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How To start selling on Flipkart | Beginners Guide

Omni channel approach is the new normal in the ecommerce industry, whether you are a small time seller or a big one, in the competitive market everyone wants to stay on top no matter what. In order to maintain healthy competition, the marketplace is open to everyone who is willing to sell their product through them.

Today you will learn about one of the most profitable marketplaces called Flipkart. According to the report published by Statista, Flipkart reported a revenue generation of 346 billion and a revenue increase of about 12% in the financial year 2020. Being a seller who is just starting out, we can guide you on how you can sell on Flipkart in India.

Getting to the point, let’s focus on some questions that a newbie might have around the topic.

How do I Register as a Seller on Flipkart?

Being new to Flipkart you have to follow a certain path to register yourself. Since Flipkart has quoted a certain path for every seller depending on the number of people involved to conduct their business through them.

Documents you will need to register yourself

For individual seller or Sole proprietorship

GST registration certificate
PAN card
Bank account statement
A signed document declaring showing the ownership of the business

For individuals owning a private limited company

Company’s PAN number details
GST registration certificate
Certification of private limited company
Articles related to association and memorandum
Address proof for business and identity

For any partnership or LLP Firm, be prepared in advance

Deed of partnership or established LLP
Document for address proof – telephone bill or electricity bill
LLP PAN details
Document of partner who holds the power of attorney

Steps on how you can register on Flipkart?

Now that you have got a clear picture about the documents that you will need to register yourself. Let’s look at the steps that you need to do to complete the registration.

First visit page seller.flipkart.com and from there click on the register now button.
From there you will be directed to the page saying “create seller account”
There you see a number of fields that must be filled under Name, mobile number, password etc. You will receive an OTP on the number you have provided for verification.
Going on to the next stage, you can decide and select the pick up location and primary selling category of your product.
Next you will be required to fill in other details like business details, bank details, listing details etc.

Tips to plan out before you proceed with the Flipkart Seller Panel

What will be the nature of the business?
The price range of the products
Expected revenue in the next 3 months
Gender of the seller
Age of the owner’s account
Help you might from Flipkart’s end to grow your business
Possibility of selling the products under your own brand
No. of products to sell online
And several other pointer related to your business

Why you Should Sell on Flipkart?

As you might know Flipkart is one of the top 3 leading ecommerce websites in India and it was also ranked number 1 in 2019 as one of the top companies on LinkedIn. It was started in 2007 as an online book selling company and now it sells everything online.

It offers the opportunity to every seller even those who are on a low budget. It means if you can start your own business even with minimal investment. Moreover Flipkart can make sure your product can reach the customer and in a tip top condition. Flipkart also offers SPF (Seller Protection Fund) that will protect the seller from any kind of losses. Because of this most are leaned on to listing their products on Flipkart.

Seamless and free listing feature

You can easily sync your products with the help of Flipkart representatives.

Payment only after making a sale

Flipkart has a policy of taking a small amount as a commission which is applicable only after making a sale and successfully delivering to the end customer.

Access to a larger customer base

There are more than a million sales that are happening on a daily basis on Flipkart. Thus every seller will have the opportunity to expand their online presence and engage new customers.

Larger Product Niches

Flipkart offers more than 80 categories of products like books, electronic gadgets, sports equipment, laptops etc. These mentioned products also have subcategories so that the customer will be able to define his own line of products in a more specific way.

If you compare online, in India there are only two king giants in the category of ecommerce websites: Flipkart and amazon. And both of them have their own set of pros and cons in terms of fulfilment, reconciliation etc.

There is another question that always comes across in the mind of sellers i.e.-

Can I sell on Flipkart without GSTIN?

There are certain products listed in the product category on Flipkart that can be sold without a GSTIN number. For example books can be sold without GST in that case you have to provide the bank details that are associated with your business.

After selecting and giving all the necessary details a seller dashboard will appear there you can check which details are needed to be uploaded before selling on Flipkart.

Conclusion

Starting out a new business is always going to be tough especially when you are going to compete with more than 28 million sellers online. But if you plan out and follow certain steps like investing in product listing ads, maintain an updated inventory etc. your business will thrive organically and generate significant revenue.

How to optimize eCommerce website for Voice Search?

Right now we are at the peak of our technological advancement and as the popular saying goes “There is Always Room for Improvement”. As new updates keep coming, it is affecting the way we think and modifying the way we are viewing an object, an event, or in this case a brand. We aim to educate you right from the basics and a proper overview of how an eCommerce website can be optimized for voice search. So without any further ado let’s get started.

Today you will learn about voice search and how to optimize eCommerce websites for voice search to sell products online.

What does Voice search mean?

Voice search is a feature in which a user can give a voice command and based on the reference to the voice command it searches over the internet and finds the relevant websites, an app, or any product. In technical terms, it includes open domain keyword queries on any form of information on the internet.

This search is interactive in nature and includes certain and constant refinement by asking for clarification. The search is done by any device that can take voice input. The most common types to activate searches are by

- Clicking on the voice command icon
- Calling out the name of the virtual assistant device you are using
- Or by clicking on the home button or gesture on the interface

Now let’s come to the point that now you have an eCommerce website but want to optimize it for voice searches. This brings the main question

How do I optimize my eCommerce website for voice search?

According to PPC reports, it has been found that most customers prefer to search their queries via voice searches. Hence looking from a business point of view voice search can be used as a top-funnel activity. And because of this there will be more chance of discovering your product or eCommerce website online than your respective competitor.

So you have to design your website accordingly,.

Optimizing your website for voice searches

First, you have to do the proper research yourself about search engine optimization, how digital marketing works, and focus especially on a better and interactive user experience. So that your website is shown search engine result pages (SERP).

Focus on interactive questions

Most of the queries that a customer search is in a form of question and mainly it is in a form of usual phrase. For example, if someone wants to buy shoes online he/she might ask for a query “Ok google, please suggest a shoe store near me?”. That voice command will automatically activate a search online and will show a number of results on the screen.

It means you have to focus on the triggering texts like best, free, new when, why, new, etc. to optimize your content on the website, blog, or FAQ page. Also, focus on long-tail keywords in a question form with less competition. You have to think logically about what a query might be.

You can take help from google analytics to determine the impact of the keyword you are focusing on. From there you can also focus on getting some more keyword ideas to embed in your website.

Develop a rich snippet

A rich snippet is one of the important factors that can drive your eCommerce business. Google’s algorithm works on a rich keyword basis. You might have seen on the Google search box that highlighted in a bold letter in the snippet section about your query. It means that the website contains

When a user searches a product via voice search there a good chance that the device will read out the snippet to the customer that is present at the topmost page (Position Zero). So, you have to structure your content accordingly that can answer common queries on any possible targeted question. Also, you have to use relevant keywords URL and H1 tag in your content.

Improving the structure of your website

When the content on the website is properly structured, it can give the information that can index your site. This way it can improve the ranking of your website to higher positions as Google’s algorithm is now preferring structured data the most.

For example, you might have seen some website which shows starts as reviews by the customer. This is due to the result in schema markup implementation on the website. The developer has the choice of implementing multiple schemas to optimize it.

Listing Products on Google Shopping

You might be aware that most of the demographic are using google to do voice searches, so for instance if a customer is using voice command via google assistant to find a product. There is a good chance that your product might be easily discoverable on google shopping.

