Best inventory management software for growing businesses in the US

While this will depend on your business model, scale and workflows, the inventory management software should:

• Track your stock on hand, its value, and your profit/loss based on FIFO, LIFO or Weighted Average logic (depending on which method you use for your business).

• Provide end-to-end order management, from capturing an order, to receiving the goods from your suppliers, to packing and delivering them to customers.

• Allow you to bundle items together and make composite supplies.

• Allow you to use barcode scanners, serial numbers, batch numbers, manufacturing part numbers, and SKU numbers.

• Warn you about items that are about to go out of stock in your inventory and allow you to reorder efficiently.

• Offer multi-location stock tracking and keep track of stock transfers.

• Work hand-in-hand with your accounting software to help you stay on top of your cashflow and taxes at all times.

• Provide friendly and straightforward support to help you get unstuck.

There are two commonly used inventory management techniques among businesses. They include:

• Periodic inventory management: In this technique, the inventory data is updated after definite intervals. While small businesses usually follow this periodic inventory management type citing budget constraints, disadvantages like no real time data and poor accuracy makes it less reliable.

• Perpetual inventory management: In this technique, the inventory data is available for business owners in real time without any delay. Cloud-based inventory management software updates stock levels instantaneously, leading to savings in both manpower and time consumption. Zoho Inventory is the best inventory management software, if you prefer the perpetual technique.

Features play a key role in helping you identify the ideal inventory management software for your business. Here are the features to look out for in inventory management software:

• Item management features: Item grouping and bundling, Automatic reordering, stock adjustments, Advanced inventory tracking.

• Warehouse management features: Multi-warehouse management, transfer orders between warehouses, picklists, barcode scanning.

• Order management features: Multi-channel sales, packaging and shipping, shipment tracking, online payment integrations, detailed reports.

• Automation features: Barcode scanning, webhooks and custom functions, Email and field updates

• Smart inventory features: Detailed reports, SKU generation, backordering, dropshipments

You enjoy innumerable benefits if you use inventory management software for your business. Some of the benefits include:

• You stay updated on your stock levels whenever you need without having to rely on spreadsheets or manual entry.

• You can manage orders from multiple sales channels and fulfil them from an unified place.

• You can strike a balance between your sales and purchases, maintaining a perfect relationship with both your customers and vendors.

• You can close deals and handle inventory operations wherever you are with the help of mobile apps.

• You can generate reports on how your business is performing and make informed data-driven decisions.

Zoho Inventory, in particular, comes with crucial benefits like free trial and free version of the product, Android & iOS inventory app, multiple integration options with numerous ecommerce and marketplace platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Shopify.

Zoho Inventory comes with a full-featured 14-day free trial to help you assess if our inventory management system is the right fit for your needs.

There are five pricing plans for our application, including a plan that's entirely free forever. To know more about our pricing, Check here