Tally Prime Integration Software Benefits for eComm Sellers

Benefits of Tally Prime Integration Software for eCommerce Sellers

Whether eCommerce or any other business, accounting is an integral part of any business. One needs to handle this aspect appropriately and without fail. As a business owner, it is vital that you know about all the transactions and financial flow of your business. Mishandling the accounting part can make or break your business; excellent accounting management can help you have a robust business base. It will never let you lose a single penny and will add more profit to your online business. An impeccable accounting system secures your future and can even help you escape unusual situations in your hard times.

You must have a thorough record of your payments and transactions. Generally, most sellers extensively use Tally PRIME to manage the accounting part of their online business for bookkeeping and managing inventory and finances, invoicing, reporting, sales and purchase management, etc. The eCommerce business is considered one of the most complex businesses when it comes to accounting specifically. You need to keep track of and record your multiple transactions and payments. However, it is not an easy task to implement because it may invite a bunch of errors.

However, Tally PRIME integration software can resolve all these difficulties for you. You can save inventory, transactions, sales, and taxation data into your Tally database. It is a business management software widely used by many small and large businesses. You can get rid of so many complexities of eCommerce by integrating tally prime with advanced software. This blog has mentioned some of the exceptional benefits of Tally PRIME integration software for eCommerce businesses.

Use Cases while managing Accounting in Online Selling

In the eCommerce business, you may receive hundreds of orders from various marketplaces every day. While selling your products on major eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra, you must follow the GST guidelines and file the GST returns on time. These marketplaces also report your sales to the GST authorities by depositing the TCS (Tax collected at source) on your behalf.

However, doing it manually can be time-consuming, and there may also be chances of errors. That is why you need automated software to integrate the eCommerce platforms’ transactions with Tally PRIME. Software like eVanik OWS provides seamless one-click integration of diversified eCommerce platform transactions with Tally PRIME. Here are some of the use cases in the process of accounting and bookkeeping:

  • In the process of sales and customer returns, it can be practically impossible for the sellers to insert numerous customer ledgers in the Tally. The marketplaces directly make the payments to every individual seller, and it can become a massive task for you to keep a manual record of bulk payments received against every order by the marketplaces.

  • The eCommerce platforms settle the net payment to the sellers after deducting various fees, charges and commissions. They provide a monthly commission invoice to the sellers that must be documented as an expenditure to avail of GST input credit. Apart from that, the commissions of marketplaces against every particular order need to get balanced out and matched.

  • Customer and courier returns need to be resolved against the original invoices. Doing it in a traditional way may involve the risk of several errors, which can impact the overall health of your business.

  • The sales and returns invoices must be accurately matched with the sales tax report and the MTR report provided by the eCommerce channels on your seller panels.

Exquisite Benefits of Tally PRIME Integration Software

Enhanced Accounting Operations

As an eCommerce seller handling the details of every online transaction and payment can become troublesome, especially when you are doing it manually, as it increases the chance of several errors. However, Tally PRIME integration software provides a techno hand to handle the accounting operations.

This advanced software provides you with an auto-generated report. Software like eVanik OWS helps in operating and analyzing financial statements and other tasks related to your online business; one is GST compliance. You don’t need to manually download and upload any excel sheet or CSV files from marketplace seller panels. All these data automatically get synced with this outstanding integration software.

Eliminate Errors and Saves Time

Nowadays, eCommerce business requires automation. Because manually doing the data transmission into a Tally increases the chances of human error. However, with eVanik OWS which is a Tally Prime integration software, you can eliminate manual errors and save a lot of time.

It can also eliminate the contrary data input. Data contradiction and manual errors can become a significant pain for you, and it’s better to eradicate them as soon as possible. The way to eliminate these annoying problems is to integrate your accounting software like Tally with this advanced software.

Effortless GST Return Filing

GST return filing is a vital part of any business; when it comes to online business, you must compile various invoices and tax reports to get a return amount from the government. Using tally prime can be a good option, but you can make it the best option by integrating it with advanced software.

This software can automatically compile all your invoices in one place and helps file the GST on time. Due to the mismanagement of invoices and tax reports, you can sometimes miss a suitable date to file the return. But with the help of integration software such as eVanik, you can file your GST return accurately and on time.

Hassle-Free Inventory Management

There is no need to explain that inventory management is essential to the eCommerce business. Most of the sellers use Tally Prime to manage their inventory as well. It stimulates the proper management of stocks, invoices, and product categories. However, they need to insert the data into the tally system manually. But with Tally PRIME integration software, you can get agile reports on inventories.

It will let you know how many products are left in a specific category and how many are sold out in this way. You can easily update your inventory and never miss a chance to delight your customer. Through this software, you can manage the inventory of various marketplaces in a single dashboard. You can maintain the stock inventory in a proper batch and can even monitor your products’ expiry dates. It ensures that none of your products get wasted.

Conclusion

Hence, this is how Tally PRIME integration software works for an eCommerce business. It is helpful not only in managing your accounts but your inventory as well. Both are an essential part of any online business, and you should not ignore them in any circumstances. So think twice before not considering the benefits of this software.

In the manner of saving a small amount of money, you get into a hefty financial loss. Believe it or not, currently, many sellers rely on this software and minimize the chance of loss and business failure. Subscribe with eVanik today, and acquire all the benefits mentioned above for your eCommerce business.

What is SKU ID in Flipkart and How to Create an Effective one?

What is SKU ID in Flipkart and How to Create an Effective one?

The eCommerce industry carries numerous essential factors that are essential to attain immense success.Being a seller, you can’t afford to ignore any of them. It doesn’t matter whether you sell your products on Flipkart or any other marketplaces; some processes will remain the same. You must be aware of how vital inventory is for your business, and to identify them specifically, you need to add SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). Most sellers know that SKUs help track products from manufacturers to customers, but not everyone knows how they work behind the arena and why they are necessary for your business.

In the eCommerce industry, whether you are a regular seller or a veteran brand-new business owner, it doesn’t matter whether you have a vast inventory or limited stock; SKU IDs are a must to have. Through this particular blog, you will get to know what SKU ID is in Flipkart and how you can create it effectively.

What is the meaning of SKU ID

SKU ID or SKU code refers to a stock-keeping unit. It is a unique identifier for products you sell on marketplaces to record their stock quantity. As a seller, you may want to know the exact quantity and availability of products of various sizes, colors, patterns, etc. All of these will have a different assigned SKU id for each quantity in the warehouse or wherever you stock up your products. It can be profitable to keep track of your inventory. SKU is a unique product offered for sale that epitomizes all the essence connected with the product that differentiates it from any other product.

This essence may include brand, size, color, manufacturer, and warranty, but it can not be limited. However, an SKU ID holds all essential information about a product and gives it unique prominence in your inventory. In this way, it can become easier to recall or track any significant product. Typically an SKU ID is a group of eight alphanumeric digits. Implementing an SKU id to track your inventory and skip the malefic situation of Oos (Out of Stock) is crucial.

How to Create a Good SKU ID for Flipkart?

In the implementation process of SKU, the most crucial factor is to make it unique for each product variant in your inventory. Here we are going to identify some of the best practices to make your SKU id different from each other.

Always Make Your Own Product SKU ID

Most Flipkart sellers affix the manufacturers or third-party IDs within their product SKU ID. Some of you may think it’s a great idea but let me tell you that it’s a bad practice for your online business. It can create a hassle in case you change your manufacturer or vendors. Thus it is always better to generate your own individual SKU ids for all your products.

