Current economic conditions in South Africa pose several problems for local business owners. These difficulties range from fluctuations in the rand exchange rate against our trading partners’ more stable hard currencies to disruptions in the supply chain resulting from the pandemic and ongoing international conflicts. In such circumstances, the need to ensure efficient measures for managing stock control has seldom been more crucial.

Manual stock management is a labour-intensive, time-consuming process that is prone to errors that could lead to financial losses and threaten customer relations, prompting many companies to seek more effective alternatives. In practice, many businesses have found that the best way to overcome these issues is to install a cutting-edge software solution to automate each step in the complex stock-management process.

The Hidden Cost of Inefficient Stock Control

Poor inventory control risks more problems than running out of a product or overstocking; it can have more far-reaching consequences that could severely impact a company’s bottom line. For example, it could lead to:

• Lost Sales and Dissatisfied Customers: Running out of a popular product will invariably lead to lost sales. Even worse, a disappointed customer might redirect an order to a rival company and might even be lost permanently, a move that could also damage a company’s brand reputation.

• Excessive Inventory Costs: Overstocking can be as harmful as stockouts, tying up capital in unsold items, adding to storage costs and, in the case of perishable items, the risk of losses due to wastage. Furthermore, if an overstocked item loses popularity or becomes obsolete and requires markdown, it will affect profit margins.

• Erroneous Financial Reports: Failure to manage stock levels efficiently can lead to discrepancies between actual and reported inventory figures, leading to inaccurate reports and the risk of penalties in the event of an audit.

• Overall Inefficiency: Poor stock control results in inconsistent stock levels, leading to rushed order fulfilment, higher shipping costs to expedite deliveries, wasting resources, and adding to operating expenditure.

• Restricted Growth: Inaccuracies in inventory data can prevent companies from recognising trends in stock movements that might pose expansion opportunities, like identifying fast-selling items that could appeal to previously untapped markets.

Taking Action to Improve Stock Control

Investing in software to automate essential stock-management processes offers a business the means to avoid the potential negative impacts of manual control described above. Fusion Software, a prominent South African development company, offers local business owners an alternative option. Our innovative software solution will overcome the many risks posed by guesswork and the delicate balancing act of manual management with a safer, easier, and more effective means to control inventory levels by leveraging the following features:

• Demand-based stocking through accurate forecasting

• JIT (Just-in-time) inventory ordering

• Heightened stock tracking and visibility

• Setting automatic safety stock levels and reordering points

• Streamlined procurement

• Prioritise stock level monitoring of items by classification with ABC analysis

Installing an efficient inventory management system will avoid the hard work and errors of outdated manual processes and provide a much-needed competitive edge that could propel small businesses in South Africa to previously unattainable heights. If you’re tired of overstocking and stockouts, why not contact us and arrange to see our stock control solution in action?