Mercy Gracy Antony

5 Essential Wholesale Inventory Management Functions You Need to Have in Your ERP System

August 3, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

What is inventory management?

Inventory management is the activity of forecasting and replenishing inventory, focused on when to order stock, in what quantities and from which supplier.

Whether your goal is to simplify your inventory management processes, increase your efficiency, avoid stock-outs and excess stock, implement a lean quality system, balance the supply and demand or improve your forecasting or planning, you are bound to have the right inventory management software system for your wholesale operations… So, let’s dive in directly and see how to make informed decisions based on real data and metrics.

Wholesale operations are significantly different from retail operation. The obvious way is that wholesale customers tend to buy in bulk whereas retail customers to not. But that difference alone creates some stark differences in managing inventory functions between the two business models.

Here are five essential inventory management functions every wholesale operations manager must be proficient at:

1.Vendor management – What so special about this feature? It’s highly likely that the relationship you’ll develop with most of your vendors is long-term. You will buy large volume of product from each vendor at various times in the life of your wholesale operation, and it’s highly likely that you’ll make multiple orders–especially if products are selling. So, you need an efficient software system to manager your vendor relationships.

2.Purchase orders – Since you are ordering products in bulk–because you’re selling in bulk–you cannot afford to miss a single purchase order. To do so would likely lead to thousands of dollars in inventory. Unlike some retail operations, ordering one of something is not an option. This fact alone means your potential for loss is greater if something goes wrong.

3.Customer/client management – In retail, it’s possible to go long periods of time before seeing repeat business from some customers. In wholesale, the fact that you are likely selling to retailers means you will have a high percentage of recurrent business. You must pour a lot of your energy into your customer relationships so that you can foster along term relationship with your ongoing customers while lowering any attrition risks.
Loyalty means longevity and resilience; two essential ingredients for our disruptive times.

4.Catalog maintenance – Maintaining your product catalog is of prime importance in wholesale. You could lose some customers with the phasing out of some products, since many retail operations make their bread and butter on the popularity of certain items at the point of sale. Maintaining a good mix of products in your catalog or line card will make your wholesale operation appealing to more retailers. You must put a lot of thought into the maintenance of your product catalog.

5.Sales agent management – When you’re dealing with bulk orders, if you want your business to scale, you’ve got to have multiple agents in the field representing your brand. Being able to manage sales agents and their productivity is paramount to ensuring they are selling your product and are compensated fairly for their efforts

All the five ERP functions are related to inventory management in your wholesale operation. Managing your wholesale inventory system is about more than just managing products. It’s about managing your end-to-end business data, resources and predictive tools. ChainDrive wholesale management software and ERP system has been custom-designed to suit the specific needs of wholesalers like you. It is geared towards helping you make informed decisions based on data collected in real time while improving the entire value-chain. Moreover, ChainDrive is known for fostering collective intelligence, boosting collaborative management, helping its user scale-up their business processes in a seamless way on-time, on-budget and on-target.

ERP: Warehouse Management Optimization

Being accurate is everything when it comes to lean distribution, Just-in Time delivery, and cross-channel efficiency. Having a smart warehouse distribution software like ChainDrive is like having Waze for your navigation. Thanks to its dynamic engine, your inventory and accuracy is all under control from one user-friendly platform. With the right distribution ERP system, distributors can avoid costly mistakes found in paper-based and hand written processes, where there is ample room for discrepancies and mistakes.

Last but not least, Multidev’s cutting edge solutions are mobile-ready, predictive and agile as they are in total harmony with modern inventory management software systems used by distributors to track and monitor in real-time their inbound and outbound warehouse operations.

ChainDrive inventory management software is second to none when it comes to live tracking, monitoring and managing inventory, vendors and overall operations in the most user-friendly fashion. Does your wholesale, retail or online business platform have a good grip on these five inventory management tasks? If not, check out ChainDrive inventory management system today or call us directly to book your free demo

3 Retail Inventory Accounting Method Challenges Made Simple With ChainDrive inventory management software

July 29, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

One reason retail operation manager uses the retail inventory method of accounting is because it is quick and efficient to arrive at a current value of your inventory. However, it is neither accurate or sufficient. That’s why it’s important for retailers to perform a periodic physical inventory count. How often that count is performed is entirely up to each retail business, but it should be done two to four times a year is better. Retailers have to be able to respond to the changing business landscape, adapt and change, and pivot as often as possible is the new normal.