Include Essential Information

Although you can not add brief information to a stock-keeping unit id, there is room for adding some specific information. For example, if you are selling shirts from chick brands in various sizes and colors, you can create one in this form; CHI-SHI-RED-SMA. Such codes help identify the products better; this code says small-size red color chick shirts.

Apply the Cascade Method

Applying a unique SKU ID cascade method can prove really helpful to you. For example, if you are going to sell electronic products such as laptops, mobile phones, or any other device. First, you must create a cascade chart, and you need to start by taking the basic information about your products. In the case of electronic devices, you can add E (for electronic), M (for mobile), and later on, add the model number and other information to identify the product. You can keep adding various attributes until you find a relevant id according to your product.

Add Specific Fonts & Characters

Never get confused while adding specific characters, and be aware of using similar characters for each product. The font and characters you use in your stock-keeping unit code play an important role. It is recommendable to use more transparent and bold fonts. Please avoid using the symbols as they can get auto-formatted in the excel sheet and put you in a confusing situation.

Essential Tips to Add Unique SKU

  • Always try to keep it between 8-12 specific characters.

  • Start the SKU ID with a letter for identification; it can be the name of the brand or product.

  • Avoid using zero or any other special characters within your stock-keeping unit code.

  • Always go for a unique and easy-to-understand format.

How can SKUs Help Your Business to Grow

Provides Accuracy in Tracking Inventory

SKUs allow you to keep unique identification ids for every product and make it easier to find any specific product in your inventory. You can easily find their availability and exact quantity based on SKU IDs and save yourself from the stockout situation. It can let you decide when is the right time to order new products from manufacturers. However, to skip the situation of overstock or down stock, you can use any inventory management software such as eVanik OWS. Always keep in mind that accuracy always brings productivity.

Implements Demand & Sales Prognosis

Once you are able to get accurate inventory numbers, you will automatically be able to find out the accuracy of sales and demand prognosis. It can let you determine the number of products you should have for further sale. You can also develop an idea of how prior you should order products. It can let you understand your cash flows during the seasonal sale. SKU data also highlights your low-selling products, and you can immediately stop investing in them or eliminate them from your listing.

Increase Customers’ Satisfaction and Loyalty

While SKU IDs can be used to forecast reorder points, they can also help your customers to find the right product they require. It also diminishes stockout situations, increases your brand loyalty among customers, and provides a remarkable shopping experience. Usually, whenever a product gets out of stock, your customer may get disappointed and buy the identical product from your competitors. It can be harmful to you in terms of keeping loyal customers.

Conclusion

Thus, these unique codes are an essential part of any eCommerce business. It is not only crucial for Flipkart sellers to sell products on any other eCommerce platform. SKU ids work as primary identifiers, and keeping your inventory synced with all the eCommerce platforms is essential. However, in this manner, you can also use inventory management software that can automate this entire process and keep track of all your SKUs. It eliminates the requirement of keeping the SKU codes in an excel sheet and provides a dashboard where you can quickly analyze your inventories across multiple channels.

Why Online Sellers Must Have Accounting Integrated Software

Why is Accounting Integrated Software a Must Have for Online Sellers?

It doesn’t matter whether you are associating with eCommerce or any other business; managing accounts will always remain a priority. To keep a track of your profit and loss, it is essential to manage your finances accurately. You must understand that it is one of the most crucial factors for the success of your online business. Apart from this, you must face it that spreadsheets or manual work are no longer good enough to manage your finances appropriately. It carries the risk of manual errors and doesn’t let you calculate and analyze your accounts effectively.

However, you do not need to worry about it anymore because today, you are privileged to use accounting-integrated software. It can let you manage your accounts and help you with inventory management, payment reconciliation, returns, and shipping. This software automates the whole manual process and saves your precious time and energy. Integrating your current accounting software with a sturdy integrated software such as eVanik OWS can consolidate the overall financial cycle of your eCommerce business. Let’s look at various reasons that are enough to get along with such software. In this blog, we have mentioned various reasons that justify the importance of accounting software for your business.

Five Essential Key Features of an Accounting Integrated Software

Before moving forward, knowing the beneficial vital features of an accounting integrated software is essential. Let’s’ find out what they are.

Easy to Handle: One of the essential features of automatic accounting software is its easy handling. Eventually, you do not need to be a software expert to use this software. As an online seller, you will be able to document your financial transactions and other expenses more effectively and efficiently. Although, initially, you may have to spend some time on it to understand the process in an appropriate manner.

Hassle-Free Integration: As an eCommerce seller, you might have to use various services or platforms to manage inventory, shipping, payments, and returns. However, automated accounting software can integrate seamlessly with marketplaces, allowing you to handle all these aspects independently in a single dashboard. Along with accounting, it can also take care of such vital tasks.

Real-Time Data Reporting: One outstanding key feature of integrated accounting software is that it allows you to analyze your business data and attain valuable insights in real time. This way, it can become easier for you to evaluate your daily performance and work on those aspects that need more attention. Real-time accounting reports can allow you to find out and identify your business patterns and plan for success accordingly.

Impeccable Customer Support: You may get into some trouble or may experience some difficulties while using such software. That is when you may require assistance to come out of a mess. These software providers offer impeccable 24×7 customer support to guide you in finding beneficial solutions to your problems and bring you out of the mess.

Five Reasons to Use Accounting Integrated Software

Provides Finances Overview

Be it eCommerce or any other business; it is essential to have a complete overview of your finances to understand the flow of your business. One of the most prominent reasons to use accounting software is that it provides you with all the essential information regarding your financial flows. It can become easier for you to analyze whether your business is on track or not, whether you are at the correct phase of your business, or if you need to put in some extra effort. This analysis is crucial for the growth of your online business.

Helps in Managing Your Cash Flow

As you know that this software can help you in managing your finances much more appropriately and efficiently; in addition to that, it can also streamline the process of cash flow as well. It is simply because it shows what you are actually earning, your expenses, and your online business’s profitability. Once you are able to manage your cash flows properly, it will be easier for you to invest more into your business’s other aspects too. With the help of this software, you can easily be able to have a hold on your money for an emergency. Ultimately it can help you to grow your business positively.

Provides Profound Business Analytics

One of the significant reasons to use eCommerce accounting software is that it gives you the immense ability to gather essential analytical information about your eCommerce business. You can quickly analyze your business’s data to get deeper insights into the processes of your business. It will become effortless for you to analyze the ongoing performance of your business.

It can also help you to find out those glitches that require improvement. This way, when you scrutinize your sales data, you will be able to determine which products are selling well and which are not. In this manner, you can stop stocking up on those products that are not selling well and can save money on them. On the other hand, data analytics can help you to keep track of total revenue, customer profitability, and other factors.

Eliminates Human Errors

Human errors are inescapable in the traditional accounting practice. Clumsy spreadsheets can make it terrible and hard for you to fetch the exact financial information. It can turn your financial part upside down, and you won’t be able to analyze the accurate cash flows and total revenue, for that matter.

However, automated accounting software can make this process hassle-free and streamlines the entire process. Such software can also eradicate the duplication of financial data if you use it for invoicing, reporting, and managing other transactional expenses. Real-time accounting software like eVanik OWS also allows you to track historical financial data.