There are several extensions on different eCommerce websites that can easily sync your products on google shopping. These extensions map out the product’s data, content, variation, cost, etc. This way you can save up a lot of time and remove any additional resources that you were using to manage your product on multiple channels.

Include an FAQ’s section on your page

The trend of using FAQs might be becoming obsolete and big organizations have now stopped using it. But still several eCommerce websites like amazon are persistent on using FAQ below their product description.

On the positive side, the FAQ section saves a lot of time for the customer, he/she can easily list down all the relevant questions on just one single page that is less energy-consuming. Here you also have the opportunity of embedding few keywords to optimize the product content.

Enable voice search in your own eCommerce website

You must integrate your eCommerce website with voice search to increase the chance of finding the relevant and required product. To streamline the experience of thousands of products on your website, you have to enable an AI-powered voice search that can direct the customer wherever he wants to go on the website.

The basic concept behind this is that the customers are already coming from a voice search command, they might already be expecting a voice search feature on the website as well. If you can integrate customer service in your website via a voice chatbot that can effectively reply to customer complaints.

Register on Google my Business

This another add-on to optimize your website. Here you can provide all the relevant information like your website, niches of products, location, etc on google my business. So when the user is searching by any query he/she has more chance of discovering your brand name in more detail.

And presenting your business in a more detailed manner will establish a brand authority for your audience.

Take help from social media

To prepare your website for voice search, you need to know what type of questions people are asking, in what pattern they are asking, are they using a local language or a mix of different languages. Also, try to understand their emotion behind the specific product.

Using social media as a tool can turn out to be more beneficial and you will get a more clear picture of what questions you must focus on while designing the voice search for your eCommerce website.

Conclusion

As technology is evolving we as businessmen have to think about how we can use this same tech to our advantage and use it effectively to amp up our revenue. Voice search is a leap to the future of eCommerce and going down the line it will become a new normal for everyone in the world.

Top 9 Profitable Products To Sell Online In 2021

An eCommerce seller is always on the lookout for which products to sell online. Because sellers have the tendency to buy in bulk and if a certain batch is gone to waste, the cost has to be bear by the seller. Which finally will be reflected in the price paid by the customer.

It is always advised to follow the latest trends, people’s reactions to new niche products, and recognize the profile of your ideal customer. Now let’s come to the point, here you will learn about which product to have to focus on that might be in demand in the year 2021.

These products only cover the categories based on the selling and search trends in the year 2020 and we believe it will carry over in 2021 as well. So be sure to keep a close watch on this niche of products.

Peel-off face Mask

Several search tools and multiple eCommerce platforms like google trends, amazon, Oberlo, etc. are indicating that the demand for peel-off masks has increased over the last few months. The search data published by “Keywords everywhere ” suggests that this specific keyword receives more than 30,000 every month.

Face mask keyword facts

Another keyword that is receiving the most searches is “charcoal face mask” which is over 41000 and “facial mask” over 81000 per month. The data also suggests that there are more than 5.3 Million views on “peel-off face masks” alone. You can also follow Instagram and Facebook if you are planning to sell beauty products online.

Designer Nail polishes

Designer nail polishes are a catching trend among the younger demographics and according to “grand view research” reports the nail polish market might reach 15 billion USD by the year 2024. “Google trends” also suggests that the searches for “Nail polish” are spiking on an average up to 250,000 after March 2020.

Why designer nail polish is in demand

The younger generation is now starting to experiment with nail products like enamel, lacquer, and varnish. And due to their innovative look, texture, and effects, these cosmetics might segment might boom in the future.

Workout Bands

Resistance bands are quickly becoming one of the highest-selling online products. It is a known fact that the corona pandemic has pushed us into isolation and has led to the shutdown of gyms around the world and has made us unfit. To deal with this, people have started purchasing gym equipment for their home gym.

More facts on resistance bands

“Keyword everywhere” is suggesting top searches on keywords like resistance bands with 673,000 per month, exercise bands with 25000 per month, and exercise resistance bands with 5300 per month. Focusing on these niche lines you can attract some compelling potential customers with good conversion rates.

If you are a seller it is recommended to select some branded products, optimize your product page, and put in some good pictures.

Water Bottles

In 2018, it was revealed that the reusable water bottle market is valued at more than 8 billion dollars and is growing at a rate of 3.9% until 2025.

What do numbers say

The trend data published by keywords everywhere shows water bottles have a search volume of 103,000 per month, reusable water bottles at 27,100 per month, sports water bottles at 14,800 per month, and custom water bottles at 22000 a month. Google trends is also showing a gradual increase in the demand for this line of products.

Probable reason behind it

As humans are becoming more of a threat to the environment, a non-reusable water bottle is a go-to choice to reduce any negative impact. Your possible target audience is more likely to be more health-conscious and aware of the harmful effects of using one-time-use bottles.

Blankets

The blanket is the perfect option if you are searching for profitable products to sell online and want to attain higher profit margins. It is a 6.6 billion dollar industry and is expected to grow up to 9.9 billion dollars by the year 2027 as reported by CAGR.

Since it is a seasonal product, google trends show a sharp spike only during the winters. And it also suggests that people lean more towards a decorative, stylish product and more comfortable blanket made of wool. There are also custom made blankets that can offer print on demand service if requested by the customer.

Numbers

If you run ads on Google, it is advised to focus on two keywords first is “wool blanket” which stands at 40,500 searches, and fleece blanket, which stands around 50000 a month. Depending upon the type of blanket you are planning to sell you can try specifying your product so that you can narrow down your search to your group of potential buyers.

Yoga Mat

As people are becoming more health-conscious every day and their home is now converting into a small personal gym. The yoga mat industry is booming and has the potential to expand to 17.3 billion by 2025. This statement can be confirmed by stats given by google trends that show a pattern in the seasonality in the searches and purchases of yoga mats.

These patterns are a new year resolution season in the month of Jan and Feb, early summer season in June when people usually go outdoors, and finally, there is a gifting season which is in November and December.

Jigsaw Puzzle

We know this might be an odd one out from the ones that we have mentioned above. But it is true that the jigsaw puzzle is one of the greatest ways to pass time since the 1700s. Some people use it to relieve stress and make something beautiful. Most companies are exploring new creative ways to make puzzles more exciting and complicated.

Looking at the statistics, just after the lockdown was imposed there was a significant rise in the search which was around 820000 searches per month on average. Research published by a global research study showed that the jigsaw puzzle industry is worth around 9.1 billion dollars and has the potential to reach a compound annual growth of 15.1%.

What Caused this Spike?

Forced isolation of people into homes due to the pandemic and need of making the jigsaw puzzle more complex, creative, and exciting by organizing certain jigsaw competition events.

Artwork

Most people have a creative bone in themselves and everyone has their own taste depending on their lifestyle. If you’re looking to find something different from the general choices, choosing artwork as your niche product can give a huge profit margin. With social isolation and work from home culture, people want to add some zest to their surroundings.

Before you take any new steps to sell artwork, it is better to narrow down your target audience. Our ideal artwork might include something bold, motivational, abstract, or any aesthetic photography. These are some of the designs that might be good to sell in 2021.

Headphones

As new technology and attractive campaigns are the driving force of the success of every electronic product. The headphone industry is marked at 25.1 billion USD reaching an annual growth of 20.3% by the year 2027.

In this industry, true wireless headphones are very hot right now. It lets you connect one headphone with one audio device and another one with other audio devices. Because of its small size, it is becoming one of the favorite gadgets of every individual.

