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The most common mistakes in stock management

02 Feb 2023. 12:04
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  • SME maturity
    Initial
    Topic
    1. Infraestructuras
    Scope to digitize
    1. Business processes

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Whether you have an online or physical shop, having a proper stock management is essential to have an efficient business. Therefore, in this post we summarise the mistakes that are usually made in stock management so that you avoid making them.

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Lack of stock control can lead to delays in shipping products to customers, resulting in poor customer service, loss of profitability and poor decision making.

In contrast, proper stock control can help you boost your business by improving the customer experience, unifying your stock channels and improving logistics control among many other benefits. However, it is very common to make mistakes when doing so. In this post we will tell you what stock control is, its importance, as well as the most common errors and challenges that can arise in stock management. This way, you will have a clearer idea of how to manage your stock properly and you will know how to avoid these possible mistakes.

 

What is stock management?

Stock management consists of organizing, planning and controlling stocks within a business warehouse. It aims to keep track of the available units of each item to ensure that there is always stock available.

For small businesses this process is key, as it offers multiple benefits that will help you boost your trade. We tell you about them below.

 

Benefits of stock management 

Stock management is crucial when running a business of any kind. Let's find out the advantages that managing your inventory properly can bring to your business.

  • Increase service level and improve customer experience 
  • Improve logistics control by locating your goods with ease
  • Reduce inventory errors 
  • Make decisions based on real-time data
  • Have full control over the management of your inventory
  • Unify your stock channels by having a global vision of your products 

For these reasons it is very important to have a correct inventory management.

 

Most common mistakes in stock management

As we explained previously what stock management consists of, we will tell you now what the most common errors are when keeping a stock control. Like this, you will know how to keep an adequate stock management.

  • Not having specialised software.

Using an Excel table or a notebook and pen to control your business stock can cause an unnecessary headache in addition to inventory errors. A specialized software offers your business a complete and automated support that will reduce these errors that derive from doing the control manually.

  • Having a very large stock.

While it is important to renew our inventory periodically, having too much inventory that is not sold, can lead to storage problems. Therefore, it is very important to know which products are sold and which are not in order to be able to make the production process in a balanced way. In addition, you should consider the seasons of the year or the festivities because, for example, at Christmas, a greater stock than usual is normally required.

  • Not conducting audits of inventory management.

Another of the most common mistakes is not performing monthly audits of inventory management. By doing so, we can really know what products and what quantities of stock we have available with the purpose of organising ourselves better.

  • Not receiving enough training.

The last error would be not having information on how to manage the stock properly or how to use the program and the tools used to do so.  Training is extremely important for every company, if you want to know more about this, read it here.

  • Not having sufficient stocks.

By not having an emergency stock, we can face running out of products when we have many orders at once. Having an emergency stock avoids future sales losses and the shortage of products to be able to fulfill the delivery of new orders.

 

As you can see, there are several common mistakes when it comes to keeping track of inventory. But now that you know them as well, you can avoid making them.

 

Challenges affecting warehouse stock management

If you have contemplated stock management in your roadmap, there are two important challenges that can affect its management.

First, the growth in the last number of references stored. Increasing the number of references stored can complicate stock management, as it demands a more followed inventory audit. And second, fluctuations in demand. Changes in the demand for products require more and more flexibility and speed in warehouses, which makes their management more difficult. We need to be aware of these changes in our macro-environment in order to meet these challenges.

 

By being aware of all this, you can start to keep an adequate control of your stock, facing the challenges that may arise.

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