Help With Adequate Bookkeeping

To manage your accounts properly, it is high time you consider the need for integrated accounting software to process your online transactions accurately. In this manner, it is vital to keep efficiency in bookkeeping. Keeping all the bookkeeping separately can be an unwieldy and time-consuming task. However, such software can effectively wave off the requirement for separate bookkeeping. Thus, it can become uncomplicated for you to cross-check the miscalculations to manage the overall financial accuracy and provide accurate and systematic invoices to your online customers.

Helps You Become 100% GST Complaint

Setting off the bulk payments against every transaction and recording the monthly GST number in the sales voucher to receive the GST tax input can become difficult for you as an eCommerce seller. Apart from that, you can also find it challenging to match the sales and returns with the MTR report provided by various eCommerce channels and file GSTR accurately on time. However, accounting software allows you to match the MTR report with the integrated data into your Tally Prime. In this way, it provides excellent eCommerce accounting and makes you 100% GST compliant.

Conclusion

Hence, now you must have understood how necessary accounting software is for your eCommerce business. You must get along with automated accounting software if you are in this business and selling your products through multiple eCommerce platforms. If you are still not preferring it for your business, you may end up with miscalculated and overlapped financial statements.

However, such software provides comprehensive and precise financial data and sales reports in a centralized manner. An instant and real-time overview of your profits can allow you to plan and manage your finances and budget in a better way.

Sell on Meesho & Become a Key Part of the eComm Industry!

Sell on Meesho and Become an Essential Part of the eCommerce Industry!

Who doesn’t want to earn an extra income in this overcrowded and over-expensive human era? A good source of extra income can be a blessing for every eCommerce seller. In this regard, eCommerce platforms like Meesho provide an immense opportunity to generate revenue while being in your comfort zone or from home. Suppose you wish to sell or resell products through social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram and sell on Meesho. This emerging platform allows every common man and woman to start their own online business.

As an eCommerce seller, if you want to earn immensely by reselling your products, then Meesho is the perfect eCommerce joint for you. It is specifically a reseller eCommerce platform that one can use to resale various product categories such as women’s wear, men’s wear, kids’ wear, home appliances, cosmetics, etc.

This platform provides a massive opportunity to local sellers to make their online presence and earn their bread and butter. Compared to other eCommerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra, it is much easier to start your journey with Meesho. You don’t require a hefty investment, nor do you need to pay a considerable commission while selling products on this platform. This blog will discuss multiple aspects of selling products on Meesho.

What is Meesho & How It is Different From Other Platforms

Meesho has become one of India’s leading reselling eCommerce marketplaces. Two Delhi graduate Iitians, Sanjeev Barnal and Vidit Aatrey established this glorious channel in the year 2015. At present, this eCommerce platform has more than two crore resellers. This platform allows resellers to get associated with various manufacturers from their locations and list their products on this platform to sell. As a Messho seller, you can choose several products from the listed categories and sell them through social media platforms. The best factor about this eCommerce venture is you can start your business from any corner of this country. Investment is relatively low, which is an excellent relief for new sellers. If we talk about how this platform differs from others, well, it allows every local seller and ordinary folks to start their own online business. Except for Amazon, no other platforms allow sellers to resell their products.

Sell on Meesho By Following These Easy Steps

If you want to sell on Meesho and generate immense profits, you must follow some steps effectively. Here we have mentioned some essential selling guides that can help you sell or resell your products on this platform. In order to start selling on Meesho, you must have a GSTIN number and an active bank account.


#Step1 ( Create Your Meesho Seller Account)

To sell on Meesho, you first need to download the Meesho app and register yourself on this Meesho supplier panel. Now you have to enter your GSTIN number, your PAN number, and the details of your active bank account. These are a few pieces of information mandatory to create a seller account on this eCommerce platform. Once you provide this vital information, you must provide your order pick-up address to this platform. In this way, your registration process will be successful, and now you can visit the Meesho supplier dashboard via your email id and password. Apart from that, you may also require eCommerce accounting software such as eVanik OWS to manage your accounts and other backend operations.

#Step2 ( Product Listing on Meesho)

Once the registration process gets done, the next crucial step is listing the catalogs of products you want to sell on this platform. Listing more than three product catalogs can help you with more orders and, eventually, more revenue. Product listing should be accurate with excellent quality images and descriptions. It can help you attract more eyes and sell your products efficiently and effectively. Meesho provides two options to upload your catalogs. You can upload single as well as bulk product catalogs on this platform. Make sure that your listing is up to date and that you are not missing on any factors.

#Step3 ( Start Receiving Orders from Customers)

After listing the products on Meesho, you can start promoting your products through various social media platforms. On the other hand, you can precisely receive the orders from the Meesho app as well. In the process of receiving a dynamic number of orders from customers, it is essential to manage your inventory profoundly and to ease this problem, and you can get along with eVanik OWS and use their significant inventory reconciliation feature. This market is competitive, and to beat your competitors, you may need to take the help of automated software.

#Step4 (Start Delivering Your Orders)

Product delivery is an essential aspect of the Commerce business. Once you are ready to receive customer orders, Meesho sends the email notification to your supplier panel app. You need to accept the order first and then start packing the product with accurate labels on each package. This platform’s minimal shipping charge can be counted as no shipping charges. After the packaging, hand over the order to the courier partner, Meesho has a panel of various third-party logistic partners who take responsibility for picking up the package and delivering it to your customer’s doorstep.

# Step5 (Start Receiving Payments on Delivered Orders)

As a Meesho seller, you can receive the payment on every single order after fifteen days of order delivery. This process is the same for the cash on delivery orders as well. The payment will be credited to your active bank account. If you want payment details, you can check your Meesho supplier panel. Through this panel, you can receive every detail regarding your payment cycles, such as how much your deposited balance is, future payments, and other payments. On every order, Meesho charges a fixed commission from their sellers; it can be less than twenty percent on every order.


Conclusion

Meesho is a flourishing eCommerce platform in India for small businesses. Absolutely anyone can start selling products on this platform with a lower investment. Significantly it has provided extraordinary opportunities for homemakers to earn their living without being dependent on anyone. Sellers, resellers, and small brands can also choose this platform to sell or resell their products effectively and scale up their customer base. Meesho is getting more significant daily, and customers are showing tremendous interest in it.

However, in this platform’s initial year, customers complain about the product’s quality. Still, with time, sellers are more likely to deliver a good quality product to their customers. In a nutshell, we can say that this eCommerce joint is a recommendable business opportunity for every small and typical vendor and retailer.

A Guide to Accounting Integration & Its Requirement for Business!

A Guide to Accounting Integration & Its Requirement for Your Business!

It doesn’t matter whether you are associated with eCommerce or any other business; managing finances efficiently has always been a priority. Managing accounts in an accurate manner facilitates having a clear track of profit and loss. But the challenge is one can not manually keep track of their accounts. Gone are the days when you used to calculate and keep your financial data in a traditional method by using an excel sheet. However, integrated accounting software is the utmost requirement of this modern eCommerce era.

Integrating your accounting software with robust integration provider software can streamline your business’s financial life cycle. Suppose you still tremble at the thought of attaining integrated software for your accounting system, assuming it is an expensive and complicated process.

In that case, you may miss out on the compelling benefits of these software. On the other hand, if you opt for a powerful eCommerce accounting software that utilizes a sturdy API, you may achieve your financial goals effortlessly. Thus this blog can help you to understand the step toward integrating accounting software with your eCommerce journey.