It is an evergreen market and as said before it is growing substantially in this current market. So if you want a piece of the profits you must select brands that are booming a lot in this or have better campaign strategy than others.

Conclusion
The real reason behind every successful business is hard work. And most of the hard work goes into research and experimentation. Finding products to sell online that suit your needs and fit in the equation. So if you are an eCommerce seller you can try eVanik, which can help you find you manage your business and save up a lot of time and money in the process.

15 Effective Inventory Management Techniques

A recent study which is done by the Warehousing Education and Research Council found when it surveyed the number of e-commerce companies that the main the reason why many companies face loss is due to a lack of inventory management. These companies doesn’t have effective inventory management techniques.

Inventory Management plays a vital role to run a successful business or company. Have you ever wondered how companies earn a great profit? There are many companies that face loss due to mismanaged inventory. Inventory management is essential for a business or company to be successful.

The clothing retailer H&M company has made it to the top with a $20.3 billion yearly sales. In a decade, retail giant Walmart has grown from $70 to $127 billion and dominating the whole market. This is all possible due to a solid inventory management.

If you want to remain competitive and profitable in the market then you need a cost-saving solid inventory management system that helps to boosts the profit of your business. There are also some companies which get a lot of sale and customers but cannot make a profitable business from it due to lack of inventory management.

Inventory is a placeholder for your money. Holding an inventory ties up with a lot of cash. That’s why it is very important to have good inventory management for growing a company. There are various inventory management techniques are available, and choosing the correct one can lead to providing the correct goods, at the correct amount, place, and time.

Large Inventory. Warehouse Goods Stock for Logistic shipping banner background.

Here you will get some best techniques for inventory management. By implementing these inventory management techniques you can take your business at the next level. But before that lets us know more about inventory management and it’s importance.

Organizations from small as well as large businesses can make use of inventory management to manage their flow of goods properly.inventory management includes aspects like controlling and overseeing purchases from the suppliers as well as customers in order to maintain the storage of stocks and to control the amount of product for sale and order fulfillment. Business is useless without proper inventory management.

As per the research, the data came in front of us that about more than 43% of business owners don’t track their inventory. This is one of the reasons why many companies and businesses cannot grow even though they had a lot of demand in the business.

The survey by Supply Chain Dive shows that one-third of warehouses do not have a proper inventory and warehouse management system which is the main reason why companies are facing loss even after a lot of demand for products. So it is very important to have solid inventory management to run a successful business or company.

Inventory management uses many techniques to keep the right amount of goods on hand to fulfill customer demand and operate the business profitably.

15 Inventory Management Techniques for your business

Here are 15 Inventory management techniques that will definitely help to improve your inventory management and cash flow. Optimal inventory management varies for every company, but there are some general strategies by implementing any business can grow. We have listed here 15 techniques for great inventory management.

1) FIFO ( First in First Out) Method

It is a very important concept and widely used in inventory management by various businesses. It works on the basic principle that the product which comes first in the warehouse should be sold first. In this method First or the oldest stock will be used first.

This method ensures that the oldest stock will be used first which helps to reduce the cost of obsolete inventory. This inventory system is commonly used in several companies and warehouses. The FIFO method is applied to both warehouse management and accounting.

FIFO technique plays an important role in the warehouses that contain perishable products. It is widely used in the food and beverage industries. It helps in Effective management of your warehouse space.

2) Minimum Order Quantity ( MOQ)

Generally, suppliers used to supply the product in whatever quantity which you have ordered from them for your business. But there are many problems we have to face while order certain products from the suppliers because they have minimum order quantity criteria.

A minimum order quantity (MOQ) is the lowest or minimum amount of stock that a supplier is willing to sell or accept. If you are not able to purchase the minimum order quantity of a specific product, then the supplier won’t sell it to you.

The main purpose behind minimum order quantities is to allow suppliers to make more profits while getting rid of more inventory management.
Wholesalers generally don’t prefer doing business in such a way, but in many cases, wholesalers are forced to sell using MOQs because they’re forced to buy a minimum amount of stock from the manufacturer.

3) ABC Analysis

There are many products available in our inventory and it is obvious that we are more focused on the products which have more demand in the market and have high sales. But to manage the inventory effectively it is very necessary that we should give attention to each and every product.
For this Many businesses use the ABC Analysis technique which is the best method to efficiently manage your inventory. In this method, the products are getting categorized into different groups.

ABC analysis is an approach for classifying the products which are present in the inventory as per their consumption values. Consumption value is defined as the total value of an item that is consumed over a specified period of time.

ABC analysis is a method of analyzing which helps to categorized products into three categories: A, B, and C.

Category A

In this category, the products are of high-value but have a low frequency of sales. Such products required more attention because it consists of products which have more financial value.

Category B

In this category, the products are of low value but have a high frequency of sales. In this case, such products may require less attention because they are continuously moving because of high demand.

Category C

In this category, the products are of moderate value and of the moderate frequency of sales. But this also required some attention and financial assessment.

4) Safety Stock Inventory

It is the level of extra stock that is maintained to mitigate the risk of run-out for goods and raw materials due to uncertainties in the supply or demand. It plays an important role in order to avoid stock out and keep customer satisfaction at a high level.

safety stock inventory helps to keep your warehouse and supply chain running smoothly. The goal of safety stock inventory is to make sure that your customers will be satisfied and keep coming back to you.

Safety stock protects against unforeseen variations in supply and demand. In simple words, Safety stock is an additional quantity of products added in the inventory to reduce the risk that the product will be out of stock.

5) Centralize your Inventory

Centralized inventory is a method in which stock is kept in a single location. Businesses generally merge all their products into a single place to make inventory management easy.

Centralizing your inventory has a number of benefits for your business. One of the greatest benefits of Centralize inventory systems is operational efficiency.

Centralized inventory maybe sometimes changing demand. With stock in a single location, it can be difficult to fulfill orders when there’s been a spike in demand in a specific geographic region or weather makes fulfillment impossible from your single warehouse.

Centralize inventory is the key to the profitability of your business.

6)Batch Tracking

Batch Tracking is a method that is used to group and monitor a set of stock that has similar properties. This process is used for the efficient tracing of goods.

It gives you detailed information about the product from raw material to finished goods. It helps you to know where it comes from, and where it went.

There are several benefits of batch tracking like:

It helps to improve relationships with suppliers.
It helps to identify which products are going to be expired.
It has fewer accounting errors.

Batch tracking allows insight into the quality of your finished goods by tracking the raw materials of your suppliers. This identifying your best and worst suppliers which helps you to decide the right suppliers.

7) Dropshipping

It is a very simple method in which there is the direct delivery of the goods from the manufacturer to the customer.

Dropshipping is a supply chain management that allows businesses to reduce their inventory costs by not holding any inventory. It is one of the best inventory management techniques.

It is a very simple method in which we first receive an order then we have to forward it to the supplier and the. The supplier fulfills the order.

There are several benefits of using the Dropshipping technique for inventory management:

One of the greatest advantages of Dropshipping is that we don’t have to invest a huge amount of money. It requires very little capital.
Dropshipping required fewer overheads Because we don’t have to invest in purchasing inventory or managing a warehouse.
Nowadays, dropshipping business can be run from anywhere. As long as you can communicate with suppliers and customers easily, you can run your business from anywhere.

8)Managing Relationships

It is one of the most important factors for running a successful business. A good relationship is very important in business. It is about clear, proactive communication.

