Inventory Management – Almost all companies that sell products agree that stock management can be very complicated. Usually, there are some questions that always spin in the head, namely Where to store all products? and, how to integrate into financial reports?

All these questions will get more complicated if you venture into the online store. Opening an online store means opening up a new type of market that is wider and bigger. That way, the product stock needed as well as the warehouse that is owned must be large as well. So, how do you do inventory management?

Below, Paper.id has prepared 5 innovative ways to manage stock, especially for online stores. Read until the end and get free accounting software that you can use forever!

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Hybrid Warehousing

Hybrid Warehousing is an online warehouse owned by third parties. In other words, you can deposit all of your products at that place. Later when there is a sale, a third party will send your product to the customer.

With this place, you no longer need to provide your own warehouse. However, there are costs that must be provided as a fixed budget that is paid monthly. Try to calculate the comparison of online warehouse costs with making your own warehouse. Which is the easiest and most efficient.

Manufacturing As Distributor

If you are reluctant to use hybrid warehousing to reduce your expense budget, you can use other methods. Another innovative way of doing inventory management is to “transform” your regular manufacturing company as a distributor.

You no longer need to provide a warehouse because later the distributor will send the product. In other words, you entrust all products purchased from the manufacturer to the distributor. As well as getting a “free” warehouse, you are also increasingly trusted by manufacturers as partners.

Inventory Management: FIFO

You have a warehouse but it’s messy? Maybe, you haven’t done the management regularly. Do you see a lot of damaged or out of date products? if so, stock inventory management in the business you are running is still very bad. How can you prevent this?

Since the initial stock entered, you should have used the FIFO (first in first out) method. The point is, the products that are sold first are products that have been in the warehouse for a long time. This can prevent the stock from being damaged due to being in the warehouse too long or stale (especially for food).

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Use a Manual Barcode System

Having many online stores can indeed increase sales. However, this can cause the stock to become neglected, causing chaos in the warehouse. Lots of online store owners who mix all types of products into the same warehouse so that the arrangement looks messy.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to create a manual barcode system. What this means is that every product has a different barcode. Later, all types of products will be placed in the same barcode type so that the warehouse doesn’t look cluttered.

For example, a pen product would only be categorized as a pen. On the other hand, bag products will be placed with the like. This can make it easier to pick up products and calculate at the end of the business period.

Implement the Bundling System

If the products in the warehouse have accumulated too much but no sales have been made, it’s a good idea to implement a bundling system. That is, you sell products in the form of groupings and give a special discount price for each sale.

For example, if you are an online shop that sells fashion, you can implement a bundling system. Usually, you sell clothes for 100 thousand and 150 thousand pants, now you can put them together. The price you get can be cut to only 200 thousand. Make sure you still make a profit from the sale (even if it’s not maximal).

The bundling system is great for stock in your warehouse. That way, many customers are willing to buy your product so that the stock in the warehouse is reduced.