What is The Retail Inventory Method?

The retail inventory method is based on the cost of merchandise and how much you list your products for at retail. Accountants usually start with the cost of merchandise and divide it by the retail price to determine the cost-to-retail percentage. Next, you calculate the cost of goods available for sale. Then you calculate the cost of sales by multiplying the cost-to-retail percentage and sales amount for the period. Finally, you calculate the ending inventory by subtracting the cost of sales from the cost of goods available for sale.

Why the Retail Inventory Method is Not Always Accurate

While there are benefits to using this accounting method, there are few issues and challenges to reckon with. Here are three problems with the retail inventory method that retail operations managers should be aware of from the beginning:

1. It only works if you have a consistent markup across all products in your inventory. If you have products with wildly different markup percentages–and most retailers do–then your estimated ending inventory for the period could be off target drastically. The more diversity you have in your inventory markup, the more often you should perform physical inventory; which is time consuming as you know.

2. It’s based on historical assumptions that may not necessarily be true. If your markup is seasonal or different from what it was at the beginning of your inventory cycle, then the ending balance will be skewed. If you’ve recently changed your markup, you might perform a physical inventory to get started on the next cycle on the right track.

3. If an acquired retail operation is bought by a larger entity with huge amounts of inventory that bares a significant difference in markup percentage, it will skew the ending balance of the acquiring operation. This can be avoided by working through the process separately for each entity.

Is there a better way to avoid these blind spots and common pitfalls? You bet!

How to Scale-up with ChainDrive retail inventory management software

1. Identify the trend : If you want to sell the right product to the right customer, you have to identify ahead of time the shifting consumer behaviors before they happen, otherwise, you won’t be able to stock the right merchandise at the right time; so keep an eye on the fashion industry, current consumer trend in the market and shifting business models.

2.Effective planning and budgeting: Planning your retail budget is very important in retail industry. You have to operate your business within your budget span, but you must also meet the pent-up demand of your customers. After you decided which products to buy, you need to contact the vendors and place the orders accordingly. A centralized retail system that helps you do that more efficiently will benefit your retail store for a long time and your business resilience along the way.

3.Tracking the product: It begins at the time of ordering. Once you order a purchase for bulk merchandise, you need to find out where that product is in the supply-chain. And you need also to follow it all the way to your warehouse. Thereafter you need to track it from the warehouse to your stores, into the customer’s hands or his/her doorstep.

4.Allocation of Products: it’s important to allocate the right quantity of each product to each point of sale location. Retailers that sell well in one location may not necessarily sell at all in another geographic location or zone. Understanding retail business cycles, crowd thinking and changing buying patterns of customers at each retail store are essential precautions and barometers to keep on the watch list of driving factors.

5.Replenishment: you have to identify the right time to replenish your supply of each product, you carry and re-order at the right time. You need an inventory management software system that is agile-ready and that can help you customize your replenishment cycle to meet your demands.

Whether you are an apparel, footwear, jewelry, sporting goods, department store, home decor or specialty retailer, ChainDrive inventory software offers both the precision needed to benefit you as a retailer and the agility to address the peculiar nature of your specific vertical or niche market.

ChainDrive’s integrated accounting solution will definitely help you better manage your retail operations inventory and accounting functions while keeping your books immaculate and optimal for different operations.

If you still have more questions on how to ramp-up your inventory management system or want to see live how ChainDrive can help you step-up your heavy-duty retail operations, contact our retail management experts or log on to our site to book a free demo and consulting session.

5 Retail Fashion Apparel Components And Tools You Need to Have in Your ERP Software & POS System

July 23, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

Technology breakthroughs and rising consumer trends are reshaping the entire shopping landscape in the post pandemic era. However, even with the popularity of online shopping, it is important to remember that a lot of consumer still go into stores which offer exceptional shopping experience. Therefore, it is inevitable to provide your customers with the best user experience possible across the value chain. This being said, it is important to endow your retail management staff with the right apparel management software, POS ERP and omnichannel tools which could keep your stores revved up and help you improve your customer retention and loyalty before other competitors or aggressive market movers take them elsewhere.