It is very that you should have a strong relationship with the supplier to run your business effectively. This will be helpful to you for minimum order quantities. You can ask your supplier for a minimum order quantity so that you don’t have to carry much inventory. Good Relationships play a key role in order to build a successful business with maximum profit.

9)Contingency Planning

If you are running a business there are many uncertain inventory management issues are come in front of us and it is very difficult to fix or resolved those issues on time.

The problems which can arise during inventory management are as follows:-

The product has a low frequency of sales takes the maximum space of your warehouse and there is no or little space available for products having a high frequency of sales.
The unexpected rise in demand for a specific product and the product is out of stock.
Cash flow turns to negative and it is not possible for you to pay for products which you needed.
The manufacturer stops the delivery of the product without any prior notice. So it is necessary that you should identify the risk and make a solid contingency plan for better inventory management.

10)Regular Inventory Audit

An inventory audit is defined as the analytical procedure that helps to cross-checks the financial records which match inventory records, or the count of physical products.

It is very necessary to do regular auditing of the inventory in order to have an idea of stock in the warehouse. There are three ways by which the inventory can be tracked

Spot Checking-It is the method in which the products are manually counted and cross Check with the actual data. This is generally done for high-value products.
Physical Inventory-Many businesses prefer to do counting if the whole inventory only once at the end of the year because of the accounting and tax filling purpose.

11)Set par levels

A par level is defined as the minimum amount of a product that should have on hand of any business. This helps to meet the customer’s demand while also maintaining safety stock in the case of uncertain demand.
The par level is ideal for use Effective management.
If you track par levels in real-time it will help you to track which stocks are depleting faster than others and which products have less demand in the market. It will prompt proactive orders to replenish stock so you don’t run out.

If you don’t maintain par levels properly, you might find yourself in a situation where you cannot fulfill customer demands.The concept of par levels is helpful for warehouse managers and business owners for control of the inventory.

12)Prepare for different Seasonality

There is a massive change in the demand for the product as per the season. So it is very necessary for the business that you should be ready for the changes in customer demand in the market.
Seasonal inventory required stock which is in high demand during particular times. these periods of time often coincide with the different seasons, and companies need to be proactive in preparing for different demand during these key times.
Seasonal inventory can be unpredictable in the market. seasonal inventory can be a challenge to your inventory control plan, making it difficult to prepare for the changes in demand for various products in the market.
So it is necessary to forecast the demand of products from past data to achieve better inventory management.

13)Tracking your sales

Tracking sales and available inventory help in determining what you need to order. Using the point of sale and tracking programs can add to the expense but they will help you to ensure that your customers have what they want while you maintain the minimum amount of stock necessary.

It is very necessary to track inventory levels on time for proper supply chain and critical for e-commerce brands that want to scale up successfully in the market. If you do not properly track your inventory sales it will end up with frustrated customers, excessive inventory, obsolete inventory which is not good for your business.
A good inventory system will help in communicating with suppliers and making demand adjustments. Using an inventory tracking system is the most efficient inventory tracking technique as it helps in achieving better transparency and accuracy than other techniques.

14) Accurate Forecasting

For ideal inventory management requires accurate forecasting of the demands for different products. But the forecasting is not an easy task it requires deep study and analysis of the market. It depends on the various factors
Various Trends for different products in the market.

The growth rate of the current year.
The demand of customers for specific products.
Guaranteed sales from contracts and subscriptions
Seasonality and the overall economy

Demand forecasting goes beyond simple estimates of product demand, looking into complex patterns overtime to produce more accurate and timely predictions. Any organization will be able to better manage inventory, increase revenue only after proper inventory management and accurate forecasting of sales.

If you are running a business and want to scale up, then it is very important to investigate the efficiency of their inventory management and forecasting processes.

15) Lean manufacturing system

Lean manufacturing system is an inventory management technique that primarily consists of a set of tools, a philosophy, and a system. It aims to reduce waste, optimize production, and helps put the customer first.

The lean manufacturing technique delivers the most valuable product to the customer.
It undergoes a process of ensuring all of your value-adding steps flow smoothly without any delays or interruptions.
It maps out the steps and processes required to manufacture high-value products.
Lean thinking and process improvement is a core part of the company culture.
Lean inventory management is the calculated approach to increasing the value of a company inventory by identifying and eliminating waste which is left after the manufacturing of the products.

Conclusion

It is very necessary for wholesalers and businesses to focus on inventory management to run their business effectively and having a check on finance and accounts. If there is a lack of management you cannot efficiently get items to customers when they need them. Inventory management will help you to know which products are overstock, under stock, and out of stock. Inventory management helps to keep a check on the financial activities of the organizations.
Inventory management touches many parts of your business. This can lead to different types of problems in the business. Inventory management helps in faster shipping, within the warehouse. you can easily know that you have the inventory on hand to ship. You’ll have more control over your inventory and be able to track it over different locations.
So now it’s time to take control of your inventory by using the above inventory management techniques which will definitely stop you from losing money and make your business more profitable. eVanik gives you the capability to implement all the above mentioned techniques.

20 Reasons to use Order and inventory management systems

What is inventory management in E-commerce?

Inventory management in E-commerce is defined as the method of measuring the amount, pricing, location, and variety of products available for your business in the Market. It is a set of all the processes which are used to control and organize the goods or materials in your industry.

It is very necessary for retailers and e-commerce sellers to focus on inventory management to run Their business effectively and having a check on finance and accounts. It will help you to know which products are overstock, understock, and out of stock. Inventory management helps to keep a check on the financial activities of the organizations.

Logistics and Analytics plays a vital role in the inventory management system. This will helps you in understanding the purchasing trends of the customers.

What is the Order Management system?

An order management system (OMS) is an electronic system used to execute securities orders in an effective and cost-effective manner. E-commerce sellers use order management systems when filling orders for various types of securities and can track the progress of each order throughout the system The order management system(OMS) is also known as a trade order management system.

It is software system that facilitates and manages the execution of trade orders. In the financial markets, an order must be placed in a trading system to execute a buy or sell order for a security purpose.

order management systems offer real-time trading solutions, which allows the customers to know market prices and execute orders in multiple exchanges across all markets, by real-time prices. Some of the benefits that organizations can achieve from an order management system include managing orders and asset allocation of portfolios.

This article will walk you through the importance of inventory management and why E-commerce sellers need an inventory management system for their business.

1) Speed up pick and pack process

The Order Management system is very necessary for the Effective management of the product. There are many advanced product management tools are available which, helps in exactly locating the item in the warehouse. Nowadays, all this process is controlled by real-time order management software. Once the product is getting out of the inventory, the packaging department receives the data about the product and packs it in the appropriate trunks.

2)Helps to keep an eye on the inventory

It is very necessary to maintain the products in the warehouses. Traditionally there was only one warehouse for one product, but nowadays, businesses are growing day by day with large exponential growth ,which needs effective inventory management. An e-commerce inventory management system tells about the details of the different product availability whether they are under stock, overstock, or out of stock. It keeps deep visibility into multiple warehouses.

3)For effective business practices

Inventory and order management systems help in Efficient business management. Traditionally the workers have to train about the working process of warehouse and products. But today due to digitalization it is very easy to manage. Proper inventory management saves our precious time and gets more value from the team members.3)For effective business practices

4)To delight customer experience

It is very necessary that e-commerce sellers should focus on improving the user experience of their purchasing. Some times e-commerce websites show products in stock, but when customers try to purchase, it shows out of stock. This will reduce the quality of the user experience. To tackle this problem, there should be proper inventory management.

