How Inventory Management Services Can Help Your Business

When people think of the best package delivery service, they immediately think of Amazon. This is, after all, the company that does free shipping that arrives the same day or even overnight. Despite the tremendous cost of maintaining such a massive logistics network, Amazon plans to invest another billion dollars into its improvement.

However, its blistering fast delivery services pale in comparison to what makes it truly brilliant: its legendary inventory management. After all, Amazon has very few first-party products. Nearly everything they ship is in fulfillment for other companies.

The point is proper inventory and fulfillment services can do a lot to grow your business. Keep reading as we discuss how a fashion retailer benefits from outsourcing the inventory management process.

Inventory Management Services Reduces Overstocking and Shortages

Logistics are very prone to shortages. Just take a look at the events of the past few years. Delays in manufacturing and shipping at origin led to worldwide delays for all industries.

This is especially apparent for small apparel and fashion brands. Fast fashion trends have led to huge surges in purchases at online clothes retailers. When handling thousands of payments, shipments, and even returns, it can quickly get overwhelming.

Even knowing that shipments are delayed, customers can be impatient. If you are unable to anticipate a delay in the pipeline, you may receive order cancelations.

Falsely anticipating higher throughput can also lead to overstocking. Overstocking wastes precious warehouse space and takes more manpower to organize and track.

This push and pull could lead to unpredictable overstocking and shortages. Companies can alleviate a great deal of the load by contracting inventory management providers and distributors.

It Allows You to Focus on What’s More Important

As a budding fashion retailer, you have a lot on your plate. It’s not just the design of new product lineups and sourcing the materials to make them. You have to handle tricky manufacturing issues and market your product.

All of this is to say that you have less energy and time to handle the inventory management system. Remember Amazon as an example. The vast majority of their business model is about inventory management, fulfillment, and distribution.

Building your own warehouse and distribution system can be incredibly tricky, even relying on existing shipping providers. At least in the beginning, it can significantly reduce your business capabilities. That’s why it’s best to let somebody else handle it.

Fulfillment-centric businesses have honed their ability to handle every step of the process. They can fulfill orders from credit card processing to shipping. And if you choose the right company, they likely have experience with brands similar to your own.

It Allows You to Take Advantage of Modern Automation

Going back to Amazon as an example, their warehouses make full use of automation. Machines are able to handle virtually everything, from order processing to order picking. Needless to say, automation makes the job faster and more efficient. 

Now, the most important automation happens with software. Employees no longer need to waste time with manual data entry or error correction. Orders can process in seconds, and shipments not long after.

Even in a warehouse that uses human pickers, things are far more efficient than ever before. The faster you can process and ship orders, the better. If you build a reputation for prompt service, your customers will take note.

It Maintains a High Level of Accuracy

Mistakes and errors in shipments happen all the time. For the customer, they are a mere inconvenience. But for businesses, they amount to large losses in revenue. 

It takes a lot of money to correct transit errors. Packages get lost. Orders get confused, resulting in customers receiving the wrong orders.

Just a single order mistake can cost a lot of money. But having so many orders wrong at the same time can take a huge bite out of your ROI. So, avoid these issues by having a third-party handle your inventory management.

A small business suffers the most when order accuracy is poor. Large companies can afford to have significant losses. But when you don’t have that privilege, a series of bad orders could make a lean year worse.

Contract your work out to inventory management services, and you will get a very high rate of reliability. After all, they have to do a good job to get your business. This means making sure mistakes are comparatively rare.

It Creates a Happy Customer Base

As a fashion retailer, you have a ton of competition. There are literally thousands of clothing brands being created every year. Many of them originate from foreign countries which can afford to drop their prices very low.

Competition is fierce in fashion, whether it’s luxury or fast fashion. Customers pay close attention to how companies treat them. People can leave vicious online reviews that will stay on review sites for years to come.

It’s important to prioritize your customers from day one. Building a strong, loyal customer base is something you can’t buy with money. It’s something that you cultivate over the course of years with high-quality products and good service.

A great deal of the frustration that customers experience comes down to order and shipping issues. Don’t drive away customers with a bad experience getting their product to them. If you make this whole process as painless as possible, they will recommend you to all of their friends.

Work with DDA Holdings

Inventory management is the core of all great retailers. If you have an effective and efficient means of controlling inventory in and out, your ROI will reflect it. Consider outsourcing your inventory management to a company that specializes in servicing fashion retailers.

At DDA Holdings, we handle the entire process of inventory management for you. We have three tiers of management services to best assist your fashion retailer business. Contact us today to see how we can help you provide unparalleled fulfillment.