When your inventory is organized,
you can pick, pack, and ship more products more accurately
and more quickly to customers.
So how do you get organized?
At its most basic level,
inventory management comes down to the two Ws.
Where and what.
Where can you find what you have?
And what is it?
First, let’s talk about where you’re going to put all your merchandise.
And that depends a lot on your space.
Do you have retail space or do you exclusively ship?
Where are your entrances, exits, or shipping doors?
Do you have a storage room? Or is it more of a storage closet?
Map out your space and create zones.
Within each zone, you can create sections.
A section can be a single storage rack
or maybe an entire wall.
Label each zone section clearly
so employees can see them from anywhere in the room.
Once you have the sections divided,
label specific locations—
the exact places you’ll be looking for your merchandise.
Use arrows to make it clear which shelf, hook, or surface the label is referring to,
so you can pick, pack, and ship more accurately.
Once you have your spaces and places labeled,
it’s time to move on to what you’re selling.
Here are some tips to create a simple description system
that will grow with your business.
Start with a noun. A shirt, a vase, or a whatchamadoodle.
Then add specifics like size, color, and design differentiators.
Each inventory description should be unique, but don’t add too much information.
Especially if it might change.
Once you have your items named,
you’re going to want to create a unique item number
for each type of product you sell.
Here’s some guidance on creating a numbering system
that will make your life easier as your business grows.
Keep it short, but not too short.
Five to seven digits are good.
Add some letters that might help you locate the item number in lists.
But avoid letters that can be confused with numbers.
Don’t try to match your numbers with manufacturer numbers or UPC codes,
because those can change without you knowing.
Don’t use commas and slashes that can confuse inventory software.
Even if you aren’t using specialized inventory software now,
it’ll be helpful if you switch later.
You’re also going to want to settle on some standard units of measure
to make checking stock and reordering easier.
And so you can pick, pack, and ship items faster.
Are your products sold by weight? By units, piece, or bag or crate?
Or a combination of all?
Being specific about this will help inventory management systems
determine what method of shipping is best for each order.
Now that your inventory is organized and all in place,
you know what you have and where it is.
So you can focus on how to optimize your inventory
to maximize sales and profits.
And start to pick, pack, and ship more of your what to customers,
wherever they are.