What is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a popular ecommerce platform for retail businesses. Its functions include online store creation, search engine optimization, and hosting, based on the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model.
As well as an online storefront, running an ecommerce business requires efficient back-end operations.
Why is Inventory Management Important For BigCommerce Users?
Online shoppers are impatient, and will not stick around if you’re constantly running out of stock. It’s vital to track inventory at every stage, so that you can feed real-time data to your BigCommerce store.
Efficient inventory management is essential for retail & ecommerce businesses—you need to know exactly what you have and where it is at all times. With the latest data, you can make accurate forecasts and avoid over or understocking.
The answer is an inventory management solution that integrates seamlessly with your BigCommerce platform. This software provides centralized, real-time inventory control to help you fulfill BigCommerce orders with maximum efficiency.
Source: theretailchronicler.com
Common Challenges of Inventory Management
Multichannel sales
As well as your BigCommerce store, you might have a presence on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, or Magento, plus brick-and-mortar stores. Managing stock levels across channels can be stressful, especially if you don’t have full visibility.
A complete retail operations platform like Brightpearl syncs data from all channels to provide a real-time overview.
Overstocking
Overstocking costs money. You’ll pay more for storage, and there’s a higher risk of items being damaged or stolen. Excess inventory also leads to obsolescence, while perishable stock can spoil before it even leaves the warehouse.
This is why it’s important to make accurate predictions about how much stock you need. The best inventory management solutions come with advanced analytics to help you do this.
Understocking
Running out of stock disappoints customers, and you might end up paying more to procure products at the last minute. Track inventory accurately and you’ll know when you’re running low.
Some systems with advanced inventory management let you set thresholds for low stock, and automatically trigger replenishment. You can sync this information with your BigCommerce product page to alert customers before they reach checkout.
Inefficiency
Overstocking and understocking are effects of inefficient inventory management. Human error is the most likely cause, and you can reduce this by implementing automation.
Some BigCommerce inventory management systems can give you basic automation tools to help. A retail operating system like Brightpearl can give you even more; with its rules-based Automation Engine you can easily automate your processes, including order fulfillment, without the need for coding.
Market changes
It’s important to stay aware of outside forces like competition, changes in demand, and global supply chains. Again, analytics help you spot trends and order stock accordingly.
Inventory management systems with an integrated CRM also give instant access to customer data, enabling you to build profiles and personalize content.
Types of Inventory Management Costs
Inventory management has a number of costs attached. Some are unavoidable, while others can be reduced by improving efficiency.
1. Ordering
These costs include purchase requisition, purchase orders, and invoicing, and you can streamline them by using templates within your inventory software.
Labor costs may include time spent on accounting, communicating with vendors, or tracking purchase orders. Again, a good system will help you automate these processes.
2. Holding/carrying
Holding costs include rent, lighting and heating of warehouses, and stock depreciation. This is where Brightpearl’s smart inventory control can help you make savings.
By reducing excess stock, and speeding up stock movement, you may find a smaller warehouse is enough.
3. Handling
Handling costs include picking, packing, creating shipping labels, and loading shipments—plus employee labor, and the tools involved.
Again, automation reduces these costs, with barcode scanning and rules for auto-fulfillment and shipping. Plus, with up-to-date inventory levels, periodic cycle counts are much faster.
4. Losses
Losses due to spoilage or theft can be costly—especially if you don’t spot missing or damaged items until it’s too late.
With Brightpearl’s inventory control tools, you can make sure all stock is present and correct, and ensure appropriate storage of fragile items. You can also identify recurrent problem areas.
5. Stockouts
These can cost you dearly, as potential sales opportunities are lost. If a customer sees products out of stock in your store, they’ll find plenty of alternatives elsewhere.
Accurate tracking and forecasting will help you avoid stockouts. And if it does happen, Brightpearl can automatically switch to drop-shipping or accept backorders and calculate replenishment time to keep customers in the loop.