Most Common Apparel Management Software Tools. But is it Enough Nowadays?

This short list of apparel retail management software tools is known to help retailers manage their store operations:

Point of sale
Inventory management
Customer management
E-commerce
Gift registry management
Maintenance of items on consignment and many more functionalities

Most of top retail management software providers and developers like ChainDrive are also designed to help their users manage employee back office needs, such as timetables management and fingerprint or signature integration among many points of sale needs and tasks.

But fashion clothing retailers have special considerations that you don’t necessarily see in other vertical markets like jewelry stores, pet shop, sporting goods, health and beauty stores. That’s why ChainDrive has stepped-up the game with an advanced operations solution that apparel retailers could always customize according to their niche market approaches and positioning. Here are some areas of optimization that keep on being overlooked or underestimated in retail management

5 five critical operational components every clothing retailer need to get under control

1.Product assortment – When clothing manufacturers create multiple size and colors, and fashion variations, of each clothing product they create, it’s important to be able to sort those products in an intelligent way. Smart product assortment saves time and money while making your retail operation leaner, more predictive and ultimately more profitable.

2.Product allocation – Not only do you need to sort your products, but you also need to allocate counts to each retail store. You can do this in a number of ways, and you maintain control over the rules that determine allocation according to the chosen parameters. The bottom line is, you know how much of each product will sell at each store, so you can allocate the SKUs intelligently.

3.Automatic replenishment – When you get near the end of your inventory for any product, you’ll need to replenish your supply as well. Don’t wait for inventory counts or manual inventory audits. Replenish your product automatically when you hit a store minimum or an on-hand minimum across the operation.

4.Planning – You cannot buy your products and establish your inventory if you don’t plan your retail operations down to the store level. ChainDrive’s operations solution for clothing retailers make the planning process easier by using an open-to-buy model.

5.Point of sale – Your point of sale terminal is where you meet the customer. This part of your operation must pay for itself, which it will as long as you capture the customer data efficiently. But you can still do that by merely integrating the point-of-sale terminal with the rest of your operations.

As you see, there is a lot more to your clothing retail operations than simply investing in plug-play retail software tools.

ChainDrive’s retail management software solution for clothing retailers takes care of the hard details for you so you can focus on your core operations efficiency in a worry-free environment.

Here are few more perks that come with ChainDrive:

ChainDrive system does bit more than many fast-fashion software bundles and pre-packed solutions when it comes to retail automation and end-to-end value creation. ChainDrive is also very user-friendly and agile system which can run on any contemporary browser on any smart device, including touch-screen systems, PCs, and Macs.

Moreover, it creates reporting analytics and inventory management dashboards including purchasing and receiving information in real time.

For many retailers, wholesalers, eTailers and early adopters during and after COVID-19, ChainDrive retail POS Software has been a game changer and a life saver during the pandemic times when most brick and mortar stores were subject to mandatory lock down and extended periods of quarantine measures. If you wish to unchain your business and get more horse powers to spur your retail engine, ramp-up your recovery strategies you have to bet on systems that are geared towards boosting business immunity and resilience.

5 Ways and Reasons a Mobile Point of Sale (POS) System Can Help you Scale-Up

July 16, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

In 2016, Business Insider reported that there would be 27.7 million of mobile point-of-sale (POS) devices in the United states by 2021. Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of them will be retail-centric. While Mobile POS systems were first introduced in the restaurant business; they became so popular in retail stores where heavy-duty traffic and transactions are exponential. Below are five practical benefits for retail-based mobile point-of-sale and some of the key functionalities used by agile retailers who wish to step-up their omnichannel operations

1.In-store roaming POS System – This may be the most obvious use case, but retailers who empower their employees with tablets that they can carry with them around the store as they set up merchandise displays and stock shelves will likely see a rise in sales. Roaming in-store POS solutions allows your employees to ring up sales on the spot from anywhere in the store. When a customer has a question, the employee can look up product information and take the customer’s order right there, on Aisle

2.In-store kiosks – Kiosks have become popular in the restaurant business, but they’re also useful in retail. Placing kiosks around the store allows your customers to check themselves out without having to stand in line. That means more sales for you while spending less time with customers. It’s a win-win. The customer gets in and out of your store faster and you close more sales.

