Multichannel inventory management is a must-have for businesses, big and small, today. Retailers can’t simply sell items via a single online platform like Amazon or purely in-person and hope to compete against chains selling across multiple channels. And when you start selling on multiple channels, it can be enormously difficult to do without the right tools.
Consider the complexity of manually adding and updating multiple listings of the same products with accompanying quantities across Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and other sites. Things could go wrong in a hurry, especially when you start receiving sales orders from each platform.
There must be a better way. Thankfully, inventory and multichannel management software is able to automate most of this work. It keeps your inventory data and listings accurate, and it speeds up order fulfillment.
Selecting the Right Software
There are dozens of inventory management solutions that cater to the ecommerce market. How do you make sense of them all and decide which one is best for your business? The key is to determine your own priorities and needs and then measure solutions against them to see if they are a good fit.
Do you have multiple ecommerce channels you sell through? Look for a multichannel solution that integrates with each of them. Do you manage your accounting through QuickBooks Online (QBO)? Focus on finding a tool that seamlessly syncs with QBO. Do you have inventory at multiple locations or use advanced tracking methods? Make sure your inventory and multichannel management software can easily add those locations and tracking methods to its system.
These are some of the questions that would be good to answer before making a big decision that will affect your business’s success.
10 Essential Features to Look for in Inventory and Multichannel Management Software
Consider the following factors when evaluating inventory and multichannel management software options:
1. Accounting Integration
Not only should your inventory and multichannel management software integrate with many ecommerce platforms, but it should also integrate with your accounting software. This helps with cost tracking, tax calculations, and other accounting tasks. QBO is a popular option among online sellers because of its relatively low cost and robust feature set. Whichever software you prefer to use, ensure it integrates with your inventory and multichannel management software to keep your financial and inventory records in sync.
2. AI Functionality
Artificial intelligence is helping businesses forecast their inventory needs better than ever. It can analyze data in new ways that go beyond what has been possible in the past. It’s a good idea to look for inventory and multichannel management software that is compatible with an AI tool or that has AI features built into it. This will give you deep insights into your constantly changing inventory levels, seasonal trends, and more. As a result, you’ll be better equipped for upcoming opportunities.
3. Forecasting and Reporting
The point of inventory and multichannel management software isn’t just to manage your sales orders and purchase orders. It’s also to collate data into a format that shows you trends. This means generating many kinds of reports. Armed with these reports, you’ll be empowered to forecast future inventory needs, capitalize on seasonal trends, focus on top-selling products at specific locations, and more. The right inventory and multichannel management software will equip you with the reporting and forecasting capabilities your business requires. Custom reports are a big plus, too.
4. Inventory Tracking Methods
Make sure that you can track inventory in the best ways for your business, whether that’s using lot numbers, serial numbers, expiration dates, or all of the above. Your inventory and multichannel management software must have every tracking method you require to keep an eye on your inventory levels. Many solutions are limited in this area or charge extra fees to access additional tracking methods. But if you look carefully, you can find one that offers all of these as part of their standard feature set.
5. Mobile Accessibility
It’s important to gain access to your inventory data at a moment’s notice. Thankfully, inventory and multichannel management software is no longer tied to a desktop computer. You can access it anywhere in the warehouse and beyond. Seek out inventory and multichannel management software that is accessible on mobile devices through an app or a browser. With the right software, you’ll be able to scan barcodes, view detailed inventory information, generate purchase orders, and adjust inventory quantities from a smartphone or tablet.
6. Multichannel Management
Good inventory and multichannel management software will act as the source of truth for every ecommerce channel you sell products through. And it must keep each channel updated with the latest quantities of products to avoid overselling. For example, when a sales order comes in from Amazon, your inventory management software should record it and then update the available inventory quantities in BigCommerce, eBay, and any other ecommerce platform you use. Your inventory counts stay in sync across the board with a multichannel system like this.
7. Recommended Purchase Orders
Keep your inventory well-stocked by having an automated means of generating purchase orders. That way, you will be automatically informed when a product needs to be reordered to avoid running out. You should be able to run reports that show consumption and sales trends by location, enabling you to generate purchase orders for all of the low-quantity items in one or more warehouses.
