Inefficient inventory management is the main cause of hurdles in scaling retail businesses, high costs of inventory storage, and loss of revenue due to stockout situations. Inventory management software is important in enhancing various business operations in retail and even in manufacturing businesses. To ensure that your inventory life cycle operates properly, you must prefer to use high-quality inventory management software with feature-rich modules. The focus on features is critical for achieving the benefits associated with inventory management software. 

But, what features should you search for and how will you determine the perfect software for your inventory management objectives? This can be confusing for retailers. Therefore, in this article, we hope to offer you the best feature suggestions you must consider while selecting the best inventory management software. 

The blog highlights key features of inventory management software such as item master, product-wise supplier mapping, barcode and label generation, expiry management, stock verification, etc. 

Read out the top 15 inventory software features required for robust inventory management in retail and manufacturing businesses. 

Top 15 Features of Inventory Management Software  

Effective retail inventory software leads to more efficient order and fulfillment operations. It relieves retailers from arduous stock management workflows for their stores, warehouses, godowns, and other branch locations. 

Check out the list of features that are required in a top-quality inventory management system: 

#1 Item Master 

The Item Master feature offers a centralized database for all the product-related details. This software feature allows retailers, wholesalers, MSMEs, distributors, and manufacturers to maintain a detailed record of every product and brand category including descriptions, stock levels, supplier details, SKUs, etc. 

Along with barcode integration, it ensures precise product data. Item master is a must for product information management, efficient order management, and procurement processes.  

#2 Multiple Variants 

Inventory management software manages several product variations with its Multiple Variants feature. The feature monitors multiple product attributes such as size, color, brand, and style. It ensures precise stock levels, eases the ordering process, and reduces the risk of overselling or stockouts. 

By showing a comprehensive view of inventory across every variant, inventory management software helps retailers in promisingly organizing their SKUs. 

#3 Warehouse Inventory Tracking 

The Warehouse Inventory Tracking feature provides real-time visibility into stock levels in the warehouses. It helps in efficient tracking, transit, and management of goods to and from the warehouse. This will ensure accurate record-keeping of the warehouse inventory.  With advanced barcode scanning, retailers can conduct stock verifications easily for their warehouse inventory. Features like automated updates and alerts regarding warehouse stocks further improve the overall management of retail warehouses/godowns.

Inventory management software with a robust tracking system like that of VasyERP supports multi-location warehouses.  The warehouse management system embedded in inventory software provides a centralized view of inventory across various warehouses. It ensures optimal stock control and seamless supply chain management. 

#4 Barcode Generator 

The robust barcode generator feature is quite useful for inventory processes. This feature creates custom barcodes quickly, ensuring accurate product tracking. Barcodes are critical for the management of inventory items. The barcode generator is a module in inventory management that supports various barcode formats (UPC Code, EAN Code, CODE 39, CODE 128, ITF (Interleaved 2 of 5), CODE 93, and more. It can be easily integrated with existing systems and print size variations supported are 1UPS, 2UPS, 3UPS, 4UPS, and A4. 

With inventory management software that comes with an advanced inbuilt barcode generator, businesses can maintain precise inventory control, ease billing counter workflows, and ensure robust warehouse management, and seamless stock verification.

#5 Automated Reorders 

The Automated Reorder feature will ease the restocking process. By setting thresholds, the system will automatically generate purchase orders when stock levels fall below a particular point. This feature ensures that your inventory never goes out of stock. Reorder systems work on either consumption pattern or demand pattern analysis. With real-time inventory tracking and intelligent analytics, inventory management software can decide on optimal reorder points. This feature helps retailers maintain optimal inventory levels. 

#6 Product-Wise Supplier Mapping 

Now, easily link a list of suppliers to individual products using the product-wise supplier mapping feature of inventory software. This feature of inventory software eases the procurement processes. By assigning products to particular suppliers, businesses can negotiate good terms, monitor supplier performance, and improve supply chain reliability. 

Product-wise supplier mapping will not only reduce the risk of stockouts but will also simplify supplier management. This helps you expedite the procurement process and also lets you maintain sound supplier relationships. However, such advanced features are only available with a few advanced inventory management software like VasyERP.

#7 Stock Audit and Verification 

The Stock Audit and Verification ensures precise inventory control and stock verification. Stock audits are annual, half-yearly, or quarterly stock verification exercises conducted to match the physical inventory with their digital/manual records. Some retailers may do stock verifications on a monthly or weekly basis too. Inventory management software has features for conducting inventory audits. 

Advanced retail software solutions like VasyERP make this feature accessible using mobile apps. Retailers can use their mobile apps for stock verification. This simplifies the audit process. It helps reduce human errors and ensures accurate records. Using inventory management software, businesses can conduct thorough and efficient stock audits to maintain their inventory. 

Effortlessly Verify Your Physical and Online Stock with VasyERP’s Stock Verification Feature

#8 Product Images 

The product images feature of inventory management software enhances product visibility and accuracy. It allows businesses to upload high-resolution images for every product in the inventory, which identifies products easily and quickly. For retailers, the product images feature enables adding images of their product to the POS software or the integrated online ecommerce platform. 

#9 Stock Transfers 

Stock transfer is a crucial feature for multi-store inventory management retail. Robust stock management software can initiate, manage, and effortlessly track the movement of inventory between several retail store locations or warehouses. The automation of the stock transfer process reduces the risk of human mistakes and speeds up the transfer process. With the stock transfer feature, retailers can meet the demand for inventory at any store easily. Access to real-time updates and comprehensive tracking to notify every movement to the retailer results in better inventory control and decision-making. 