3.Built-in Customer loyalty – With mobile POS, you can establish a built-in loyalty program complete with coupons and discounts for customers who use the mobile checkout system. Customers can scan coupons with their own mobile devices or your retail staff can scan customer coupons with their tablets. Another iteration of this is the digital coupon where you can Bluetooth the discount from your customer’s phone to your retail POS system anywhere in the store. Award loyalty points to customer who use your mobile POS system frequently. It will pay for itself in time.

4.Real-time product lookup and Inventory management – You or your customers can look up any product in real time and see if you have it in stock. Not only can you look it up in your store, but you can look up products in sister stores and reserve the product at that location. Powerful!

5.Customer relationship management (CRM) – Managing customer relationships is much easier. You can update each customer’s information on the spot from anywhere in the retail store. If you are using kiosks, customers can update their own information.

Mobile POS is here, and it’s not going anywhere. Retailers who employ it will have an advantage over those who don’t.

Chaindrive is the leading mobile point of sale software, can help retailers deliver high tech personalized and engaging service. Sales associates can obtain detailed product and customer information in real time across the retail enterprise.

To discover how a fully Integrated Retail Management Software Solution like ChainDrive can do for your retail business, book a free demo; either live or online, you will be delighted by its a smart and seamless functionality. The use-friendly features of its cutting-edge retail management system (RMS) will definitely help your teams step-up the retail game on-time, on-budget and on-target.

Retail Point of Sale (POS) Blind Spots That Can Kill Your Sales & A Lot More

July 10, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

When you meet your customer over the point-of-sale (POS) terminal, you hope everything goes right. However, there are several things that can go wrong. And sometimes, when sudden glitches happen, your customers get frustrated. Having an unreliable problem could lead to a ripple effect of negative impacts including higher attrition ratios, consumer dissatisfaction, lost sales and negative reviews in various social media platforms so will your online reputation and Net Promoter Scores. It’s best to spot the dead angles before things more complicated

How can you avoid these 5 deadly point-of-sale pitfalls?

1) Hardware failure – POS systems have several pieces of hardware that rely on each other for the entire system to work properly. There are computer monitors, keyboards, barcode scanners, credit card processors, check readers, receipt printers, and more. If one of the hardware devices fails at the point of sale, it could cause your entire system to crash. If you don’t fix it quickly, your customer could walk out the door and you might lose that sale. If it happens too often, you’ll lose customers.

2) Software glitches – Not only do you have hardware to maintain and keep up to date, but retailers also have to ensure their operational software functions correctly. In addition to your retail operations solutions, you’ve got computer operating systems, servers, and software applications for many of your hardware devices (credit card processors, check readers, etc.). If something isn’t working right, it can cause issues at the point of sale, even if the software problem is somewhere else.

3) Network challenges – Besides hardware and software, you’ve got the wider network infrastructure that connects you to the rest of the world. You’ve got your local internet connection, WANs, mobile data networks, and other connectivity channels that can put a huge kink in your customer relations if they cut off your POS interactions. Imagine what could happen if your credit card payments don’t transmit or your inventory counts don’t update due to connectivity challenges.

4) User errors – On top of the hardware, software, and network challenges, retailers rely on humans to ensure POS transactions are processed quickly and efficiently. If your employees do not know how to operate your system, that could cause customer relationship issues.

5) Customer data collection – If your CRM solution and your POS do not play well together, that can cause serious customer relationship issues. If you find yourself asking the same customers to update their contact information multiple times, or you send out incorrect marketing materials based on false purchase histories, or you face other data collection challenges, then customers could end up shopping with the competition. POS problems can cause many thorny issues with your customers. It’s better to avoid them ahead of time than putting your sales team under pressure during hectic times

How to avoid these POS Shortcomings?

