What's the Point of an Inventory Scanning System?

March 15, 2021

All companies with physical products have to worry about inventory management. Sometimes that means you’re counting inventory by hand and writing it down on a pad of paper. Other times you incorporate a barcode inventory system to ensure that you’re getting the right numbers and logging all products in your inventory collection. Overall, an efficient inventory scanning system is key to running a productive and profitable business. It allows you to understand how your inventory moves and brings in information for making better stocking and ordering choices in the future.

But that begs the question: what’s the point of an inventory scanning system? What are the benefits and downsides? Is it really making you that efficient in the long run? The answer to that last question is a resounding yes, seeing as how an inventory scanning system combines hardware like an inventory scanner and QR codes to automate the entire process of logging your products.

In this article, we’ll explore this key question, uncovering the true benefits of an inventory scanning system and showing you exactly how your company can benefit from the automation.

Keep reading to understand the purpose of an inventory scanning system:

To Efficiently Manage Inventory

The movement of physical inventory benefits from an inventory scanning system due to its perpetually growing nature and the fact that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of all units by hand.

There are far too many moving parts within a growing ecommerce or retail business, so it makes sense to bring in an efficient inventory management tool to log it all for you.

In short, you’re making an attempt to improve the way you track and maintain your inventory. This way, you can check in on which items are sent to which warehouses, while also gaining a better understanding of which products are selling better in certain regions.

And it all starts with an inventory scanner. Britecheck offers a quick inventory scanner that works as long as you have a phone or tablet with you. A physical hardware scanner works as well, as long as it’s constantly functioning and isn’t a pain for your employees to carry around.

To Improve How You Use Your Inventory

An inventory scanning system enables you to see a clear picture of which products are selling well. It compiles the absolute facts and gives you an idea of which inventory to reorder and potentially market to more customers. Think about it. Overall, having a log of your inventory opens up possibilities for selling more products. You may be able to see that one item sells rather well in the northeast region of the US. However, it doesn’t perform quite as well in the south.

With that type of information, you’re equipped to spend more resources on certain products and cut the fat when needed. After all, there’s no need to keep stocking items that simply sit on the shelf and provide no sales for your company. On the other hand, you want to identify the top sellers and ensure that your resources go towards either making more of those or looking for items that are similar or can complement it.

To Improve Where You Move the Inventory

Your inventory gets sent all over the world, so you should utilize an inventory scanning system to boost your chances of sending them to the right places. With fulfillment centers, you’re making an educated guess about where to send and store your products.

However, as time passes, and you keep a better eye on your inventory movement, you’re able to narrow in on the right ways to store your inventory. As an example, you may find that one product should have 1,000 units stored in a warehouse on the west coast, while you only need 100 of them sent to a warehouse in the Midwest.

That not only cuts down on the shipping time to your customers, but it most likely shrinks the costs for storing unnecessary inventory in the wrong places.

To Cut Unnecessary Costs

Tying into the previous point, a barcode inventory system does a wonderful job of trimming costs. It does this in several ways, like showing you exactly where to store your inventory after sales are made, and also by expediting the entire process of logging inventory by hand.

Smaller companies may manually track inventory, but it doesn’t take long to realize this is an inefficient and overwhelming method. An inventory barcode system automates much of the process, and it makes you more organized by logging the SKUs and product codes within your system for further management.

So, the cost -savings are two-fold: You learn how to efficiently move your products and focus on producing the ones that sell the best. In addition, you’re opening up time for you and your employees to spend on other parts of the business.

To Automate the Inventory Scanning System and Give Your Company More Time to Spend on Other Tasks

In general, it makes little sense to spend time with data-entry when logging inventory. It takes too long to do it manually, it’s demoralized work as an entrepreneur, and there’s no way you’re being as accurate as an automated inventory scanning system.

Think about all the other tasks you could pursue if you were to simply cut out the manual process of logging inventory. You can spend more time on marketing, accounting, product development, or sourcing. Seeing as how an inventory scanner does all the inventory management for you, the previous suggestions are all better uses of your time.

In Conclusion

Overall, an inventory scanning, or barcode inventory system, makes your life easier as a business owner. It provides the potential for more sales, and it cuts costs that you didn't even know existed. With all of these benefits, we highly recommend checking out the Britecheck inventory management software to move your inventory process to a simpler interface by scanning products from your phone and logging them in an easy-to-use software.

Contact us if you have any questions about this article or to sign up for Britecheck!