warehouse management and multiple shipping integrations keep your inventory flowing flawlessly while protecting your bottom line. It’s free version can accommodate up to 10 users, so it’s a great solution for small businesses.
Request a demo here. Or sign-up for free here now.
Pricing: $0, $39, $79 or $199 per month billed annually
Mobile app? Yes
4. Best to Take Your Brick-and-Mortar Online: Square
Square is a popular workflow management software due to its inventory features. The omnichannel and multi-location stock management, customizable item categories and easy barcode generation make it easy to sell both online and in the store.
Inventory management from Square comes with a longer list of features to help you juggle both your brick-and-mortar and online store. Advanced eCommerce tools like abandoned cart notifications, a smart website builder and automatic sync between your storefront and online inventory make the transition to online selling super easy.
Getting started with Square is free. Sign up here.
5. Best for Omnichannel Retail: Lightspeed Retail
Lightspeed Retail is a fully-integrated omnichannel retail solution. Lightspeed provides tools specifically designed to handle your eCommerce inventory management.
Easily import stock data from your physical store, sell old stock with specially generated discount codes and make easy mass updates to your inventory with importable data capabilities.
Lightspeed works for in-person and eCommerce stores of all types, including CBD, bike and health shops. Lightspeed also boasts a highly-functional mobile app, so you can manage your business on-the-go..
Lightspeed offers free resources to retailers. Try Lightspeed out with this free trial.
Pricing: $69, $99, $119, $169 or $229 per month paid annually, plus additional terminal fees
Mobile app? Yes
6. Best for Restaurants: Upserve
Thin profits margins and the potential for angry Yelp reviews make proper inventory management in a restaurant a must. Upserve by Lightspeed, formerly known as Breadcrumb, is a fully-integrated POS system with strong inventory management capabilities.
With Upserve, you can really dial in your inventory. Your recipes sync to your point of sale, automatically updating your counts in your inventory tracker. Upserve even calculates recipes costs and margins using real-time market prices so you know which parts of your menu are profitable and which need to be tweaked.
Other useful features are restaurant-specific analytics and 24/7 support. Try out a demo from Upserve here.
Pricing: $59, $199 or $359 plus POS terminal fees
Mobile app? Yes
Important Features of Inventory Management Software
While different applications have unique features, look for the following as the minimum requirements for any good inventory management software:
- Customizable, easy-to-use and preferably cloud-enabled inventory management
- Inventory tracking — bonus if it's automated, another bonus if barcode creation, scanning and tagging is available.
- Inventory forecasting that uses data from customer demand, the time of year and more to adjust inventory levels as needed
- Powerful reporting and analytics to inform you of what’s working and what isn’t
- Strong data protection to keep you and your business safe
- 3rd-party app integrations
Benefits of Inventory Management Software
If your business relies on selling some sort of tangible product, inventory management is integral to your day-to-day operations. A solid inventory management software will automate and streamline many inventory-related tasks to protect your bottom line and save you valuable time and money.
You can expect your inventory management software to:
- Trim the fat and save on expenses in several ways like reduce unnecessary expenses, avoid losses from poor customer experiences, save on human capital and more
- Maintain stock of the products customers want, so you never oversell or sit on stock
- Provide insight into your operations with built-in analytics
- Increase productivity by automating tedious tasks
- Improve customer experience with ample stock and on-time shipping
- Better organize your inventory to help streamline the shipping process
Cost of Inventory Management Software
How much should you look to spend on inventory management software? Well, there are several factors shaping that decision. How large is your business? What are your unique needs?
Do you only need inventory management, or do you prefer it as an integrated feature built into a larger platform? Do you have scalability concerns?
These are all things to keep in mind when deciding what you consider a reasonable expenditure on inventory management software. Prices vary between platforms, but our featured software fell into the following ranges by business size:
For Small Businesses: $0 to $69 per month
For Mid-Size Businesses: $39 to $199 per month or custom pricing
For Large Businesses: $199 to $359 per month or custom pricing
Streamline Your Inventory Management
Inventory management is among the many tasks on your daily to-do list. Data helps you make decisions that impact your business, and inventory management software can make sure your information is right every time.
Get in touch with one of Benzinga’s picks for the best inventory management software to get started now.
Best Inventory Management Software Methodology
Benzinga analyzed the top Inventory Management Software by industry and winnowed down the list to include those with the best attributes. We prioritized pricing, features and scalability. We also considered the availability of a mobile app and consumer reviews.
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