5)To eliminate Deadstock

Having an organization. Planning and forecasting will help to improve the user experience. Having a bulk stock also can create a problem if you are not able to sell the products effectively. e-commerce sellers must eliminate deadstock, and reduce the wastage of inventory. This will reduce the extra storage costs.

6)For more directed Investment

The order and inventory management systems will help you to understand the historical trends regarding the demand for a particular product. This will helps you to know where you have to invest more money to stock the products in the warehouse. This will helps to calculate the quantities of products required in stock.

7)To improve the ability to meet market demands

It is very necessary to predict the future movement of the product demands and the purchase trends to effectively managed inventory. It helps you to give the data about the products and how it is moving. This helps to identify what products are more liked and purchased by the customers.

8)For improving marketing results

It is very important to track the inventory in the online e-commerce website for effective inventory management. Seller’s ratings and search rankings will be enhanced for these e-commerce sellers. It is very necessary to make sure that you are not stockpiling products that will not sell.

9)Helps to lower your stress

As the business grows and expands, it requires effective order and inventory management It is difficult to do manual inventory management. Advanced tools helps you to effectively maintain the orders and inventory management system with maximum efficiency.This will helps to reduce the stress of inventory management.

10)reduce the time required for inventory control.

Effective inventory management will help you to save your time required for managing the inventory. Good inventory management not only helps to reduce the time taken to track the products but also manage the orders.

11)For proper planning and Forecasting

For running a successful business it requires solid Planning. Advanced software will help you to improve demand forecasting by adequate analysis of data trends and movements of the products. This will reduce the handling costs and increases the revenue of the organization. Planning and forecasting will help to improve the user experience.

12)To improve the delivery

It is very necessary to deliver the required product on time. For tracking the movement of the products it is very important to know when the product will arrive and when it will be delivered to its required location. The late delivery creates disappointment in the customers and affects the growth of the business. That’s why it is necessary to have order and inventory management.

13)To ship packed products with integrated partners

Order Management system should be integrated with the logistics companies. This will helps you to choose high rated partners and to send products to the customers effectively.

14)To ensure the efficient changes to the Market

The order management system has several benefits. It will provide greater efficiency in managing orders across the enterprise. The Advanced software for order management system helps in faster response to the customer’s demands and helps to identify the market changes.

15) To Unleash your best fulfillment strategy

An order management system has the capability to integrate with order management software to make it easy for e-commerce sellers to provide options such as pay online and pick from stores, express delivery, or same-day delivery. This will only be possible if you are able to track your complete inventory across all channels and provide your users with all possible fulfillment solutions.

16) Update pricing strategy based on competition analysis

There are Repricing tools available to update the real-time prices of the products as per the market changes. We can update prices in real-time on different marketplaces. This will help you to maintain the consistency of your product’s price along with the consistency of the brand.

17) To Automate your most straightforward tasks

Order Management system allows you to do various tasks like sending notifications to your customers, printing labels, and invoices,etc. It will also help in saving your employees time. The complex tasks are easily managed and completed as far as possible.

18) Increased customer satisfaction

A good inventory management system ensures faster and correct delivery to customers which ultimately results in increased loyalty, sales, and a better brand reputation for the e-commerce sellers. Customer satisfaction is one of the most important things in any business. Customer satisfaction will help in the exponential growth of the organization.

19) Pick a Customized System

Business operations are very complex and difficult to manage. It becomes very important to select an excellent software program that supports all elements involved in the running of the business. When your business grows and your e-commerce needs to change, this will allow you to move to a new shopping cart solution which will minimize the impact on your business activities.

20) For Warehouse Integration

It is very necessary to manage inventory across different warehouse locations. The inventory management software will provide integration for all the locations. With the help of order inventory management, it is easy to track the status of all the inventory through your computer screen.

Conclusion

Traditionally inventory management was very simple and the retailer sells products in front of their shop. Modern brands now have numerous channels to sell through e-commerce and social media. Inventory management software is paired with accurate channel management.

Inventory management touches many parts of your business. If there is a lack of management you cannot efficiently get items to customers when they need them. This can lead to different types of problems in the business. Inventory management helps in faster shipping, within the warehouse. you can easily know that you have the inventory on hand to ship. You’ll have more control over your inventory and be able to track it over different locations.

Hence for E-commerce sellers, order and inventory management should be on their first priority.

eVanik offers robust Order and Inventory Management Solution for E-commerce sellers.

Top 9 Shipping Aggregators for Online Sellers

During these COVID-19 outbreak time, consumption patterns have changed tremendously. One siginificant change lockdown has brought that whole digital landscape has been changed. People livingi n Tier-II and Tier-III cities have become part of digital revolution. They can been seen attending video calls, video meets, e-learning etc. This transformation has also led the buying of essential and non-essential goods from various e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm etc and small niche websites of various people.. Online sellers has felt the need to have better control on their product distribution as well as last mile connectivity. Hence, role of shipping aggregators for online sellers became more relevant.

This is giving rise to shipping aggregators, which is benefiting the transportation domain. Shipping aggregators are increasing which helps the e-commerce traders to transport their products to each and every corner of the world.

Almost all the online sellers hire a shipping aggregator to maintain the position of their business. Also it helps the business to grow and expand.

It is very important and useful for the online sellers to hire shipping aggregators to grow their business as one person cannot handle and manage everything. Outsourcing is essential in every kind of business as it leads to better management and reduction in Costa as well.

So, We selected some of the best shipping aggregators for online sellers.

Advantages of using shipping aggregators for online sellers

Reducing transportation cost: If you own an online business, you have to own or rent vehicles and hire drivers for transportation which will cost you too much. Also, you have to give taxes for your vehicles and pay the bills of the fuel used during the shipment. But if you outsource the transportation, it will result in cost reduction as all the changes will be reduced and you have to pay the minimum fees to shipping aggregators.
Maintenance charges are reduced: When you will provide your own transportation, then you have to maintain all your vehicles. Also, you have make them register for commercial use. The registration cost will also be eliminated if you outsource the transportation.
Better Performance: The businesses that outsource transportation have better performance as they have more time to concentrate on their main work which helps in expansion of the business. Online sellers have time to plan the strategies for future. Also, it becomes easier for them to manage the accounts which is a great relief for online sellers.
Reduction in training cost: When you will provide transportation yourself, you have to provide training to all the delivery boys. But in the case of outsourcing, all the cost of training is handled by the courier service providers.
No stress of liability: If you provide your own shipment, many losses may occur life theft, accidents etc but in case of hiring a shipping aggregator, online sellers are free from these kind of losses and liabilities.

Things to consider before choosing a shipping aggregator

Always choose a courier service provider which provides fast delivery as when the delivery of the products will be late, the customers tend to loose interest in the products and remain unsatisfied.
If you run a large scale business, you must look for a shipping aggregator which provides their services at the global or a larger level as to provide shipment to all the customers in each and every corner of the world.
You should look for the shipping aggregators who provides you the facilities of tracking and managing your accounts as it is more convenient, helpful and also a effective service for your business. Also, it helps reducing the cost of the system which ultimately helps in gaining profit.
Try to choose a courier service provider who support cash on delivery. It will help the business to make a good connection and trust in your customers which will lead to the expansion of the business.
Best shipping aggregators for online sellers
1. Shiprocket:

It has 8 shipping partners to give the best services to e-commerce traders which helps the online sellers to expand their business.
It is cheap and also offers discounted shipping which helps the e-commerce traders to earn profit by providing reasonable rates to consumers.
It also offers 4 types of pricing plans to e-commerce traders so they can choose the plan as per their convenience.
It provides the services to 20000+ pin codes on cash on delivery which is very beneficial for online sellers. It is the best shipping aggregator at cheap rates.
It provides a dashboard which gives the tracking details of the shipment to the online sellers as well as to the customers.

