Build Your Multi-Warehouse Inventory Management with Big Commerce

Warehousing is crucial for the millions of enterprises that depend on mass-produced goods to fuel their activities. Managing your inventory may be painful, specifically if you distribute through several channels. Outlets might include consumer refunds, theft, administration or paperwork problems, and vendor errors. The National Retail Council examined numerous international companies in 2017. Businesses, including those operating online, lost 1.33% of revenues on aggregate to inventory decline. The value of that loss in 2017 was $46.8 billion.

Once a company’s first warehouse is complete, it must grow into another one—or several, if required. Of course, some companies may have more than just a warehousing or inventory management center from the beginning for various reasons, most frequently related to manufacturing and the region of their clientele. Please continue reading to learn more about multi-warehouse management, its benefits, and several of the most frequent difficulties.

What is Multi-Warehouse Management?

Multi-warehouse management is the coordination of activities across many warehouses. The concept applies to all operations including employees, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and commodity transportation. E-commerce utilizes the term “multi-warehouse management” more frequently to describe the logistical processes involved in shipping and completing transactions from several warehouses. An online store may ship coming from various warehouses for several reasons.

How Does Warehouse Management Work with Big Commerce?

• Accurately track and manage inventory at a single warehouse, several factories, or at a 3PL.
• Simple inventory accessibility synchronization across all mediums
• Provide drop shippers with comprehensive packaging guidelines and make drop exports simpler by pre-setting preferred vendors per product.
• Use barcodes with Acctivate for almost flawless inventory tracking and expedited shipments.

Kitting, provenance, multi-currency, matrix stock, catch value, numerous units of measurement, and the most sophisticated landed cost features on the market are powerful features to add to your company.

Features of Warehouse Management System

1. Orders Are Done Automatically.

Our inventory management system regularly downloads new orders from BigCommerce and adds them to your select and pack processing queue.

2. Shipment Data Sync

Our BigCommerce inventory control system automates the entire e-commerce fulfillment procedure. After labels are generated and orders are packaged, the business syncs the shipping tracking data into Bigcommerce.

3. Synchronize Current Stock Levels

All your other online selling channels and your BigCommerce web stores are instantly updated if there are modifications to the actual amounts in your warehouse.

4. Get Product Information

Our e-commerce stock management program gets the details of your product offering. It checks to see whether the SKU already exists in the database. BigCommerce will sync any modifications to the item listings with the firm.

Challenges of Multi-Warehouse Management System

With the proper infrastructure, retailers can handle a wide coverage area, inventory management, and operational efficiency problems.

1. Communication Problems Between Warehouses

Communication will inevitably be difficult because various teams run the warehouses. When different warehouses utilize different management platforms, the management solution must properly transmit information about inventories, stock transfers, quantity monitoring, and unanticipated problems. Establishing points of engagement and communication procedures for several fulfillment process phases is crucial.

A warehouse can only function as efficiently as it is designed to. The likelihood that a consumer may get a delayed or incorrect purchase increases as more problems arise in the warehouse, representing the worst-case situation for an online retailer.

2. Improper Stock Tally

A human mistake during cycle counts, stock control management and monitoring, and abandoned orders that need to be refilled appropriately. Mistakes can also be like customer refunds, poorly handled extra stock, and other factors contributing to inaccurate inventories.

BigCommerce’s stock control prevents scenarios where your webpage shows twelve copies of an important brand available when only eight exist. Even worse, a supplier order that wasn’t entered correctly caused your website to show a commodity as “out of inventory.” It can happen with awaiting backorders even though you had cases stored in your warehouse.

3. Control Over Inventory Levels Across All Sites

Every order made exposes a merchant to unanticipated delays and fulfillment problems without precise and thorough control of inventory levels. Any warehouse operation gets substantially more difficult. It happens if merchandise is wrongly housed, inaccurately recognized, or abandoned.

Even if they only occur occasionally, differences in purchase requisitions, storage locations, or other factors may substantially impair warehouse management. Inadequate inventory assessments have always been the most frequent problem for warehouse managers.

4. There Is No Stock Control System.

Inventory management gets much more difficult if you do not have a unified system for warehouse management. Without a centralized approach, there are no rapid and accurate means to determine the:

• How much merchandise do you have available
• orderable quantity to satisfy par levels
• How par levels should adjust in response to sales
• The best way to predict prospective campaigns and seasons
• ongoing administrative fees

You’ll want a more efficient and integrated strategy leveraging platform native tools for BigCommerce managing inventory. This most frequently happens in modest eCommerce companies that maintain inventory manually using databases or paper store records. While a company with a minimal inventory could find success with this strategy, it could be more scalable.

5. Rating for Several Warehouses

You’ll have a lot of difficulties finding consistent shipping costs across different warehouses if you don’t have the necessary technologies in place. Your system can only provide proper pricing if it accounts for where your merchandise is situated or whether it is spread over one or more warehouses. Your clients will be given incorrect shipping costs if you don’t implement multi-warehouse control, which you will ultimately pay for. Additionally, suppose a package is projected to arrive from one area but delivers from another. In that case, your consumers may face project delays.

6. Inefficiency

Ineffective stock control leads to excess inventory and shortage of inventory. The most likely reason is a human mistake, which may be decreased by adopting automation.

Some intelligent warehouse management systems can provide you with simple automation aids. Because you can quickly automate your operations, such as product delivery, using its rules-based Automation System without writing any code. A merchandise operating system such as Emizentech may provide additional benefits.

