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Ep. 230 Five Ways to Increase Inventory Entry Efficiency

Customers love visiting indie retail stores and discovering new items, and many indie shopkeepers revel in curating fresh finds for their stores. The part that isn’t enjoyable? Adding new items to your inventory system—especially if your inventory entry process is manual.

Thankfully, there are ways to make inventory entry more efficient, and in some cases, you can automate the process entirely. Keep reading for my five tips on increasing your inventory entry efficiency. 

Are you constantly adding new SKUs to your inventory? If yes, you know how challenging it can be to keep up with your inventory entry.

Inventory Entry

Not every indie retailer has this issue—some stores keep the same set of SKUs and reorder those SKUs consistently. But shopkeepers who attend markets regularly and order a variety of new items each time they buy for their store…well, they can add hundreds of new SKUs to their inventory each year. 

That was the case for the store I co-owned with my sister. We had some staple items, such as the paint line we carried and the privately labeled candles we sold. Other than that, it was a constant flow of new items. 

Instead of dreading your inventory entry process because it’s a manual slog, let’s look at five tips for making it more efficient.

Inventory Entry

Tip #1: Check for Duplicates/Re-Orders

This may seem obvious to you. But is it obvious to a new team member who’s helping you enter inventory into your system? 

Make sure there’s a rule documented in your process that guides team members to check if a new item is already in your inventory system. If it is, it’s just a matter of updating the quantity (and maybe the cost) and you’re good to go! 

You want to avoid having duplicate items in your inventory. The more “clean” inventory data you have, the better. 

Tip #2: Look Into the “Purchase Orders” Feature in Your POS/Inventory System

A purchase order (PO) is the document that you send to your suppliers to authorize a purchase. This document can save you time with inventory because it tells you what products should be arriving at your business! 

When you have your PO on hand, you can match them against the invoices to check for accuracy, so you know exactly what’s happening with your incoming inventory. 

Research your POS system’s help articles and see if there is a way to enter your PO and then “receive” those items into inventory. Quite a few Master Shopkeepers members use POs and it makes life much easier for them.

Inventory Entry

Tip #3: Ask Your Vendor for a CSV File of Each Order

Most vendors can provide a CSV file, or spreadsheet, of your order. This file can be incredibly helpful during your inventory entry process, especially if you’re ordering 50+ items.

Once you have a CSV file on hand, get the template from your POS system for bulk uploading items. Then format the vendor-provided CSV to match the template and follow the bulk upload instructions to enter your inventory.

While it does take some time to format the spreadsheet correctly, you’ll get fast at this after a few orders. Formatting and doing a bulk upload is WAY faster than the manual entry of each item! 

Tip #4: Use the Faire Wholesale Integration With Square or Shopify

Faire Wholesale integrates with several POS systems, including Square and Shopify. If you’re purchasing from wholesalers on Faire, you can connect your account to your POS system to automatically add newly purchased items to your POS. 

Having Faire integrated with your POS system is a perfect example of automation and an ultra-easy way to complete your inventory entry! It’s funny, I’ve asked Master Shopkeepers members what’s automated in their businesses before, and this example never comes up. That’s a GREAT sign of automation. It gets done for you and you don’t even have to think about it!

When the integration first launched years ago it wasn’t perfect. In fact, I turned it off for my store because it was messing with my inventory numbers. However, it has improved over time and MANY store owners swear by Faire’s POS integration as a way to save them time and frustration.

Two quick tips for using the Faire integration with your POS system: 

1. Reword the item description. Double-check that the written description makes sense for your customers. Often these descriptions on Faire are geared towards shop owners as WE are the customers for the items on Faire. That won’t make sense to your customers if they’re looking at the item on your website! 

2. Delete COG listings. If you’re using the item for the production of goods, delete the listing. An example of this would be deleting a listing for pillow inserts you purchased to go along with the pillow covers that you’re selling. 

Tip #5: Scan the Existing Barcode/SKU Labels on New Items

If a product you buy has an existing barcode/SKU label on it, there’s a good chance that you can scan that barcode to populate the product’s information into your inventory system. 

To verify that this tip will work for you, search the help articles for your POS system or reach out to customer support. They’ll be able to walk you through setting this up if the feature is available.

Inventory Entry

Inventory Entry CAN Be Efficient

While manual inventory entry can be time-consuming, boring, and brutal, it’s not the only way. 

If you have hundreds of new items to add to your inventory system, I hope one of the above tips will help you speed up your inventory entry process. 

Resources

Timestamps

  • [04:13] Tip #1: Check for Duplicates/Re-Orders
  • [05:19] Tip #2: Look Into the “Purchase Orders” Feature in Your POS/Inventory System
  • [06:51] Tip #3: Ask Your Vendor for a CSV File of Each Order
  • [10:14] Tip #4: Use the Faire Wholesale Integration With Square or Shopify
  • [14:12] Tip #5: Scan the Existing Barcode/SKU Labels on New Items
  • [15:17] Inventory Entry CAN Be Efficient

Connect With Kathy

Kathy Cruz is an Independent Retail Coach who helps store owners work smarter, profit more, and grow their brick and mortar businesses. 

Connect with Kathy and learn more here:

Website: www.savvyshopkeeper.com
Instagram: @savvyshopkeeper
Mastermind Group: Master Shopkeepers

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