2. ShipYaari

It is the oldest shipping aggregator which makes it trustful for all the online traders.
It has 3 pricing plans for online sellers to give online sellers a choice which helps the online sellers to choose a price plan as per their convenience.
It gives the plans on monthly, half yearly and annual subscription model.
It provides their services domestically and internationally too as it have 2 international and 4 domestic partners. Best shipping aggregator in India.
It also offers discounted rates at bulk shipping which gives profit to online sellers.
It does not provide multi location pickup which is the only problem online sellers suffers while contracting with Shipyaari.

3. Shipkaro

It is very promising and reliable shipping aggregator for online sellers.
It also provides 3 pricing offers to the online traders that are individual, business and enterprise to provide convenience to the traders.
It provides shipping domestically as well as internationally as it have 12 shipping partners. Best shipping aggregator with COD availability.
It gives a huge discount to online sellers for bulk shipping orders.
It offers full cash on delivery support at 20000+ pin codes which helps online sellers to expand their business.

4. Pickkr

It works on pay per use basis which helps the small scale businesses to grow with little amount of capital.
It provides services domestically as well as internationally. It also provides a B2B shipping as well as B2C shipping.
It provides the tracking facilities to online sellers as well as to the customers which makes the customers delighted.
It provides pickup service as well to multiple locations which benefits the online sellers to make their customers satisfied.
It provides services at very low rate so that online sellers can make profit with 3 price plans to provide convenience to online sellers. Best shipping aggregator globally.
It also provides a NDR calling support with NDR management tools.

5. Zepo Couriers:

It offers courier service to the e-commerce sellers. It has partnership with 6 courier service companies which makes it very effective and efficient.
It provides delivery to 15000+ pin codes in India to reach each and every corner of India.
It works on a very reasonable price rates and also provides 3 price plans to the e-commerce sellers.
It offers discounted rates but not at monthly and half yearly subscription which creates a difficulty to new or emerging online sellers. Best shipping aggregator with huge discounts.
It also supports cash on delivery which gives a relief to online traders.

6. Shyplite

It works on pay as you go model which helps the new or emerging online sellers as they can pay in parts and not in bulk.
Due to pay as you go model, it cannot provide premium advantages which becomes a great reason of large scale seller to not to choose shyplite but this proves the best courier service company for small scale e-commerce traders.
It is growing and has 8 courier service companies as its partner.
It also provides cash on delivery facility to some of the locations which helps the e-commerce traders to grow. Best shipping aggregator in India.
Overall, it provides the services to 26000+ pin codes in India which helps the e-commerce sellers to reach each and every corner of India.

7. Vamaship

It is the cheapest alternative for the e-commerce traders which attracts almost all the online sellers.
It provides the shipping facilities globally with 26000+ pin codes to cover whole of the world which is very beneficial for the online sellers as it gives them an opportunity to expand their business.
It does not take platform usage fees and only take shipment fees which makes it the cheapest courier service.
It provides you a platform to send your customers a customized ‘best buying experience’ notification to delight your customers. Best shipping aggregator with tracking facilities.
It also supports cash on delivery all over India with a pickup facility too which helps the online sellers to build a trust of the customers all over India.

8. ShipDroid

It provides an easy account management system to the online traders which helps them to calculate their sales.
It is economical and provides services at low rates which helps the online sellers to gain profit without pressurizing their customers.
It provides a dashboard to online sellers which gives all the tracking details of every minute to customers as well as to online sellers. Best shipping aggregator for online sellers.
It supports cash on delivery which facilitates the online sellers to make their customers comfortable and helps in building trust of customers

9. iThink Logistics.

Name	No. of partners	Pin code services	COD facility	Platform fees	Custom Tracking page
Shiprocket	8	19000+	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shipyaari	4	10000+	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shipkaro	13	15000+	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pickrr	10+	26000+	Yes	No	Yes
Zepo Couriers	6	15000+	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shyplite	12	20000+	No	No	Yes
Vamaship	14	26000+	Yes	No	Yes
Shipdroid	2	20000+	No	Yes	Yes
Think Logistics	6	26000+	Yes	No	Yes

Conclusion:

E-commerce is growing day by day which is leading to the emergence of shipping aggregators in transportation sector. There are many benefits of hiring shipping aggregators which majorly are reduction in transportation costs, maintenance charges and training costs. It also helps in better performance.

You should consider many things before hiring a shipping aggregator that are fast delivery providers, tracking and account manager providers and most importantly if you run large scale business, choose a providers who can service globally.

eVanik provides direct integration with various logistics partners which helps onlines sellers in managing shipping for their e-commerce orders.

Understanding Marketplace Reconciliation for Online Sellers

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 Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, PayTM 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.

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 Process	Parameters	Reconciliation Challenges
Buyer Order Status	Multiple stages like pending, approved, packed, ready, shipped, delivered, returned	Dynamic statuses get updated regularly thereby making it impossible to track on downloaded spreadsheets
Marketplace Payment Cycle	Orders get cumulated for a time period and get collectively paid	Aggregated payment cycle involve deductions and reserve amount held up to cover future possible returns from customers
Commissions & Marketplace Fee	Marketplaces deduct commission charges on all orders	Commissions vary basis category, event based seasonality, tier/level of seller, fulfilment model etc. Actual vs Applicable charges
Shipping	Shipping charges levied by marketplaces for delivering orders	Shipping charges calculated basis weight type (dead weight vs volumetric), distance (Local, Zonal, National) and charged twice in case of customer returns
Returns	Orders returned either by buyers or by shipping providers and Replacements	Return Status (Received or Not), Damaged or Sellable, courier or customer return
Claims	Marketplaces reimburse some amount to sellers against loss or damage caused due to customer / courier or at the Marketplace Warehouse	Check claim eligibility, claimed on time (Claim Window), right amount claimed, claim reimbursement status, right amount reimbursed
Cancellations	Orders can get cancelled by Buyer, Marketplace or Seller at any stage of the order	Orders which are not cancelled by the seller may attract a penalty which may need to be claimed back
Other Charges	Marketplaces 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 Settlement	Marketplaces 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 Reconciliation	Fulfilment 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.
Others	Other challenges including non-order related costs like advertising fee, storage fee etc	Non-order related fees are deducted from the eligible settlement value and a statement is provided at the end of the month.
Accounting	Sales, Returns, Commissions, Payments, Reserves, TCS	Automating 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 MultiChannel Inventory Management

Multichannel inventory management becomes important for online sellers who often get confronted with the problem of managing a common / centralized inventory across various channels including their own website, offline store and e-commerce marketplaces. The buyer journey and preference especially on e-commerce marketplaces is largely unknown to the sellers and the need to be optimally stocked up on all channels is the key requirement to win the sales race. Loss of orders due to stock outs and over ordering due to inventory not updated on-time, everytime can lead to serious business disasters. Sellers would tend to spend more money on the inventory carrying cost than the amount spent on buying the inventory itself. Also the stock which a seller is carrying has depreciation and devaluation risk due to obsolescence or expiry dates. Hence the need to optimize stocks through a robust multichannel inventory management system is essential. Timely reordering and getting on-time stock alerts is also one of the important parameters when building your inventory management system.