What is an Accounting Integration

An Accounting integration process lets you synchronize your generated financial data from your ERP system to the integrated software. It can integrate with multiple accounting software such as Tally, Quick books, Zoho Books, Align Books, etc. Software that provides integration usually extracts the data from your accounting system and manages it in a single dashboard.

Integrated accounting software empowers you to align your financial data properly with your existing accounting software. As an integrated accounting software, eVanik OWS offers astounding financial management and provides all your financial data in one place. It also eliminates the requirement of separate bookkeeping along with human errors.

Why Do You Require an Integrated Accounting Software

If you still do not understand the urgency for integrated accounting software, you just need to read out the following. These points will let you know why it is the need of the hour and how it can benefit your eCommerce business in a more accessible and smoother way. Let’s dig in and get clarity on accounting integration.

To Salvage Your Time

Time is money, and if you spend most of your time just on managing your finances, how will you make money or generate revenue? However, integrated accounting software can save you time in numerous ways. It automates routine processes such as invoicing and bookkeeping. If you are the one who is spending hours just managing your accounts, there are chances that you may lack in focusing on other aspects of your online business.

Using integrated accounting software could be a life changer for you. Such software saves your time and provides automation to manage your finances accurately. It stimulates the financial close and ensures compliance. In such a way, you can save time and make other strategies to revamp your business.

For Precise Financial Reports

Accurate financial reports enable a clear understanding of cash flows. But you can not get the accuracy while managing your finances manually. Integrated accounting software is essential to clarity over financial outgoing and incoming. It can help in attaining the financial statements based in real-time. Suppose you are not able to retrieve the financial report or analytics that you require to run your business in a better way through your existing accounting software.

In that case, it may be the time to indulge in an integrated financial support system. Better financial data can make you able to make better financial decisions. A lack of data can affect your financial status and push you toward business failure. Accounting integration eliminates the need to consult an accounts advisor and pay them a hefty amount by the end of every month. It can also help you gain information regarding your customers’ spending habits.

To Escape the Human Errors

With the traditional accounting practice, human errors are inescapable. On the other hand, handling financial transactions through sturdy accounting integration software, it becomes hassle-free, and the entire process can get more streamlined. Integrating accounting software eliminates the duplication of financial data if you use your accounting software for invoicing, reporting, and managing other transactional expenses. Integrating it with software like eVanik OWS can make your whole system more adequate; it may also save time and money. Real-time accounting data allows you to track historical account information as well.

For Multichannel Integration

To survive in this competitive world of eCommerce, you may require to sell your products on multiple platforms. Now, if you are a multichannel seller, then you may require integrated accounting software because managing multiple accounts can not be an easy-to-go process. A minor error can lead you to immense financial crunches. An integrated software provides the enormous feature of multichannel integration and manages all the transactional activities under one roof.

A manual process involves several errors and may consume enough time to eradicate those errors. However, software with an integration facility integrates with various channels and provides precise financial data. It is advisable to use such software if you are passionate about your business and want to expand it in the coming time. An integration feature is something that every seller should look for.

For Efficient Bookkeeping

It’s high time when you should consider integrated accounting software to process every individual transaction in an accurate manner. It is essential to manage efficiency in bookkeeping. Separately keeping all the bookkeeping can be a clumsy and time-consuming job. Though an integrated software effectively waives the requirement of separate bookkeeping. In such a manner, it can become easier for you to cross-check the errors to maintain overall cash flow accuracy and provide correct and systematic bills to your customers.

Challenges You May Face While Managing Accounts & Bookkeeping

  • Setting off bulk payments against every individual sales invoice.
  • Settling the customer and courier returns against the original invoice
  • Incorporating the GST number for B2B sellers in the sales voucher to receive the GST tax input credit.
  • Recording the monthly commission invoices to avail, GST returns.
  • Match the sales and returns with the MTR report provided by eCommerce marketplaces.
  • Challenges in filing GSTR accurately and on time.

Benefits of Integrated Accounting Software

  • It eradicates the requirement of downloading or uploading CSV and excel files from any eCommerce platforms seller panels.
  • Through effective API integration, all the data from the eCommerce sites can automatically get synchronized with it.
  • It supports one-time product and ledger mapping through the UI.
  • It minimizes the obligation of installing a third-party module.
  • An integrated software such as eVanik provides the facility to match the MTR report with the integrated data into Tally PRIME.

Conclusion

If you are selling your products on various eCommerce platforms and associating with such accounting software that doesn’t provide integration, you may inevitably end up with overlapping financial data. With the help of integrated accounting software, you may instantaneously cumulate all your transactional data, sales reports, budget analysis, and profit and loss accounts in a centralized way. It can become easier for you to analyze whether your eCommerce business is profitable or not and in which areas you need to imply improvements.

Moreover, it saves time and effort by eliminating the need for individual analysis of each report and transaction. Using integrated software is vital in providing a quick overview of your entire business expenses and profits. It can help you enormously with initiating a business strategy and fixing a budget. It may also help you manage your inventory and implement smart pricing strategies. Most importantly, you will always be 100% GST compliant.

Why Do You Require Accounting Software for eCommerce Business!

Why Do You Require Accounting Software for eCommerce Business!

While dealing in the eCommerce industry, you need to take care of your finances and manage your accounts successfully. Always keep in mind that you end up selling products online to earn some profits, and to keep that profit on track, you need effective accounting software for your eCommerce business. Keeping up on the books can be time-consuming and exhausting without dedicated eComm accounting software. If you are selling your products all over India, you have to track the taxes for every state, and it can be a full-time job by itself.

Mistakes and errors in accounting and taxes can negatively affect your business. If you think you can earn profits after skipping this step, let me tell you that you’re living in denial. There is no shortcut to generating revenue by skipping the accounting process. You have to go through this if you associate with any online or offline business. To maintain the perfect accuracy in accounts, you need to speed up your business’s accounting system. In this particular blog, we have mentioned the requirement of accounting software for an eCommerce business.

Significance of Accounting Software for eCommerce Business

The traditional way of doing the accounting part increases the chance of significant errors. That is why you need to take the help of integrated accounting software, as it is the only solution to all the manual accounting and financial issues of an eCommerce business. This industry is emerging rapidly. That’s why you need to be as quick and accurate as possible. Accounting software such as eVanik OWS takes over all the responsibilities right from reconciling payments and tally integration. Apart from that, it also provides the solution for inventory management, omnichannel order processing, and so on.

The Clarity in Financial Report

To have clarity on finances and visualize the bookkeeping, you need to have a chart or graphs. Accounting software for eCommerce businesses provides you the clarity to understand your business’s financial statements in real time. With a single click, you can get insights about all the individual orders and other expenses. This type of accounting clarity lets you consider your finances at any second rather than consulting with multiple accountants or waiting until the end of the month. It can help you learn essential information about your customers’ spending habits.

Hassle-Free Integration

Most eCommerce sellers use tally to manage their accounting part. Accounting software such as eVanik easily gets integrated with your tally prime and makes managing your accounts much more effortless. It provides you with a matching tool where you can match your sales tax report with the data integrated into tally prime. While using the accounting software, it won’t require you to install any third-party module in your tally prime because it is already integrated with tally prime through API. Apart from that, it minimizes the requirement of downloading or uploading any excel CSV (comma-separated values) files from various eCommerce marketplace seller panels.

