WEBVTT

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When your inventory is organized,

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you can pick, pack, and ship more products more accurately

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and more quickly to customers.

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So how do you get organized?

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At its most basic level,

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inventory management comes down to the two Ws.

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Where and what.

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Where can you find what you have?

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And what is it?

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First, let’s talk about where you’re going to put all your merchandise.

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And that depends a lot on your space.

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Do you have retail space or do you exclusively ship?

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Where are your entrances, exits, or shipping doors?

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Do you have a storage room? Or is it more of a storage closet?

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Map out your space and create zones.

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Within each zone, you can create sections.

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A section can be a single storage rack

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or maybe an entire wall.

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Label each zone section clearly

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so employees can see them from anywhere in the room.

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Once you have the sections divided,

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label specific locations—

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the exact places you’ll be looking for your merchandise.

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Use arrows to make it clear which shelf, hook, or surface the label is referring to,

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so you can pick, pack, and ship more accurately.

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Once you have your spaces and places labeled,

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it’s time to move on to what you’re selling.

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Here are some tips to create a simple description system

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that will grow with your business.

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Start with a noun. A shirt, a vase, or a whatchamadoodle.

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Then add specifics like size, color, and design differentiators.

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Each inventory description should be unique, but don’t add too much information.

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Especially if it might change.

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Once you have your items named,

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you’re going to want to create a unique item number

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for each type of product you sell.

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Here’s some guidance on creating a numbering system

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that will make your life easier as your business grows.

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Keep it short, but not too short.

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Five to seven digits are good.

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Add some letters that might help you locate the item number in lists.

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But avoid letters that can be confused with numbers.

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Don’t try to match your numbers with manufacturer numbers or UPC codes,

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because those can change without you knowing.

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Don’t use commas and slashes that can confuse inventory software.

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Even if you aren’t using specialized inventory software now,

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it’ll be helpful if you switch later.

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You’re also going to want to settle on some standard units of measure

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to make checking stock and reordering easier.

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And so you can pick, pack, and ship items faster.

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Are your products sold by weight? By units, piece, or bag or crate?

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Or a combination of all?

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Being specific about this will help inventory management systems

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determine what method of shipping is best for each order.

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Now that your inventory is organized and all in place,

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you know what you have and where it is.

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So you can focus on how to optimize your inventory

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to maximize sales and profits.

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And start to pick, pack, and ship more of your what to customers,

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wherever they are.