#10 E-Way Bill (On-Route GST Compliance) 

The On-Route GST Compliance (E-way bill) feature is one of the most important for retailers as it helps them to meet their tax obligations. Advanced inventory management software like VasyERP has integrated compliance features with the latest GST regulations. The e-Way Bill Integration feature automatically generates and tracks e-way bills for goods under transportation. The seamless integration of e-way bills with inventory management software ensures hassle-free and obstruction-free logistics. 

#11 Cycle Counting 

The cycle counting inventory feature helps to ensure inventory accuracy by regularly counting small subsets of inventory. This reduces the requirement for full-scale inventory counts. Businesses can gain various advantages including real-time inventory records, enhanced stock control, and reduced losses due to errors or theft. The cycle counting feature can be customized to set count frequencies as per the user’s requirement based on product demand. Inventory management software with cycle counting features has modules for ABC analysis of stocks based on the Pareto principle.

#12 Stock Ageing or Expiry Management

Retailers can easily monitor the expiry of inventory items that are in stock using the stock aging feature of inventory management software. The stock aging feature goes beyond mere expiry tracking and includes identification of the products that were bought for consumption as raw material but haven’t been used yet. It also tracks near-expiry and obsolete products in the store. Retailers can easily decide on product reordering, promotions, or markdowns by categorizing the inventory into various segments as per their aging factors. 

Selling expired items can cause you legal troubles. Expiry management features in inventory management are integral to maintaining compliance and ensuring customer protection. This feature will help retailers in keeping their inventory fresh. Particularly useful for retail businesses like cake shops, sweet shops, dairy outlets, milk shops, bakeries, pharma retailers, and more.  

#13 Location-Wise Stock Management 

Retailers who have multiple stores and branches across locations need a centralized solution to manage their inventory.  Managing stock across multiple store locations is an important feature that you should look for in inventory management software. With this features of inventory management software, users can swiftly transfer stocks between various locations and manage inventory from multiple outlets centrally. 

With on-time reporting and analytics, businesses can gain valuable insights into stock availability across all locations resulting in data-driven decision-making. This feature is a must-have for multi-location retail enterprises. 

#14 Raw Material Management 

Raw material management focuses on tracking, storing, and managing the basic ingredients or components needed for the production of finished items. Sweet shops, restaurants, gift shops, cake shops, etc. need to first store raw materials like sugar, flour, eggs, milk, etc. Raw material management is a core inventory software feature that helps retailers procure and store optimal levels of raw materials, preventing both shortages and excess raw material inventory. 

It involves real-time monitoring of raw material quantities, quality control, and demand forecasting. Effective raw material management reduces storage costs and minimizes raw material wastage due to spoilage. 

#15 Label Generator 

Label Generator in inventory management is a feature that easily creates custom labels.  The feature supports several label formats and includes barcodes, QR codes, and other necessary product detail labels. Automating the label-generating process enhances accuracy, reduces manual errors in the labeling process, and also saves time. Label generator improves inventory tracking by maintaining consistency across labels. 

Other Inventory Management Software Features

Apart from the above-discussed top features of inventory management software, you can also look for the below features that come with advanced software tools. 

• Lot and Batch Tracking: Track groups of inventory items that share similar properties, such as manufacturing date, expiration date, or supplier. 
• Stock Alerts: Low stock alerts, reorder alerts, expiration alerts, and more. 
• Inventory Reports: Reports like loss qty report, demand forecasting report, stock aging report, ABC analysis report, price master, stock movement, supplier wise product, sales by product, low stock report, material consumption report, least selling product, price change, expiry management, inventory report, stock summary, stock adjustment report, stock transfer item wise summary and more. 
• Bulk Item Upload: Add or remove a large number of items from an Excel sheet or other databases, bulk update prices (percentage-wise, number-wise). 
• Returns and Exchanges update: Any returned or exchanged goods are updated to inventory records in real-time. 

Final Thoughts 

Remember that the goal of selecting an effective inventory management solution is to keep your customer satisfied and ease your inventory management burden. Finding the right inventory management software for your retail store is definitely a challenging task. In this article, we have covered major features of inventory management software to help you select the one that has the most features from the above list. 

If you are a retailer or an online seller, you can consider an advanced retail inventory management software like VasyERP that has all the above-discussed features.  VasyERP is a proven inventory software assisting retailers and online sellers with feature-loaded modules. VasyERP’s inventory management software provides more functionality at an affordable price. 

Still confused about which features of inventory management software to look for?

Feel Free to get in touch with us today! 

FAQs

1. What Makes a Fully-Featured Inventory Management Software? 

A fully featured inventory management software is one with comprehensive integrated modules with rich features. As all business operations, particularly in retail are connected to each other, the software must also have connected modules. 

Modules like accounting software, POS software, CRM, Omnichannel Ecommerce, Supply chain management, Multi-store management, etc. should come integrated with the inventory management software for a complete solution in one place. 

Integrated modules along with the features discussed above will make a fully-featured inventory management software. 

2. Who Can Use the Inventory Management System? 

Inventory management software helps distributors, wholesalers, retailers, SMEs, MSMEs, and manufacturers optimize their in-store and warehouse inventory. 

3. What are the key benefits of using Inventory Management Software?

• The main benefits include improved accuracy in stock tracking, and better visibility of inventory across all sales channels, stores, and warehouses. 
• Inventory management software also has features that help reduce inventory carrying costs, prevent stockouts and overstocking, and give businesses a vantage point by exceptional forecasting of demand. 
• The software helps in compliance management related to inventory and prevents any issues related to expired goods. 
• Barcoding and labeling benefits by keeping stocks handy for counting and delivering. 
• The software also takes care of transit inventory or supply chain operations for businesses.