Accuracy in Bookkeeping

It doesn’t matter how good you or your team are at doing the maths manually in the eCommerce business. We are human, and humans are prone to error compared to computers. You have to understand that integrated payment processing is more accurate in any individual transaction. To maintain accuracy in bookkeeping, you need to take advantage of any accounting software. It can also screen the errors across informational categories to maintain overall accuracy. To maintain the cash flow and grow your business, you must provide accurate bills to your customer on time. The best accounting software lets you automate the invoicing as well. You can also send follow-up reminders, create recurring invoices, and accept digital payments directly from the invoices.

Integration with eCommerce Platforms

If you sell products on various eCommerce platforms, you require accounting software for eCommerce businesses that integrates easily with multiple eCommerce channels. Entering every transaction and other expenses manually includes significant errors, which is time-consuming. However, the software integrates smoothly with various eCommerce channels to provide accurate financial information and data. The software that integrates with your banking system is something that all businesses find convenient for themselves. If you are dealing in the eCommerce business and selling products on various platforms, compelling accounting software with an integration feature is something crucial you should look for.

Three Tremendous Types of Accounting Software

Cloud-Based Accounting Software

This type of software totally relies on the cloud to keep all of your financial data in one place and provide you access to operate it from your computer and smartphones as well. Undoubtedly, it is convenient to access, but on the other hand, it does open up your data to potential hacking on the cloud. So, while choosing such software, you will have to check out the security they provide.

Cloud and Desktop-Based Software

This kind of software allows you to keep some information on the cloud and other essential information on your desktop. It can be much beneficial when you want to have some reports accessible online, but you don’t automatically want all of your business’s financial data on the cloud.

Desktop-Based Software

Desktop-based accounting software keeps all of your data rigidly on the desktop. Until or unless you export it and share it in some other way, you will not be able to access it on any available cloud networks. If you don’t want to take any risks while having your information hacked on a cloud, it will be an efficient and secure choice.

Conclusion

If you want to manage your online business’s finance efficiently, you must use accounting software for an eCommerce business. It will provide you with an instant overview of your profits and expenses, which ultimately helps you plan and fix a budget for your business. Besides this, accounting software allows you to analyze your financial data. This can make you streamline the whole eCommerce process, manage the inventory and develop intelligent pricing strategies. All of it can help you to stay competitive in the market. So, if you are convinced that you should use accounting software for your online business, why not consider the eVanik OWS. It provides you with all the essential services required for your online business. It provides you with the excellent feature of tally prime integration, Zoho books integration, Aligns books integration, and Quick books integration. Apart from accounting, it helps manage the inventory and provides the payment, shipping, and returns reconciliation benefits.

Tips to Improve Payment Reconciliation for eComm Business!

Practices to Improve Payment Reconciliation for eCommerce Business!

In the past few years, businesses from various categories have been forced to drastically change their operations and shift themselves to eCommerce platforms. Along with the rise of online shopping, the requirement for several payment methods has also arisen. eCommerce platforms provide their customers the options for online payment, and it has been boosted during the pandemic as customers opted more for the contactless payment method.

It can become troublesome for you to keep track of how much money you should receive from various eCommerce platforms as a seller. You can experience a lot of trouble if your logistic partner and wholesalers don’t follow the same payment cycle as yours. The eCommerce business requires you to have robust payment reconciliation software that can handle all the payments for you. This kind of software automates the payment reconciliation process to help you remain competitive while handling multiple payment vendors and customers. Here in this blog, we have mentioned important factors that can help you enhance the payment reconciliation process for an eCommerce business. Let’s get going and check out how you can improve this for sustainable performance.

Impactful Practices to Enhance the Payment Reconciliation Process

The ever-emerging eCommerce industry has undoubtedly become a profitable platform for you as an online seller. But to run your eCommerce business on multiple platforms, you may have to face the everyday challenges related to the payment reconciliation process. However, following some of the impactful practices related to this process can help you enhance it. To make it genuinely impactful, you can also use some of the payment reconciliation software such as eVanik. It can boost the improvement process. Let’s check out the impactful practices in the payment reconciliation process that you should adopt.

Assess Current Payment Reconciliation

Because of the sheer figure of transactions in the eCommerce business, the payment reconciliation process with an unregulated and traditional approach inevitably leads you to hazardous data entry. It also promotes regulatory and compliance issues. If you are still using the manual reconciling transactions using clumsy spreadsheets, it can result in inefficient workflow, other blockages, and delays. You need to go through your current payment reconciliation process to find out the glitches and keep track of all the transactions. To enhance this process, you need to identify the challenges and then work accordingly. In the Process of Assessing reconciliation, you can take the help of payment reconciliation software to automate this Process, diminish the errors, and save you enough time.

Work on Internal Controls

Operating the eCommerce payment reconciliation process, it is vital to involve an array of internal controls that can quickly identify and catch any possible issues such as accounting errors and fraud associated with payments. Internal controls basically work as software that can get installed in the entire standardized process. Implementing internal controls can help minimize the risks, establish the integrity of your business, and provide errorless financial statements. If you have a team of sales members and accountants, you should surely let them know about it and train them with internal controls. To apply the internal controls perfectly, you can also take the help of any payment reconciliation software.

Implicate Integrated Solutions

Most errors occur in the Process of Payment reconciliation at the stage of data analytics. You can spend your maximum effort to extract, select, and load the data despite identifying the results and assuring error-free financial statements. However, various software providers in the industry can provide you with software related to payment reconciliation. This software basically provides robust solutions to quickly diminish several errors related to this Process. This software includes technical solutions that automatically import and compile the transactional data from your ERP system, or it can directly extract it from several marketplaces you are selling your products on. It can provide you with an auto-generated list of all your transactions in a monthly, quarterly, and annually format. These software clarifies the mode of payment, product cost, and vendors’ commission. It automatically saves your time and makes it a valuable affair for you.

Analyze the Process on a Daily Basis

Miscalculations in payment reconciliation lead you to divergence in bank statements and put your business at extreme financial risk. That is why, as an eCommerce seller, you must focus on making this process as efficient and error-free as possible. You need to understand that, whether the payment reconciliation process is manual or automated, it can work efficiently only if you analyze it daily. It helps you monitor the gaps and other issues related to this Process. This regular practice provides you the opportunity to make improvements instantly. You must observe the time it takes to complete the reconciliation process and the number of discrepancies identified in this particular Process. You need to set a benchmark to reply to the Process in continuity till you get the best results. The analysis step is quite crucial as it provides you the room for improvements.

Embrace the Payment Transformation

Payment methods have changed rapidly in the past few years. Digitization brings various payment options and promotes the transformation in payment sections. Customers prefer cashless payments these days, and to meet their demands, you have to embrace the various payment transformations. Instead of cash payment, Google pay, Paytm, and Phonepay have taken over the market. Now you can experience that you have multiple vendors to reconcile regularly. Customers and vendors are now preferring credit cards as well to make payments. Managing the credit card fees has also added a burden to your shoulder. However, handling it manually can become highly complicated. Thus, being in the eCommerce industry, you must understand that postponing the payment transformation of your online business costs you more than the actual transformation does.

Conclusion

Hence, payment reconciliation is an exhausting yet essential task to perform if you sell products online. These days, it has become more challenging, but the above practices can extraordinarily help you perform the payment reconciliation adequately and skillfully. However, adopting an automated and integrated payment reconciliation process can make it an error-free and less time-consuming Process. It also lessens the risk of fraud and prepares smooth financial statements. It will also help if you keep an eye on the automation and workflow to keep it updated as per the customer demands and market trends.