Why Is Big Commerce Inventory Tracking Essential for Warehouse Management?

Effective inventory management is crucial for retail and e-commerce organizations since you must always be aware of what you possess and its location. If you are often out of inventory, online customers are frustrated and won’t remain around. To provide BigCommerce with actual statistics, you must keep track of your inventory throughout every stage. You may prevent overstocking and generate accurate estimates with the most recent data.

An intelligent warehouse management system for your BigCommerce platform would be the solution. This program offers consolidated, real-time stock control to aid in the most effective fulfillment of BigCommerce orders.

Why Choose Us?

Multi-channel eCommerce is one of the latest cost variables concerning inventories. Everywhere they travel, consumers desire more convenient methods to buy goods. Companies are anticipated to sell through various channels as a result. It is necessary to have more stock on hand as more channels are launched. The quantity of warehouses has increased during the past five years. The days stock outstanding has increased by more than 8%.

1. Make Sure that Your Inventory Is Accurate.

Over 40% of clients now shop over numerous channels, making monitoring their activity more challenging. The management of inventories through each of those channels also becomes more difficult.

In omnichannel eCommerce, system communication issues can account for up to 15% of inventory inconsistencies. Your stock control will be flawless if you use the appropriate software and procedures.

2. Countless Warehouses

You may have as many warehousing or distribution facilities as you require, regardless of how big or small your firm is. Adding and customizing warehouse data is simple with effective multi-warehouse management, and the system takes over from there.

The most important feature is the capacity to satisfy customers based on the specific order information. Your management system must have this among the many features and choices you may need. For your logistics management process to be effective, it must adequately connect with your e-commerce infrastructure. 

To put it another way, for your warehouse control system to be efficient, it must adequately connect with your e-commerce infrastructure. A clever method enables seamless connections between each order placed and each item of inventory required to complete the transaction.

3. Make Judgments Based on Data.

Overstocks and out-of-stock occurrences are more likely to occur when your inventory is poorly managed. Every consumer buying holiday, marketing initiative, new product introduction, etc. raises the chance.

These stock and sales statistics show how, how frequently, and how rapidly the product is moving. You may obtain more data if your stock management is effective. Additionally, you may focus on customer actions that support data-driven choices.

Having a track of exact product quantities is a significant commerce inventory management objective. It’s about employing all of your reports’ actionable knowledge to further your company objectives.

4. Current Information

The ability to obtain real-time, reliable data is the most crucial benefit of multi-warehouse management. Inventory and distribution function smoothly when every warehouse employs the same system.

It’s crucial to import and synchronize all data precisely while establishing your warehouse operations so that everything may proceed with assurance. With precise information readily available, you can keep an eye on stock levels, merchandise in transit, and updates and changes inside each warehouse.

You can obtain order data in real-time if multi-warehouse management is configured correctly, regardless of where the big commerce fulfillment warehouse is located.

5. Increased Output

Employees waste a lot of time manually tracking products, looking for “lost” inventory, updating manual inventory in eCommerce systems, and dealing with consumer complaints about inventory errors.

BigCommerce offers automated inventory management, allowing you and your staff to work much more efficiently. Third-party applications and systems for warehouse management that eliminate manual updates and drastically reduce the possibility of human mistakes can further increase that automation.

6. Locate and Follow Inventory Across the World

There is no longer any ambiguity surrounding present stock levels, order classifications, or completion logic. There is complete visibility into every transaction and inventory item. Finally, you have total visibility into every manufacturer’s location. As a result, you get a single perspective of each facility and all inside, providing you with complete freedom to complete orders most effectively.

Transparent systems with good multi-warehouse management provide detailed insight into necessary stock movements. The system is promptly updated once an item is accepted, removing problematic inconsistencies and inefficiencies. You’ll have full power to move stock for prompt order fulfillment since you’ll have real-time data on specific inventory levels and demand volume.

7. Swift Automation

With customizable processes, Automation Engine enables you to manage tens of numerous orders every day. Customers can often send items 45% faster and handle orders 40% faster. All sales channels automatically integrate inventory, so you can fulfill orders, manage orders, and monitor from one place instead of constantly signing into and out of Amazon or eBay.

As the transactions are made, it is updated, preventing overselling and data input mistakes. Because SKU links products automatically, changes in supply in BigCommerce will be reflected.

Incorporating warehouse control software results in operations like auto-printing tags as BigCommerce deliveries are packed, which decreases mistakes and improves efficiency. Grouping various things together is another way to make bundles. It synchronizes extensively every night to ensure that your BigCommerce merchandise is current.

Nearly half of small firms don’t use any extensive commerce inventory management system, notwithstanding the surge in inventory. Thanks to integrated capabilities offered by solutions like BigCommerce, inventory management has become a routine aspect of conducting business. Additionally, one may integrate third-party warehouse management systems and platforms like BigCommerce. Here are some reasons why third-party software and BigCommerce stock control are crucial. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce retailers must consider several factors when they expand to more than one warehouse. They can make it simple for consumers to start the order fulfillment from the BigCommerce site—without losing warehouse efficiency. It is essential since 73% of customers think the refund process influences their likelihood of buying from a merchant again. Focus on Your Business & Grow Exponentially with Advanced Warehouse Management Software, with bigcommerce development services, you will be able to face it without any worries.

Any retailer should implement a powerful multi-warehouse management solution. It transforms every order into a valuable piece of data if the objective is development with a growth strategy for management.