Does the thought of tracking thousands of SKUs across multiple locations make you break out in a cold sweat? You’re not alone.
Picture this: Your cell phone wholesale business is taking off. Orders are flying in and profits are on the rise. However, errors start creeping in, and your manual tracking methods lead to supply chain issues, unhappy customers, and stock sitting stagnant in your warehouse. It’s an all too familiar story, and one you don’t need to tell.
Instead of this horror story, you could rely on modern inventory management practices and technology to turn your stock from a cost center to a profit center.
This article highlights the importance of inventory management for cell phone wholesale, as well as key features and benefits to look out for. Let’s dive in!
How To Simplify Inventory Management for Cell Phone Wholesale
For cell phone wholesalers, controlling inventory is essential but complex. You manage stock levels across multiple brands, models, generations, and locations. As your business grows, do manual inventory processes still make sense?
Think about the oversight you need to manage your wholesale business, from multiple locations to communication with store managers. You’ll struggle to keep your finger on the pulse of your business with manual methods.
You also need to balance costs and risks. Excess unmoved stock incurs carrying costs and takes up storage space. Yet empty shelves and a lack of forecasting lead to missed sales. Without real-time inventory management, you risk overcompensating either way.
Related Read: Wholesale Buying Tips
Implementing an automated inventory management system gives you real-time visibility into your business's moving parts. You’ll have an always-on view of inventory levels across all SKUs and locations. You can get the control you need with accurate safety stock levels and minimal excess inventory.
Let’s look deeper into your potential challenges and how to overcome them.
Understand Your Inventory Needs and Challenges
Getting a handle on inventory is crucial yet tricky:
- Products: Wholesalers track a considerable number of product variations across brands, models, generations, colors, capacities, conditions, and more. You’ll have thousands of SKUs to keep pace with at any given time. Digitally tracking each product and variation is essential to avoiding under or over-stocking.
- Scalability: As your business expands, so will your inventory volume. Manual methods are prone to error, and miscommunication between locations creates supply chain issues. You need a scalable inventory management system capable of running your front and back office.
- Reporting: Wholesalers need to strategically manage different brands, product generations, and condition grades (e.g. new, refurbished, used). Which models sell best? Which are stagnant? Without robust reporting, you can’t make better purchasing decisions.
It all comes down to visibility — being able to see what’s happening in the industry, noticing trends, and getting the right products into the hands of store owners.
Benefits of Inventory Management Software
Imagine all of your inventory and sales data in one centralized location — this can be your reality. Inventory management software gives you visibility and control across your cell phone wholesale operations.
Inventory management software should streamline your processes. You’ll need to sort, test, and grade each phone. You’ll also need to input the IMEI numbers for each device and reconcile them against purchase orders. Inventory software integrated with barcode scanners can make all the difference.
Modern software has dashboards that present real-time snapshots of inventory levels down to the SKU. Want to save stock for customers who do the most business with you? You can! Inventory and sales reports give you all the data you need.
This data can inform purchasing, transfer, and floor-planning decisions. Automated reporting enables reorders to maintain baseline stock levels. Sales transactions automatically deduct items from inventory counts, and you’ll no longer have to track orders manually.
Inventory Management: Key Features You Need
You’re ready to leverage advanced technology to manage inventory for cell phone wholesale. But what features should you look for in a modern system?
- Real-time visibility: Your software should log every transaction and maintain up-to-date counts across SKUs. Dashboards present snapshots, allowing you to check stock levels from anywhere, 24/7. Even better? Custom views organized by brands, stores, or categories.
- Automated tracking: Modern software automatically tracks inventory and provides notifications to ensure you have enough products on hand. Set minimum quantity thresholds and get alerts when stocks of hot items run low — or receive notifications when inactive models pile up.
- Inventory transfer: You want to be able to spread inventory across locations to optimize turnover. For example, if specific models sell faster in some stores, the best software simplifies transfers between warehouse and retail locations, allowing you to meet demand.
- Robust reporting: Historical sales data can help in various ways. You’ll see who your best customers are, identify your fastest-selling brands, and see which locations move items fastest. Use this data to negotiate better deals with suppliers and build solid relationships with retail customers.
- Hardware integration: Your inventory software should integrate with a barcode scanner and wholesale POS system. Combining your hardware and software creates a holistic system with complete visibility, from sales to your warehouse to multiple locations.
Related Read: Warehouse Management System With POS Is a Must
Your business is unique, but you still need to create a system that gives you complete control and visibility into your operations. Make sure your software has these key features.
CellSmart Makes Inventory Management for Cell Phone Wholesale Easy
Staying on top of cell phone wholesale inventory takes a lot of work.
From multiple SKUs and locations to manual counting methods, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. However, the right inventory management software provides full visibility and enables automated processes to get on top of your stocks and keep your customers happy.
At CellSmart POS, we provide integrated inventory management tailored for cell phone wholesalers. Our POS system centralizes tracking with real-time visibility down to the IMEI level. It also offers robust reporting (including profit and loss), inventory status, sales by product, and more.
Other features include customer integration, expense tracking, and seamless inventory transfer. In short, we give you complete control over inventory planning and logistics. To see for yourself, schedule a demo with our wholesale experts today.