Payments And Deductions Reconciliation on Amazon India Marketplace

Payments And Deductions

Amazon India is one of the largest eCommerce marketplaces Globally and now also in India. Amazon provides a platform to bring buyers and sellers together. Sellers can register on Amazon and can start selling on Amazon in simple steps through Amazon Seller India.

Once Sellers lists their products on Amazon, they will start getting orders from the buyers. Amazon collects payments directly from buyers and settles them periodically as per a predefined Payment Cycle.
Amazon also deducts various types of commissions, fees, and charges from sellers known as amazon commision rates to manage the various costs like shipping costs, payment costs, packing and storage costs etc.

A simple example to illustrate this is below:

  • A seller sells a pair of shoes worth Rs. 500/-
  • Amazon levies the following costs on the sale: 12% commission (Marketplace Fee), Rs. 50/- as shipping costs, Rs. 20/- as Fixed Fee, Rs. 15/- as packaging charges. Alongside, Amazon also deducts a TCS (Tax Collected at Source) of 1% on the selling price (excluding GST)
  • Let’s total this up: 60 + 50 + 20 +15 + 5 = Rs. 150/-
  • Hence, Amazon will settle an amount of Rs. (500-150) = Rs. 350/- to the Sellers Bank Account.

However, payments are not settled for individual orders. They are cumulatively settled for orders fulfilled over a period of time. This is known as a Payment Cycle. Payment cycles may vary from time to time. An example of a payment cycle is:

  • Orders from 1st to 10th of a calendar month => Settlement on 15th of the same month
  • Orders from 11th to 20th of a calendar month => Settlement on 25th of the same month
  • Orders from 21st to 30th or 31st of a calendar month => Settlement on 5th of the next month
Why is it important to organize the reports by month?

eVanik Reco Plus syncs your Amazon data reports and sorts them as per the preset algorithms into different smaller tables, helping to prevent skews in your sale numbers.

By working through these tables, it matches the low-level transaction amounts to what Amazon considers high-level transaction categories in their settlement report.

Our general advice is not to necessarily use the same grouping that Amazon does in your financial reports.

However, it is also important to note that Amazon also deducts the value of Customer Returns or Courier Returns from the overall Delivered/Shipped Orders when making the payment. Since, few of the returns are in transit and therefore, the status is not available, Amazon will hold back a calculated amount to cover the forthcoming returns. This amount is called the “Reserve Amount”. When making the settlement as per the Payment Cycle, Amazon also deducts the reserve amount which gets subsequently settled in the next payment cycle on receipt of the returns that were earlier in transit.

Amazon also provides the facility of advertising to sellers. Sellers can choose to promote their products on the Amazon platform by opting in for promotional events such as:

  • Lightning Deals
  • Coupons
  • Sponsored Ads

For events such as the above, there are additional fees and charges. At the time of making the payments against the net delivered orders to the sellers, Amazon also deducts the charges against these events.

Best Reconciliation Practice:

eVanik’s learnings from over 13,000 Sellers since 2016 has helped us in defining the best recommendations for reconciliation of your Amazon Marketplace Account: Here’s a summary of how one must do a basic payments reconciliation for Amazon Business:

  1. Sign in to your Seller Central Account.
  2. Download your MTR (Merchant Tax Report), Date Range Settlement Report for the period that you would want to do the reconciliation. It’s advisable to add 15 days in the Date Range Settlement Report when doing the reconciliation match
  3. Match line by line item on the MTR report with the Settlement Report. In accounting terms, this process is typically referred to as matching account receivable (A/R) (created at the time of fulfillment), with undisbursed payment (in your seller payable account). When completed, all increases to accounts receivables (delivered orders or sales) will be matched to undisbursed payment in your seller payable account. This feature is known as Payment Reconciliation.
  4. When you identify any line item in the sales report that does not have a corresponding payment match, highlight that row with a noticeable color. There could be many reasons why that particular Order ID will be showing as unsettled, such as return in transit, order canceled, settlement in the next payment cycle, etc.

One must also note that spreadsheets have their own challenges, which may increase the gap in your reconciliation activity. Following are the challenges when using spreadsheets or manual systems in the reconciliation process:

  1. Dynamic nature of eCommerce business. Assume that your downloaded sheet has few orders today showing order status as delivered and we start reconciling as per that. However, the next day, few of those orders moved into returned or canceled status. Effectively, we would end up working on wrong data expecting to get the right results
  2. For sellers having huge order volumes, spreadsheets may take a long time to process the information especially if there are multiple sheets having formulae, etc.
  3. Reconciliation on spreadsheets cannot be on a real-time basis, as the commission/fee structure keeps varying from time to time.
Procedure To Reconcile Amazon Settlement Deposit

Here is the step-by-step procedure to get the reconciling done for the Amazon settlement deposits.

  • Step 1: Wait For The Settlement Deposit
    As stated above, Amazon pays the sellers every two weeks. So, wait for the settlement deposit, after which you can go ahead with the process of reconciling. Most of the suppliers or business owners integrate their bank accounts with the accounting system of Amazon to start the process right away.
  • Step 2: Get The Amazon Settlement Report
    Find the reports section under your seller dashboard and go to payments to view your settlement report. Select the report that you want to reconcile, then save the statement as a PDF.
  • Step 3: Determine The Gross Settlement Deposit
    Firstly you need to make sure that you have added all the accounts onto the accounting system of Amazon to continue with the reconciling process. You cannot continue with this process if you have not done it yet.
  • Step 4: Check The Income Statement
    After you have broken down the costs and income in the system, check on the income statement for the results. You can check your income statement in Xero. Check for the right format along with the placement of amounts appropriately.

Payments And Deductions2

These are the steps that you need to follow for reconciling Amazon Seller payments. You need to understand the process well as for big businesses that involve a lot of sales, deposits, or expenses, the process becomes a bit complex. So, get well versed and implement the steps accordingly.

Look for the deposited amount information in Zero and click on Add Details. After this, you can start to enter the accounts along with the respective amounts. While doing this, you need to make sure that the total amount equals your net deposit. The main aim of the sellers here must be to add the revenue amounts to the related costs for making the total amount equal to the net deposited amount. Once you are done with that, you can save the transaction.

Hence, it is important to have an automated tool that keeps updating your Amazon reconciliation data on a real-time basis and provides you with instant Amazon reconciliation reports that can also be filed for claiming the gaps from Amazon.

eVanik, as an Amazon Reconciliation Tool provides 14 plus R2R (Ready to Reconcile) reports

Payments And Deductions3

Alongside there is also an amazon reconciliation dashboard that summarizes periodic payment reconciliation reports, cash flow statements, and lots more.

Payments And Deductions4

Payments And Deductions5

Understanding Marketplace Reconciliation for Online Sellers

Understanding Marketplace Reconciliation for Online Sellers

Understanding Marketplace

we at eVanik felt the need for complete guide on marketplace reconciliation for all E-commerce sellers. This article will make you understand all the stages where there is revenue leakage and what parameters you should keep in consideration for marketplace reconciliation

Let’s start with the general definition of “Reconciliation” or “Account Reconciliation”.

Account Reconciliation is the process of comparing internal financial records against monthly statements from external sources—such as a bank, credit card company, or a supplier/vendor/customer other financial institution—to make sure they tally with each other. 

In our discussion, the external source is an e-commerce marketplace such as AmazonFlipkartSnapdealPayTM etc.

