Offline & online inventory management

[Babymoos]

Hello guys & gals,

We're just about to open our first bricks & mortar store, we've been selling online for 5 years, I'd love to know how those of you who also sell in store & online are managing inventory across online & instore?

 

[Tony Balthazar]

Instore was always a separate cost center and the lines I handles separately to online products.
Easier working through the P&L that way with often different margins and costs & logistics associated etc.

 

[ToyWorldNW]

We tried to cut corners when we first opened earlier this year, hoping to "wing it" with manual stock management and no cross reference between online and instore - what a headache.

So, now that we are relocating to larger premises, it seemed the ideal time to roll out a proper solution. We've gone with a cloud based EPOS system which also ties in to our ecommerce website.

The system will allow us to report separately on both instore and online sales, but also manages the stock pool collectively, so that store sales are removed from web availability almost in real time.

 

[Babymoos]

We tried to cut corners when we first opened earlier this year, hoping to "wing it" with manual stock management and no cross reference between online and instore - what a headache.

So, now that we are relocating to larger premises, it seemed the ideal time to roll out a proper solution. We've gone with a cloud based EPOS system which also ties in to our ecommerce website.

The system will allow us to report separately on both instore and online sales, but also manages the stock pool collectively, so that store sales are removed from web availability almost in real time.

Has that EPOS been created for you or is it a widely available software ToyWorldNW?

 

[ToyWorldNW]

It's an off the shelf package, but with a few tweaks to suit us.

We went with Freedom POS in the end, quite a small company but crucially the developer has a retail background, so really understands what is important in a shop environment.

The costs are a little higher than some of the other solutions I played with, but the service has been second to none, and what's more there haven't been any additional costs on top of the service charges, even for the custom work needed.

 

[Babymoos]

Super, I'll take a look, Thank you!

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

A company I'm heavily involved with did the opposite a number of years ago.

Their existing stock management was always spot on so their existing EPOS system became the master and we wrote an interface which updates the stock on the website and pulls the orders in etc.

It works really well, but will depend on your systems and if you can integrate.

If you have a large stock holding, I would definitely recommend spending time thinking and planning it, as it can be a headache to correct if you don't address all the angles.

 

[Tracey salt]

A friend of mine actually designs database software for a fraction of the price and custom made to suit your business. I think he sells on Amazon, ebay etc so pretty sure you could find him if you search?