In simple words, the opportunity to reach your customers / audiences on their preferred channels at all their journey points is called multi-channel management. While this can be done at a very raw and basic level manually, there are good multi channel ecommerce software available in India and globally to solve this problem. Most buyers are now using marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Etsy, eBay etc to buy products. Their search behavior is largely dependent on many things like listing quality, product rating etc, but more importantly the availability of the product is the key for them to make the spot decision. As a seller it’s most important to be on that spot all the time. For a seller it gets harder with more channels and more SKUs to manage as the business keeps growing. This often leads to late orders, penalties, higher return rates and dissatisfied customers. Also, customers really don’t care about the problems or the efforts which sellers face for fulfilling their orders. Their single motto is to get a great shopping experience and be well taken care of. Overselling is also a key pain area. More than getting penalized for unfulfilled orders, it leads to embarrassment and pain of losing customers. Multichannel inventory and order management software will allow you to create powerful and easy integrations with unlimited channels and give you access to a dashboard from where you can manage and control your inventory and orders centrally. Agile platforms will start building their own inventory from the first channel that you connect. This could possibly be your best or biggest sales channel. You can use this inventory or modify it to publish it across all your channels. Syncing stock level across your multi channels regardless of how and when they were changed will relieve you from all the problems of managing inventory. A good inventory management software will let you check your stock from anywhere, whether you are at home or even enjoying a vacation with family anywhere in the world. A lot of sellers try to execute their multichannel order management requirements through spreadsheets like Excel or building custom algorithms in the Excel spreadsheet. But this may not be the right method, as excel is an offline utility and does not have the capability to consume real-time information of orders and inventory coming through various platforms. Real-time inventory synching is crucial to success to get the multichannel inventory and order processing right. Because this delivers strong fulfillment rates, loyal customers and great reputation with marketplaces. A good multichannel inventory management system will also help you in linking your duplicate SKUs and managing bundles and product combos. A great tool which connects your products, orders and inventory of all your channels including your marketplace channels, offline store and website is absolutely essential for succeeding and growing your business in a multichannel business environment. This is how a seller can focus more on business and not on inventory. If you are selling on international marketplaces, one of the advantages of having a multichannel e-commerce order and inventory system is that the seller will have the ability to reach out his products to international customers without needing to invest in physical warehouses. Due to COVID-19,it has become even more important that you save your valuable time and power up the efficiency of your business. Invest in a good multi channel inventory and order management system for your marketplace and e-commerce business..

Omnichannel Versus Multichannel : In depth Strategic Analysis

Everything existing in this universe has a meaning and when we deep dive to find it, we explore a wider spectrum. Similarly, with an objective to learn more about e-commerce, we landed on its integrated approaches, bringing up the idea of omnichannel and multichannel marketing.

Splitting the words we understood it better.

So, when we talk individually as Omni and channel, Omni is a Latin word that refers to “everywhere or everything” and the channel is “media”. Therefore, omnichannel marketing refers to the marketing process done in every channel holding the same background which means “the channels are integrated”.

On the other hand, comes the multichannel marketing process which is more concerned about the product and promotes a particular product on different channels with any link of one another.

Let’s make it more clear and interesting with infographics. Everything you are looking for about “omnichannel versus multichannel marketing” is now just a glimpse away.

Omnichannel Versus Multichannel : In depth Strategic Analysis

Still confused, here’s a story to take you to the journey of omnichannel and multichannel marketing with a shopping exorbitant girl “Sneha”.

Let’s go shopping!

Major difference

Since the terms are now comprehensible, let’s take a look at what are do’s and don’t of both these marketing practices.

Challenges you may encounter in Omnichannel and Multichannel

No matter what we do, we certainly have to face some challenges. But knowing about upcoming challenges can help you reduce the risk and plan for the future.

Do’s And Don’t of both the strategies

Both these channels are equitable in one or the other way. Now it’s your turn to choose.

Which model to choose?

Everything you should know about warehouse management systems.

It is believed that the journey of warehouse management started in ancient times when farmers thought to keep a record of grain from the crop.

All they wanted was to use the record so that they could prevent famine.

With time and technology, the process turned out to be fast and tracking became easier.

However, the basic concept of warehouse management never changed. Therefore, it can be defined as “managing everyday operations of a warehouse”.

The process includes arranging warehouse and physical inventory management, maintaining appropriate equipment, conditioning of product, managing new product, space management, packaging, stock receiving, and tracking.

Hence, improving overall warehouse performance!

And “an application or software designed to optimize the method of storage by controlling and administrating the operations in a warehouse is known as a warehouse management system”.

This was a glimpse of all the content that we are going to discuss in today’s blog. Let’s first start with understanding the basics of warehouse management systems.

What does a warehouse management system do?

A warehouse management system controls and manages the process of stock storage with the aim of providing consistent availability of the product.

It is a software supporting day to day operations in a warehouse, giving you a centralized system to control the process of storage.

There are many other benefits of using a cloud-based warehouse management system for your business growth.

Benefits of a modern cloud-based warehouse management system

With technically growing nations and advanced customers who mostly prefer digital mediums for all their purchases, it is the right idea to adapt the smartest technology.

And a perfect match for that, in today’s world, is moving to the “Best cloud-based e-commerce management system”.

It will help you in saving your precious time by integrating multiple complex channels at once.
Connect you directly with all the leading e-commerce marketplace platforms, shopping carts, accounting ERPs, 3PL providers, and Payment Gateways.
It will help you to lower the upfront cost as you don’t need to hire an IT specialist and no longer need countless software or hardware.
With a cloud-based system, there is no upgrade or maintenance fee. And still, you can always use the most upgraded version.
You can now quickly expand your supply chain operation and meet all the market expectations with a modern cloud-based management system.

Therefore, the tool helps in providing digital support to all your warehouse management processes starting from receiving goods until delivery of the product.

Warehouse management process

The process of warehouse management involves the following steps: receiving goods, put away and storage, order picking, packing, and shipping.

All these processes involve certain functions and you can always optimize your functions according to your business needs.

1. Receiving of goods

The process of warehouse management starts with receiving the product and unloading it from the vehicle.

Here you have to ensure that you received the right product, in the right amount and right condition.

Don’t just receive but validate!

When the shipment arrives, make sure to check and validate the product, which means you have to check the quality of the product.

Quality control here can help you in making further processes smooth. It involves checking the goods you ordered thoroughly and then taking them forward to your inventory.

If any product is damaged, keep it aside and inform about it in real-time.

Unload the products and check if the number of boxes is the same as mentioned in the

delivery shipping notice i.e. you have to check the product count.

Check all the return documents such as invoice and packing slip.

After all these processes are done you have to prepare goods received note mentioning the details of the products you received.

The details include the description, quality, date of receiving, GRN number and so on.

This will help you to make entries in the inventory about the product and you can also cross-check that you received all that you ordered.

Finally, you are ready to arrange the product in your inventory accordingly.

Receiving a new product!

With a growing business, it is quite obvious to expect a frequent rate of new products in inventory.

With new products, you have to play a little wiser!

Remember to mark enough space for newly arrived products in your inventory and guide your team about the product and its handling.