In every business, reconciliation of accounts is essential to maintain the financial health of the company, detect frauds, errors and discrepancies and ensure long term sustenance and profitability of the company. Using a software like eVanik OneWorld Suite to reconcile your marketplace business does most of the work for you and saves over 99% of time for you, but there is still that bit of human intuition and intelligence required to make the reconciliation process fool-proof.

Many e-commerce sellers are unable to complete the marketplace reconciliation process in a timely and accurate manner, which introduces risks, leakages and losses and eventually winding up of business. Sellers that adopt a more automated and continuous reconciliation approach benefit from a more controlled and preventive environment and reduced risk of misstatement.

To understand the marketplace reconciliation process in detail, we will first list down the basic steps involved in the reconciliation in a traditional business environment.

Understanding Marketplace 2

Now let’s expand the above by understanding the transactional complexities involved in marketplace business. Let us quick understand  the business process flow vs the reconciliation process / challenge involved.

Business ProcessParametersReconciliation Challenges
Buyer Order StatusMultiple stages like pending, approved, packed, ready, shipped, delivered, returnedDynamic statuses get updated regularly thereby making it impossible to track on downloaded spreadsheets
Marketplace Payment CycleOrders get cumulated for a time period and get collectively paidAggregated payment cycle involve deductions and reserve amount held up to cover future possible returns from customers
Commissions & Marketplace FeeMarketplaces deduct commission charges on all ordersCommissions vary basis category, event based seasonality, tier/level of seller, fulfilment model etc. Actual vs Applicable charges
ShippingShipping charges levied by marketplaces for delivering ordersShipping charges calculated basis weight type (dead weight vs volumetric), distance (Local, Zonal, National) and charged twice in case of customer returns
ReturnsOrders returned either by buyers or by shipping providers and ReplacementsReturn Status (Received or Not), Damaged or Sellable, courier or customer return
ClaimsMarketplaces reimburse some amount to sellers against loss or damage caused due to customer / courier or at the Marketplace WarehouseCheck claim eligibility, claimed on time (Claim Window), right amount claimed, claim reimbursement status, right amount reimbursed
CancellationsOrders can get cancelled by Buyer, Marketplace or Seller at any stage of the orderOrders which are not cancelled by the seller may attract a penalty which may need to be claimed back
Other ChargesMarketplaces levy other charges like Fixed Fee, Closing Fee, Packing Fee, Storage Fee and many more.Multiple heads of charges against every order level for thousands of orders across multiple marketplace channels, products and categories is virtually impossible to keep track of.
Payment SettlementMarketplaces pay after keeping themselves covered and deducting the applicable charges and holding a reserve amount.Bulk settlement invites reconciling every single order under various cost heads. Manually doing this will involve huge manpower bandwidth and costs and a very long time.
Inventory ReconciliationFulfilment models like FBA involve storing sellers inventory at the warehouses owned and operated directly by marketplaces.With no physical ownership and visibility of inventory at FBA type warehouses also involving fast and continuous movement of stocks, it is impossible to keep track of inventory count on a real-time basis. Some marketplaces move the stocks between multiple warehouses and provide a stock statement only once at the end of the month. Inventory also gets damaged, stranded or lost at these warehouses.
OthersOther challenges including non-order related costs like advertising fee, storage fee etcNon-order related fees are deducted from the eligible settlement value and a statement is provided at the end of the month.
AccountingSales, Returns, Commissions, Payments, Reserves, TCSAutomating accounting entries into the accounting software used by sellers, ensuring that the same is always matched with the reports provided by the marketplaces and being compliant on GST and other Government requirements.

E-commerce sellers business owners typically spend their maximum time trying to be on top of their reconciliations with marketplace channels. 

However, the results are mostly ambiguous and outdated because of the dynamic nature of e-commerce business. Complexities widen when sellers are doing business with multiple marketplaces and have expanded their operations to various branches across multiple locations.

Manual and spreadsheet reconciliations are good in a situation when orders are limited and sellers are operating in a single marketplace and a single location. When the multiplier effect steps in, manual efforts will not just increase costs and inefficiencies, it will also lead to frustration and loss of sale.

Marketplaces also impose penalties based on their policies and subsequent algorithms configured thereof. Some wrong penalties may get unnoticed and the seller could incur unwanted losses on the same.

Keeping the above in mind, it is absolutely essential that one should have a good payment reconciliation software which has established credibility, is time tested and approved by marketplaces themselves. All of these ingredients are available with eVanik OneWorld Suite, which is helping sellers reconcile and recover millions of dollars arising from reconciliation gaps and leakages.

Here’s what you can expect from a good marketplace reconciliation software.

  • Transactions related to orders, returns, commissions and payments always updated in your panel 24×7
  • Identify wrong charges
  • Provide alerts on claim window timelines
  • Provide reconciliation reports in the format which can be directly raised as tickets to the marketplaces
  • Keep track of your claims with marketplaces
  • Micro analyze gaps in every cost component like commission, shipping, pick and pack charges, fixed and closing fee, carrier damaged without reimbursement, replaced orders not reimbursed, customer refund claims and lots more
  • The system should incorporate the reconciliation reports in-line with the claim and reimbursement policies of the marketplaces
  • Provide profitability statistics at product level incorporating your purchase costs / COGS and GST / Tax rates giving you the true picture so that you can drill down if there are any gaps.
  • Estimated receivables vs actual received at order and product level.
  • Fully integrated and compliant with all popular accounting software like Tally ERP9, Zoho Books, Alignbooks, FCA Integral, Netsuite, SAP, Navision etc
  • Downloadable reports with summary of reports for CXO / Management view.      If you are looking for a robust, time-tested and proven marketplace reconciliation and integrated accounting solution for your e-commerce business, look no further. eVanik OneWorld Suite has helped over 12,000 e-commerce companies since 2006 to power-up their performance on marketplaces. To request assitance on Reconciliation Click here to read more.

Importance of inventory management for small businesses

Importance of inventory management for small businesses

inventory management for small

“Stock, level, place, time and cost should be right” that’s all it takes to manage inventory.

Sounds simple right!

Let’s think about Danish who is an online retailer and has been selling his fashion wear products in one online marketplace.

He is hardworking and wants to grow his business. So, he registered at 4 more online marketplaces and started selling his products on all of them.

It was simple to list products in all the marketplaces.

And Danish was initially able to manage the orders coming from all these marketplaces manually.

But once the orders started increasing, things started moving out of hands.

His products and inventory were common across all the 5 marketplaces, but the orders were coming in individually.

Gradually, he started facing many challenges like updating inventory for every single product manually for each marketplace and ensuring that there is no loss of sale because of not updating the inventory.

Another challenging situation was when product stocks went out, still, he was getting an order for the products as he did not reduce the inventory to zero at all the marketplaces.

The problem becomes more challenging with thousands of products selling across so many different marketplaces.

Danish thought it would be fine soon.

But with the growth of the business, the complexities started growing more.

Danish now spends more time and effort in getting his stocks right, throughout the day, for all his products.

He also went to the extent of hiring 5 people (one for each marketplace) just to update the inventory tens of times every day.

And yes, this was all done manually!

His daily routine was to download the sales from each marketplace and update spreadsheets, containing the inventory of the products 5-10 times a day and share it to his team.

His team would then manually update the stock at the marketplace for each product one by one.

This cyclical process gave him no option but to stay where he was and quit the objective of business growth.

Despite hiring a large team to manage the inventory manually.

He was now confronted with more order cancellations leading to penalties, sale loss, long wasteful hours of manual work and no time to focus on growing the business.