Benefits of Using Brightpearl for BigCommerce Inventory Management
Robust integration
Our BigCommerce integration is built by Brightpearl, so it’s tailored to retailers’ needs and the complexities of ecommerce, including high order volumes. It’s also maintained in-house, making it much faster to fix (rare) issues.
It lets you manage inventory, pricing, order status, and shipments across multiple BigCommerce stores, locations, and platforms.
Brightpearl and BigCommerce enjoy a true partnership, with sales and client development teams liaising daily to ensure customers have everything they need to grow their business.
Smart automation
Brightpearl’s Automation Engine helps you handle tens of thousands of orders a day with configurable workflows. Customers can process orders 40% faster on average, and ship orders 45% faster.
Inventory is shared automatically with all sales channels, so you’re fulfilling, managing, and reporting from a centralized system (no more logging in and out of eBay or Amazon).
It’s updated as sales are made, eliminating overselling and data-entry errors. Products are automatically linked by SKU, so availability in BigCommerce will follow changes in Brightpearl.
Brightpearl also performs a nightly bulk synchronization to make absolutely sure your BigCommerce inventory is up to date.
Integrating warehouse management software reduces errors and saves time with actions like auto-printing labels as BigCommerce shipments are packed. You can also create bundles by grouping individual products.
Multichannel, multi-location
If your BigCommerce store fulfills orders from multiple warehouses, Brightpearl’s tracking tools and automation make life easier. You can easily locate and track movement of stock, so you’ll never run out or be left with obsolete products.
Brightpearl will sync inventory across multiple BigCommerce sites, as well as physical stores, warehouses, and other ecommerce platforms in real-time. It’s a great way to manage multiple marketplaces and connect your online storefront with the rest of your operations.
Whether you’re at a physical store or a trade show, Brightpearl’s integrated POS app captures orders, customer information, and payments. You’ll also have product details and real-time inventory levels on hand.
Flexible fulfillment and returns
Automation rules select the best fulfillment option by channel, including partial fulfillment, dropshipping, multi-location, or Fulfillment By Amazon. You can even offer flexible fulfillment with the Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) functionality.
With 73% of shoppers saying the returns experience affects their likelihood to purchase from a retailer again, Brightpearl makes it easy for customers to initiate the returns process from your BigCommerce site—without sacrificing warehouse efficiency.
And Brightpearl’s robust integrations with shipping solutions like ShipStation and Shiptheory lets you manage all your shipping carriers in one platform.
Intelligent reporting
BigCommerce means big data, and Brightpearl helps you make sense of it with advanced reporting and business intelligence. Every time you make a sale, receive stock, or make a payment, the system creates journals automatically—so you can access real-time reporting whenever you want.
Brightpearl’s user-friendly dashboard pulls in data from BigCommerce and the rest of your channels. Armed with this, you can make data-driven decisions.
Maximum efficiency
Brightpearl makes your business more productive, with functions like automated accounting, customizable workflows, and sending purchase orders via EDI.
This enables BigCommerce merchants to increase revenue by 60%, order volume by 68%, and reduce shipping times by 13% on average year-on-year. By freeing up resources from back-office functions, you can concentrate on developing your business.
Do I Need BigCommerce Inventory Management?
Effective inventory management is the best way to optimize BigCommerce, with a centralized system syncing data and ensuring accurate tracking—plus automation for improved productivity and reduced costs.
Brightpearl’s purpose-built BigCommerce integration gives you all those functions, and more. Visit the website for more information and a free demo.
FAQs
What does inventory management mean?
Inventory management is the process of ordering, storing, handling, and selling a company’s stock. It involves tracking inventory levels to ensure you can fulfill demand, and making forecasts so you know how much to order.
Does BigCommerce integrate with inventory management software?
Yes. BigCommerce can integrate with various inventory management software alternatives, but some integrations work better than others. Choose a solution with a purpose-built BigCommerce connector, as well as full functionality for inventory and order management.
How do you manage product services or inventory online?
Inventory management software comes with various tools to help you do this, including automation to speed up repetitive tasks. You’ll also be able to gather data and use this to make accurate forecasts.