To avoid these errors at any cost, every retailer should choose the right POS system for their retail business operations. ChainDrive is an intuitive, smart, predictive, agile and mobile friendly POS. It reduces your work pressure, maximize productivity, improve efficiency and optimize retail processes across all channels. Both in real time and seamlessly.

So why jeopardize your business with pre-packaged software tools, when you can get a personalized and worry-free POS solutions that can meet and exceed your overall performance expectations. If you have more questions or want to know more about how Chaindrive can help you step-up your heavy-duty retail operations, contact our retail management experts or log on https://chaindrive.com/free-live-demo/ to book a live demo.

How to Unleash Your eCommerce Gateway Power?

June 25, 2020 by Mercy Gracy Antony Leave a Comment

An eCommerce gateway is a game changer for every omnichannel Retailers. — For many omnichannel retailers, wholesalers and eTailers, ChainDrive E-commerce Gateway has been a game changer and a life saver during the pandemic times.

An eCommerce gateway is paramount in the digital age. For the modern retailers, having the right gateway is like opening the river locks to more traffic, more navigation and more business. A gateway will allow your customers to have a seamless shopping experience. It will give them the ability to order any item in your inventory from your website while automatically updating your dynamic database. In essence, you can connect your webstore front with your back-end operations; hence the importance of stepping up your gateways capabilities.

Without the eCommerce gateway, you’ll have to struggle managing separate databases for your web store and your brick-and-mortar operations. That could be a nightmare!

Here are the 8 awesome benefits of an e-commerce gateway, simply spelled out for you.

Updates product information – If you’re running your website on separate software than what you’re using to run your brick-and-mortar retail operations, then you have to update all the product information twice (once for the website and once for the brick-and-mortar operation). An e-commerce gateway facilitates a one-time update for both operations.
Updates your inventory – Every time you sell an item in your website, the e-commerce gateway will update your counts in your inventory. No more manual updating.
Create new products one time – Instead of creating new products of your website and your retail stores separately, create new products one time.
Change prices easily – When you change prices, whether for a seasonal promotion, a customer discount, or long-term, the price change is effective in both web store and brick-and-mortar stores.
Manage your fraud rules – E-commerce fraud is easier to detect when you set your own rules.
Capture customer data – By capturing customer data in your website, you can update that information in your central database. This is the perfect in an age when most customers buy through multiple channels.
Fulfill orders readily – Since your web store is connected to your central database, you can fulfill orders without a big runaround in your warehouse.
Real-time analytics – Know what’s going on every minute of the day in your retail locations and your webstore.

e-Business Integration Challenges Made Simple

Multidev Technologies’ ecommerce solutions are designed to unleash your eCommerce power. This customized solution allows customers like you to integrate eComDrive with your applications of choice residing inside or outside of your organization, communicating via the Intranet, Extranet, or the Internet.

All the features and functions of ChainDrive’s ecommerce gateway are designed to be collaborative, extensible and user-friendly in addition to harnessing your value-chain.

ChainDrive’s eCommerce gateway supports seamless integration, streamlined implementation, and rule-based transaction processing to automate your retail operations.

As a leading retail point of sale (POS) software developer, most products are compatible with agile architecture as they have been designed to be flexible and easy to integrate with any third party providers and applications.

The product is designed with self-contained yet integrated modules focused on ease of implementation. It allows you to set the business rules and configuration parameters while letting you implement any of the pre-configured transactions.

Extensibility hooks are embedded in the system so you can integrate custom transactions and improve your overall efficiency.

Like most sophisticated solutions of its kind, our product suits most retailers looking to boost their e-business integration strategies with a special focus on the implementation process like defining, mapping, and balancing customer requirements. Chaindrive is the best eCommerce gateway solution for small business

For many retailers, wholesalers and eTailers ChainDrive E-commerce Gateway has been a game changer and a life saver during the pandemic times when most brick and mortar stores were subject to mandatory lock down and extended periods of quarantine measures. If you wish to unchain your business and get more horse powers for your retail engine, you have to bet on the right eCommerce gateway provider.