If one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2017 is to improve profitability for your retail business, you’re probably not alone with that one. What business owner doesn’t want to make more money? The real question is how are you going to do it? 

The answer should be through an inventory management system.

If you don’t have a system for tracking and managing inventory, you may as well give up on that resolution because inventory is the pulse – the heartbeat – that keeps your business alive. In fact, wouldn’t you agree that you must have your finger on that pulse to thrive and survive in today’s customer-centric marketplace, especially if you run an omnichannel operation?  

Simply put, inventory must be in sync with all sales channels. Whether a sale comes from a customer in your store, or a customer who orders online from your e-commerce site, an inventory management system will keep track of inventory numbers so that you’ll never run out of an item, or overstock on an item. As you must know, either scenario can cost you customers, and money.

There’s even more you can do with an inventory management system. You can get timely reports to help you better understand what’s going on with inventory week to week, quarter to quarter, season to season. It’s kind of like reading a history novel, only it’s about the items you offer.

To ensure profitability you must know your inventory story. You must be prepared to think ahead and make good buying decisions. You can’t do that if you don’t know what “widgets” sold well last spring. Such a nugget of information will help you better forecast profitability, and that’s how you’ll be successful in making your New Year’s resolution come true.