With the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, many companies found themselves challenged to invest in their logistics systems, as they realized that it is one of the critical factors for their success and that, for the most part, they were not prepared for such a large stock turnover.
But what is stock?
Stock is the quantity of goods, products or raw materials stored for a instagram phone number data purpose, such as sale, distribution or export, from the moment they enter and leave your company.
How to manage stocks well?
Although it is a very complex process and depends on the type of business, nature of the stock, as well as the size of the company, there are several transversal strategies that can help and really make a difference.
Follow these 8 tips for good stock management:
Define processes within the team, through checking and stock control habits, at an appropriate time interval and assign them responsibilities, in order to ensure that product information, such as quantities and availability, is always up to date;
Identify and differentiate each type of item with a product code, quantity, description or other relevant details, such as batch, origin, supplier or expiration date. Nowadays, EAN codes make it much easier to identify items and control and track your stock;
Don't let your products spoil . Keep track of your items' expiration dates and organize your warehouse space to have easy access to all products that expire quickly. It is also important to choose the merchandise valuation method that best suits the type of product, such as FIFO and LIFO ;
Register and control the quantities of products as soon as they arrive at the warehouse, to ensure that your stock is always up to date and with the correct quantities, avoiding future inventory errors;
Have a good relationship with your suppliers to help each other in cases of excess stock or problems with the quality of an item. This way, the supplier can participate in resolving any problems and even consider negotiating better prices and quantities;
Organize your stock warehouse regularly by separating items that have been stored for too long and are not selling. You can apply some stock clearance strategies, such as promotions and specific commercial campaigns for these products or highlighting them in the store and on the website, for example;
Have good stock management and optimization software that monitors your business and its needs in real time, using metrics that can estimate the minimum quantities required for each type of product, based on the previous year's sales, seasonality, market trends and other metrics. This will ensure greater profitability for your business and reduce the likelihood of human error by optimizing processes;
Make sure you always have a safety stock and an emergency plan to use in case of any unforeseen event, such as software unavailability, system instability or even an economic crisis;
What are the advantages of good stock management?
Greater organization and productivity: through stock management software, teams can know how many products they have, where they are located, when they arrived and when stock will be replenished, through an online report, updated in real time;
Efficient management of time, space and costs: you can use your free time for other tasks and manage the space in your warehouse and/or store for products with the highest turnover;
Profitable and responsible investment: you can easily access information on the best-selling products, the units that are sold on average in a given period of time, and those with “toxic” stock, having been on the shelf or in the warehouse for a long time. This means you can assess which products need to be replaced and when, avoiding unnecessary returns to your suppliers and losses in value. You can also create an action plan for products that have been in the warehouse for more than x amount of time;
Greater customer trust and loyalty: it is now possible to provide customers with the correct stock information, ensuring that you have the best-selling or most sought-after products available. This also ensures that customers receive their products faster, creating a relationship of trust with them.