8. Scalability
As you move into new warehouses and add more online stores and ecommerce channels, be sure that your inventory and multichannel management software is able to scale up and meet those increased demands. If it can’t, then you will have to transition to a new system. Such a transition involves a lot of time and money spent on implementation and training. It’s better to select a solution that can grow with you by making new features accessible to handle additional logistical challenges.
9. Support and Implementation
Even though support and implementation are not part of the software, they are important elements of your decision to start using it. If a software vendor provides adequate training videos, documentation, support staff, and implementation experts, you will be able to master their solution quickly. Even if the inventory and multichannel management software is complex, that can be mitigated with proper educational tools. Also, cloud-based solutions tend to be easier to implement, update, and maintain than desktop software.
10. Warehouse Management
As noted above in reference to scalability, it’s crucial that your inventory and multichannel management software be ready to handle multiple locations. Although online sellers don’t necessarily have physical retail stores, they will likely still need warehouses and other facilities to hold their inventory before it’s sold. And even dropshippers need to track inventory at specific locations. Having the right inventory management software helps you monitor where inventory items are within each warehouse you operate.
17 Top Inventory and Multichannel Management Solutions
Now that we’ve covered the criteria to judge against, here are brief descriptions of 17 of the biggest inventory and multichannel management software solutions on the market (in alphabetical order):
- Acctivate (created by Alterity) includes integrations with Adobe Commerce, Amazon, BigCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, eBay, Shift4Shop, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
- BigCommerce offers some inventory management features, and it integrates with many of the solutions on this list to provide more advanced functionality.
- Brightpearl (by Sage) is one of just three inventory management solutions endorsed by Shopify, so they have a special integration with that ecommerce platform.
- CenPorts integrates with more than 60 ecommerce and retail channels.
- Cin7 purchased DEAR Systems and Orderhive in 2021 to simplify order fulfillment and update every connected ecommerce channel after a sale is made on one.
- ECOMDASH has many of the same integrations as other inventory and multichannel management solutions, but it lacks key features like barcode printing.
- Finale Inventory offers a great variety of ecommerce integrations, though its REST API is only accessible in its highest pricing tier.
- Fishbowl Commerce Suite is a cloud-based solution that enables users to integrate with all of their ecommerce platforms and keep them updated with accurate inventory quantities. Known as the “best inventory solution for QuickBooks users,” it handles order fulfillment and reordering with ease, and it’s backed by AI-powered recommendations.
- Linnworks (which also owns SkuVault) includes solid reporting, forecasting, and multichannel management.
- NetSuite is one of the best inventory and multichannel management solutions on the market, though its robust feature set comes with a hefty price tag and goes beyond what most small and medium-sized businesses require.
- Ordoro has an open API and numerous in-depth integrations that allow for multichannel inventory management.
- Primaseller specializes in retail inventory management with a point-of-sale solution in addition to its ecommerce integrations.
- RetailOps prides itself on being easier to implement than an ERP and offering an open API to encourage integrations with many ecommerce channels.
- Shopify offers impressive inventory management features. However, if you want a multichannel solution, you’ll need to get inventory management software that integrates with Shopify and many other ecommerce platforms.
- Skubana charges a lot of money (sometimes starting at $2,000 per month) for access to its comprehensive list of ecommerce integrations and inventory management features.
- Unleashed Software integrates with Amazon, Shopify, and WooCommerce. If you need more ecommerce integrations than those three, you may want to look for another inventory management solution.
- Veeqo specializes in both shipping and ecommerce integrations, allowing for omnichannel, multi-location inventory tracking and forecasting.
The Right Solution for You
After reviewing all the options, you will likely find that Fishbowl Commerce Suite meets the criteria as the best inventory and multichannel management software for you. It comes in at a lower price point than the other advanced options with similar feature sets, and it offers far more multichannel and AI features than the simpler solutions.
Fishbowl Commerce Suite is the ultimate cloud-based solution for ecommerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, empowering businesses to centralize operations and gain complete control over inventory, product listings, and sales channels.
With advanced features like real-time inventory tracking, catalog listing management, mobile scanning, automated order fulfillment, and seamless integrations with leading platforms such as QBO, Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart, Fishbowl Commerce Suite creates a unified hub to manage your entire operation.
By streamlining workflows, ensuring accuracy, and providing full visibility into sales and inventory performance, Fishbowl Commerce Suite enables your business to scale efficiently and confidently at every stage of growth.
Book a demo of Fishbowl Commerce Suite today.