More cancellations lead to lower seller-rating and tarnishing the brand image.

All I want to tell you is, “managing inventory is the key to a profitable business”.

Experienced business owners spend most of their time and efforts in automating the inventory and supply chain process.

The right inventory at the right time at the right price in the right place is the key, and there is serious science behind that.

Stock shortages or aging inventory have crashed many businesses. And when it comes to managing the inventory on e-commerce marketplaces, the challenges multiply geometrically.

Let’s take the around, in this part Danish invested in automation software for his online inventory management.

And he realized that the cost of this automation is a fraction of the 5 resources which he had hired.

More than massive savings on cost, his business started growing!

Now, there were zero order cancellations and his average inventory count reduced dramatically, reordering got more organized.

Now, he could find all the time to think about growing his business.

The above story was to reflect the importance of inventory management for your business.

But how does this concept start?

Evolution of the inventory management process

inventory management for small2

Everything in this universe is evolved i.e. gradually developed with the time, and so does the process of inventory management.

The process started even before the introduction of technology or the invention of computers. 

However, the process is believed to be started before the industrial revolution when merchants had to do the inventory management process manually, understanding the needs of customers.

With the manual process, merchants were not able to manage inventory accurately, leading to loss.

At the time of the industrial revolution, the demand for mass production rose and the businesses grew leading to a better inventory.

Finally, in the 1930s Harvard University designed the first modern checkout system. The system used a punch card in the catalog that was inserted into the device that read them.

And data was stored, the same checkout system was used for inventory management.

With time and the introduction of fine technologies, the process turned out to be more refined. The barcode and scanner brought a drastic acceptance of the process making it very simple and convenient for retailers.

The technology is still moving ahead and coming up with more surprises in the future!

What is inventory management?

Mayank Kumar quotes, “Inventory management is the process of exposing the right inventory to all available demand channels and maximizing throughputs profitably without losing a single opportunity”.

Inventory management involves tracking and managing the lifecycle of stock and includes ordering, handling, and storage.

In the e-commerce scenario, it is the process that involves managing returns, multi-warehouse movements, managing damaged inventory, warehouse management and lots more.

Large companies invest huge finance into inventory and warehouse management systems especially to address these key questions.

  • Is this product available in the warehouse?
  • Where is this product stored in the warehouse?
  • How much to reorder?
  • When to reorder?

Right inventory management is helpful in optimizing your stock management process and to work in a more cost-efficient manner.

It is quite obvious, that inventory management provides you a detailed outline of every product when it enters or leaves the warehouse and it addresses the following requirements

  • Centralized view of stock- Managing inventory gives you an overview of your entire business, you can now have an accurate track of your inventory as they are centralized at one hub.
  • Planning and forecasting- Imagine knowing what your customers demand and how much stock you require for the coming time.

Isn’t it all you need as a perfect business plan!

With the right management of inventory, you can easily make reports to analyze your stock.

It helps you in making a smart business decision and gives you information on what is demanded more.

  • Time-efficient- Inventory management is one of the most time-efficient methods to work with, it not only helps you to work fast and accurately.

But also helps you to complete the inventory process with improved delivery and getting high customer satisfaction.

For every business, it is important to keep track of their work. It helps them to understand the direction they are moving, and inventory management provides you that opportunity.

Basically, inventory management solves all your queries related to stock and its management.

Remember, in today’s competitive world you have to be ahead of the crowd.

How to manage inventory in an e-commerce marketplace scenario?

As we now know the importance of managing inventory for any business, let’s see how we can do that when selling on e-commerce marketplaces.

  • Search and research  – Planning is really crucial to make your move smooth.

For successful inventory management, you can use data and reports such as product sales velocity, profit calculator, sales comparison, channel-wise movement, etc.

It will help you to deep dive into past trends and plan for the future.

Do you know, marketplaces such as Amazon provide business reports on their seller central dashboard.

Do not overlook stuck or stranded inventory and stock in transit.

Remember, people tend to order more stocks without seeing that there is existing inventory in the system which is either not active/utilized/published or stored at the right place.

  • Focus on profitability – Margins & profits through sales on e-commerce marketplaces are more than just sales and purchase.

There are dynamic costs such as commissions, shipping, packing, advertising, storage, etc.

And they get loaded to your product.

For example:

Your purchase cost of a pair of Jeans is Rs. 200/- and you are selling it at Rs. 400/- on Amazon.

This may look to be a gross margin of Rs. 200/-, but here are some of the real costs which may simply change the picture

  • Average shipping cost = Rs. 50/-
    • The commission charged by Amazon (15% on selling price) = Rs. 60/-
    • Packing, storage, fixed fee, etc = Rs. 50/-
    • Average Returns (20% and 10% of these are damaged) = Rs. 8/-
    • Net GST payable (Input on purchase and fees and output on sales) ~ Rs. 5/- (assuming that the product is on 18% GST category)
    • Total costs – Rs. 173/-. Add a TCS cash-flow block of 1% = Rs. 4/-

The net realization from the marketplace on a product being sold at Rs. 400/- and the purchase cost being Rs. 200/- is just Rs. 23/-.

Now think about your internal costs – salaries, warehousing, procurement, bank interest, etc.

As I said, “it is more than just sales and purchase”.

  • Use a warehouse management system – On-time delivery of online orders is the key to growth and reduction in cancellations.

When you get multiple orders and your inventory is not well organized, it will lead to delays in picking, packing, and shipping, leading to more cancellations and returns from customers.

Therefore, a scientific and agile warehouse management system ensures automated, timely and well-structured movement of stocks.

  • Monitor aging inventory – A product that has spent a huge time in your inventory is known as aging inventory.

In inventory management, you have to keep an eye on the stock or product that is in your inventory for 12 months or more.

It is very important to manage aging inventory as it is consuming your inventory space, hampering the management of your inventory.

  • Manage returns in real-time – Returns are a hard reality in e-commerce.

You can control some of the returns by keeping a habit of rechecking before you ship the product.

However, this helps to only some extent, so at that point, you are left with nothing but to handle return in a smarter way.

As for any industry, average returns are in the range of 25-30%. With such high ratios of return orders, it becomes even more important to manage inventory more intelligently.

To make it easy you can do is to track returns and keep them at the top of inventory management.

  • Keep a habit of audit- A habit of auditing every six months or annually can be a great support.

This will help you to know what you have in your stock and what you can add more to grow your business.

Moreover, the process of auditing helps you to check over the quality of products and monitor the machinery of your inventory.

  • Track product information- The most important part of managing inventory is tracking the product information especially barcode data, SKU, suppliers’ information, etc.

All these processes can be really hectic and time-consuming.

Additionally, manual tracking can lead to lots of errors.

What to do?

To ensure an optimize inventory management, you can integrate your inventory with inventory management software.

With the integration process, the system of your company gets integrated, not only with the back end of your company but also with suppliers and 3PLs, making the tracking process more accurate.

Integrating inventory will help you to integrate financial activities like logistics, HR,  sales and financial production solving problems of reconciliation. 

It will connect the demand channels for offline sales, and will also connect with discovery engines through digital payment acceptance.

With integrated inventory system software, you can easily make local sellers and stores digital and discoverable.

Connecting to the global market with Indian economic merchants.

Therefore, importance of inventory management for small businesses isn’t just limited to stocks but also provides you all accurate financial reports including tax returns that are important for your investors and government.

So, If you are looking to integrate your inventory, eVanik can help you!