Does better inventory management mean happier customers?

When you consider the impact of inventory management on your retail business, you’re likely to think primarily about areas such as stock levels and logistics. However, the strength of your inventory management processes can play a crucial role in delivering an optimal customer experience, both online and in bricks-and-mortar stores.

From avoiding customer disappointment by ensuring the availability of popular items to enabling a seamless returns process and speedy order fulfilment, inventory management can be a key factor in boosting customer satisfaction and giving your business an edge over the competition.

Here are four ways effective inventory management solutions can help you enhance the customer experience across your sales channels.

Deliver products faster

With online sales hitting $4.5 trillion in 2021, ecommerce is now the default shopping mode for many consumers across the globe. And just as online shopping is booming, so too is the customer desire to have products delivered to their door as speedily as possible.

A report by PwC, revealed that 41% of consumers are willing to pay extra for same-day delivery, while almost a quarter (24%) would pay an additional fee to receive packages within a one or two-hour window.

Meeting this expectation for ever-faster fulfilment times requires a robust approach to inventory management. For example, an inventory management solution that ensures stock is conveniently located close to a warehouse or fulfilment centre will help to accelerate dispatch times, while effective inventory analytics can enable you to identify slow-moving items and ensure popular products are readily available

Make returns painless

If you’ve noticed an increase in your rate of returns, you’re not alone. Recent data revealed that a quarter of all consumers return between 5 and 15% of their online purchases, while more than 25% of retailers reported a rise in the number of online products being returned by their customers. While returns themselves represent a costly pain point for fashion brands, making the returns process as smooth as possible can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.

An effective inventory management solution can help to speed up and streamline this area of your business by improving the efficiency of reverse logistics. With comprehensive visibility into product returns, inventory management software can allow you to track the status of returned packages and improve communication across the reverse supply chain.

What’s more, robust inventory management can provide valuable insights into the reasons driving product returns, enabling you to make smarter decisions around purchasing and suppliers in order to minimise your returns rate.

Avoid online disappointment

Few online shopping experiences cause as much frustration for customers as the ubiquitous “out of stock” message on an item that’s displayed as available on the ecommerce platform.

Results from a research study indicated that “repeated stockout experiences decreased customers’ loyalty to brand and retailer, and caused customers to abandon both retailers and brand”. Clearly, stockouts can have a significantly detrimental effect on both brand loyalty and your bottom line.

If you would like guidance on improving your inventory management connect with us today, we’ll be happy to help.