How to reduce your time spent at the warehouse – without complicated IT systems
Jonas Raaschou
We happily admit it: At Webshipper, we’re as crazy about shipping and logistics as Monty is about cheese.
But inventory and warehouse management are not our strong side.
At Rackbeat, they’re experts at that. That’s why we’re happy to announce that you can now integrate Rackbeat with Webshipper (see all our integration possibilities here).
That’s a benefit for you for three reasons:
1) Spend your time at the warehouse more efficiently
You have a webshop and a warehouse full of products – but do you know how many products you should keep in stock?
On the one hand, you want to have enough products in stock to meet your customers’ expectations. Otherwise, they might shop somewhere else. On the other hand, it can be expensive to have too many products lying around. You might end up having to sell them at reduced prices just to get rid of them – and this can be very expensive when the accountant pays a visit.
So: You need to be able to deal with what’s in stock.
A lot of people manage their inventory by walking around with a notebook, counting their products. Afterwards, a colleague writes the numbers in an Excel sheet, and before you know it you’ve spent a day or two like this.
ʻMany people think inventory management is pretty boring,’ says Morten Bæhrenz, CEO and cofounder of Rackbeat. ʻAnd it often is because it’s so time-consuming. For that reason, we’ve focused on making a system that doesn’t require huge IT skills to handle – and that makes your time spent at the warehouse more efficient. Instead of walking around with pen and paper, you just feed your smartphone all the information, and Rackbeat will help you control having enough products in the warehouse – but not too many.’
2) Give customers better service by providing the right information about inventories – every time
Rackbeat doesn’t just help you control what’s in stock; it also helps you share this vital information with your customers.
If you sell your products via different sites, Rackbeat automatically updates information about inventories on all sites, so you don’t end up promising a customer a product that’s not in stock.
If you also sell your products e.g. by phone, Rackbeat will update your inventories live.
This saves you spending time manually typing every time you create an order confirmation and invoice. And it makes it easier for you to provide the right information for your customers when they enquire about a specific product – you’re able to see at a glance if it’s in stock or if it needs to be ordered.
3) Get reports about your minimum stock automatically
As mentioned earlier, it’s important to know what is the right amount of products to keep in your warehouse. But it’s completely individual from store to store; it depends on your business and your customers.
Rackbeat will help you make reports about what you sell, to give you an overview of your inventories. You’ll know when to order new products, and how many you should order, so you can save money with e.g. volume discounts. And, just as important, you’ll know when NOT to buy more products, because you’ve sold fewer than expected.
But just like us at Webshipper, the people behind Rackbeat know that a system based on big amounts of data is only helpful if it’s easy to use. And it is.
Morten Bæhrenz says: ʻOur system is not made to handle shipping like Webshipper is. It’s not made to handle your economy like Economic is. We made it specifically to deal with inventory management in the most efficient way for the webshop owner. So you don’t need to learn a tricky IT system in order to control your warehouse. The system has few buttons, it’s easy to use and the numbers are transparent – and it’s easy to begin with a relatively small budget.’