For businesses that sell or repair smartphones, tablets, and other electronics, serialized inventory is an absolute necessity. Efficient serialized inventory management can help your business quickly react to customer demand, track repairs, deal with warranty claims, and more.
But getting a handle on your serialized inventory can be a real challenge, especially without the robust, enterprise-level systems that bigger competitors use.
In this article we’ll give you everything you need to elevate your serialized inventory management including:
By staying up to date with the latest tools and inventory management processes, you can better meet customer expectations and increase revenue at your cell phone business.
High-value electronics like smartphones are assigned a serial number in order to track them from the manufacturing stage all the way down to the sale. Instead of tracking the type of products through an SKU like more generalized retail, serialized inventory tracks individual items through serial numbers, IMEI numbers, barcodes, or another form of identification.
Many electronic sellers are also required to use serialized inventory in order to maintain legal compliance.
Serialized inventory is a necessity for cell phone sellers and repair shops, but it can also get incredibly complex. As a result, independent store owners often run into a few common roadblocks:
As consumers, we’ve all dealt with those long, complex serial numbers on our phones, laptops, and other electronics. So, it’s easy to see how a mistake or two could be made when inputting a few hundred of them at a time.
But this is something some cell phone store owners face every day. Without a way to streamline or automate product intake, cell phone stores are forced to input each IMEI number or serial number by hand using a spreadsheet or another system.
Manual data entry is not only error prone and time consuming, but opens up stores to shrinkage risk, both from theft and honest mistakes.
Many generalized inventory management systems lack the ability to accurately track serialized inventory or provide a centralized database of IMEI numbers. If your cell phone store sells used or refurbished items, that confusion is increased.
Also, many cell phone shops don’t only offer smartphones and tablets. They may supplement their revenue with phone cases, protective covers, and other items. Unfortunately, many inventory management systems struggle to combine serialized and non-serialized inventory.
Your serialized inventory contains sensitive information, especially if you’re using it to track repairs and warranties. A data breach can be disastrous for a small business, both financially and in the form of lost customer trust.
Even though cyber threats are changing constantly, many independent cell phone businesses don’t invest in inventory management systems that follow the latest cybersecurity best practices.
Some cell phone businesses use a separate system to track repairs. This can lead to inaccuracies or duplicates in your system. Not only that, but should a warranty claim or product defect arise, lacking a centralized database of serialized inventory can make issues harder to track and verify.
Managing serialized inventory is tough – but it shouldn’t feel impossible. Luckily, with the right tools and by following a few best practices, your cell phone business can be more accurate, delight customers, and boost efficiency like never before.
To overcome the challenges of managing serialized inventory, you need a flexible system that is user-friendly and powerful enough to handle change. Cloud-based systems also give you the ability to view and manage inventory from different devices and locations.
Modern point of sale (POS) systems tailored to cell phone and electronics stores come with features to streamline serialized inventory management including:
With a real-time view of inventory, you’ll be able to efficiently trace items for compliance, warranty management, and more. You’ll also be much better prepared to handle customer demand as it changes instead of reacting too late.
Serialized inventory software also makes managing recalls more efficient by quickly identifying which products are affected. This lets you take prompt action to remove or replace defective items, minimizing the overall disruption to your business and inconvenience for customers.
Related Read: Electronic Component Inventory Management: 5 Solutions for Cell Phone Shops
Even with more automation and streamlined technology, performing physical inventory audits is necessary to catch inaccuracies before they become a problem. Regular audits of your serialized inventory will help you:
While hearing “audit” might make you cringe, don’t worry, modern technology makes it much easier. Using mobile devices, you can quickly scan barcodes and compare against your database.
Training your staff on the importance of serialized inventory management and how to effectively use your inventory management system will pay off in the long run. First, take the time to establish consistent procedures for receiving, selling, repairing, and returning merchandise.
Luckily, modern POS systems can streamline these processes to speed them up and reduce errors. You can also monitor and assign tasks to specific employees to ensure no steps are skipped.
Serialized inventory often stores sensitive information, so it’s important to keep it secure. Regular backups are also vital to prevent data loss due to system failures. Remember, even if it’s not your fault, a data breach or loss causes irreparable harm to a business’ reputation.
Stay informed about industry regulations concerning cell phones, ensuring your serialized inventory management complies with legal requirements, including privacy laws regarding customer information.
Many cloud-based POS and inventory management systems take the burden of cybersecurity off of the business itself. By centralizing your customer and device data in a secure database as well as staying up to date with cybersecurity best practices, you can rest easy knowing your information is safe.
With integrated inventory management software, you can utilize serial number tracking to improve customer service. Keeping detailed purchase histories will help you expedite warranty claims or offer targeted promotions based on previous purchases.
You can also monitor inventory levels and create custom product bundles to create upsell opportunities or move underperforming items.
Specialized POS systems like CellSmart POS can also combine your inventory management with repair tickets. This streamlines your process by helping you create customized repair tickets that seamlessly integrate with your payment and inventory systems.
Related Read: Mobile Repair Service Management Software: 5 Must-Have Features
Having visibility into all of your inventory – all the way down to the device, component, and part level – is invaluable for staying agile and growing your business. Using custom reports, you can view metrics that show which items are selling best, common repair requests, customer buying trends, and much more.
This data can help inform smarter decisions when it comes to purchasing stock, managing storage layout, and understanding customer behaviors (to name just a few).
Reports can also be used to monitor employee performance, helping you figure out who your top sellers are and which sales tactics are most effective.
Adopting modern technology to streamline your inventory management will certainly have some growing pains. That, and no two cell phone stores are the same. It’s important to find a system that can fit your unique needs.
But in the end, the benefits of efficient serialized inventory management far outweigh the downsides. Some of the biggest drivers include:
As a small cell phone business, your ability to stay efficient and provide exceptional customer support is crucial. Having efficient serialized inventory management is a vital piece of the puzzle.
At CellSmart POS, we’ve spent years helping cell phone and repair shops across the country overcome complex inventory management challenges.
To see how CellSmart POS can help streamline your serialized inventory management, schedule a demo today.
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