Add necessary labels and barcodes to the product at the time of putting away and don’t forget to update your inventory. As in this way your product will be ready to sell.

2. Put away and storage

Similarly, for every product once received, you have to put away the product in the right, place and keep the product in the best suitable condition.

Doing them right can help you to get the most optimum results in the future.

Make sure to do the “material handling right” for this entire process.

As by handling the product right, there will be less damage leading to more satisfactory delivery and you know the rest.

Use this principle and optimize the process!

“Minimal touches of goods,” the principle states that you should directly put away goods to its final location.

The fewer the touches are, the less will be the probability of product damage.

Also, make sure to do the put-away process on the day you receive stock.

It is often seen that when the new orders arrive, the team turns to be busy working on it. Hence, the priority of that moment is picking and packing.

keeping the new stock aside. And this may negatively affect your warehouse.

The put-away process and storage go hand in hand, once you are ready with where to keep the stock, make sure to consider the storage required by your products.

The conditioning of products must be given a high priority depending upon the needs of the product.

You can also use the ABC tool!

According to this tool, the products get classified into three sections.

1. A Item- These are the high-value products with low sales frequency.
2. B Item- These are moderate value products with moderate sales frequency.

3. C Item- These are low-value products with high sale frequency.

You can keep C items closest to the packaging area and Vice Versa for A item.

You can also categorize the product according to its requirements.

For example, if the product is very heavy, try to place it with the proximity of the door, or if a product is required to be kept at a particular temperature, make sure to place it accordingly.

Rearrange the warehouse with time!

No doubt the process is really time-consuming, but good management is all about investing the right resources at the right time for optimum future results.

Right?

So do not hesitate to rearrange your warehouse according to the need of time.

As there could be some products that are at high demand during summers and during winters no one wants them.

Once the put-away and storage are done to your product, you start getting orders and therefore the process of order picking starts.

3. Order picking

As the name itself signifies its meaning, the process involves picking up the goods as per customers’ demand.

It is found that this process involves the highest percentage of all warehouse operational expenses, comprising 55% of it.

The process of order picking involves selecting the item from the warehouse to satisfy all the independent customer orders.

Therefore, it is recommended for you to follow a smart technical way to analyze the process.

Choosing the right order pick up system involves the requirements of your product by customers.

Since the requirement of every product is different, it is not necessary that one plan will work for all.

So, here are some of its types!

1. Zone picking- In this method, the inventory is divided into zones and the order picker will only work for one specific zone.

The process of zone picking works best for businesses with high order volumes and multiple daily ships.

The process may take more days for shipping as products are passed around in the warehouse.

2. Batch picking- A picking process that mostly works well for any business, that follows the motive to fast order fulfillment.

In this process, instead of working for a particular zone.

The team works for the orders to pick them up in batch and move for the packaging process.

The process is considered best for businesses with high order volume and has a common SKU.

3. Discrete picking or single picking- In this process, the team works for one order at a time, the team will only move to the next order when the first order is entirely complete.

This is usually done by small businesses, businesses with a small team or business working for heavy goods.

4. Wave picking- It is similar to discrete or single picking process, the only difference is, in this process orders from all the zones are picked and orders are then sorted as per requirement.

So these are all the picking techniques, you can choose or follow any of them.

But don’t forget to move to the next, till you find the best!

4. Packing the product

Once the product is picked, packing is to be done for further shipment.

All you need to be definite about is, you are shipping the right product to the right customer and of course with the right packaging.

Packing is much more than just tossing your products in a carton.

You have to be sure about the box size in which the product is to be shipped, packaging material and have to make sure if the product is not damaged.

Don’t miss to check!

Before moving to the package, make sure to check the product once with the order slip.

Once you are sure about the product, move ahead with a light packaging so that the weight of packaging does not add more to the shipping of the product.

And also make sure that the packaging of the product supports its efficient transportation.

5. Shipping

Shipping is the final and one of the most important steps of this process. Once the product is packed, it is now ready to be shipped to your customers.

Reports depict that 63% of customers buy more items if the delivery takes minimum time and has the option of free delivery.

Therefore, this process needs more tracking as you have to make sure that the right product goes to every customer without creating any hassle.

Successful shipping of products confirms that your process of warehouse management is right!

Make a right decision

There are different ways to adapt a warehouse management system and choosing the best one increases your chance of right management.

Let’s have a closer look.

1. Standalone warehouse: This management process involves managing the functions to the warehouse with some advanced functionality.

The functions that standalone warehouse manages are management of warehouse inventory, date tracking expiration, Recordkeeping, Inventory analysis and Directs putaway, order picking, and packing slip support.

It is interesting to note that it can be integrated with other systems and can be used.

Remember, if you have a small business this is an option to make a move!

The standalone warehouse system will take you ahead of traditional and manual systems without a high financial expenditure, unlike the supply chain and ERP.

2. Supply chain: The process helps in the coordination and integration of different supply chain processes.

To understand it better we can say that in this process all the manufacturers, material providers, transportation providers, distribution centers and retailers work together.

As communication and collaboration may become difficult when many companies work together, with the process of supply chain management, this is not a problem.

The process helps warehouses to integrate with suppliers, carriers and retailers.

If you are an e-commerce company or a company working with a large volume of orders from a different party. This process can be right for you.

3. Enterprise resource planning: ESP can be understood as an important system to manage everything in your business.

This system helps you in integrating your warehouse systems with many different tools and systems.

Like accounting and finance tools, human resources systems, point-of-sale systems or order managing systems, project management systems, and compliance systems.

Any business can go for ERP but is considered to be an expensive method as it could take a high budget to hire a consultant to hire with ERP procurement or sometimes a large IT team to manage it.

Using the right software for warehouse management!

The best way to manage a warehouse is by using good warehouse management software which will not only reduce the cost of your back office work but will also help you to automate and digitize all your work.

And yes, all the high growing retailers use one or the other automation tools. So if you want to be one, let’s find the right tool for you.

With warehouse management software you can make your work convenient and the workflow systematic, It can help you in many ways like;

1. Control and track- With a warehouse management system software, it will be much easier to control and track the transfer and storage of your product in the warehouse.

With the software, you can scan and keep a note of all your products and inventory.

So, no paperwork and the data of your warehouse will be on your fingertips!

And you can anytime analyze data of goods shipment, payment, etc.

2. Reduce risk- While working on your warehouse manually there are high chances of errors. The WMS software helps you work with minimal errors.

You can now trust technology!

3. Make your own plan – The warehouse management system software provides you a chance to create your own optimized process.

You can create a process that not only suits your business but also suits your product storage in the best way.

4. Branding – A quick and accurate delivery of products will help you in improving your relationship with customers.

This will help you to build up a good image of your brand.

5. Provides security – As we know, all the information traditionally was stored in hard copies with a high probability of loss in data but now you can easily deplete the paperwork and secure your information.

Also with the software, every employee will have a different identity to work with and make transitions, increasing accountability and decreasing the risk of theft.

6. Reduce operational expenses- With software, it is easier to manage all the processes in one go.

You can easily manage the process of warehouse management system i.e. receiving, putting away, picking, packaging and shipping from one common point.

It will also help you in understanding your product and its storage reducing the damage of certain perishable goods.

Even in the case of non-perishable goods, you will have an idea of the efficient use of space and labor for them.

7. Optimizing customer service- A good customer bond is all you need to grow your business, and right warehouse management software understands that.

It optimizes the delivery process right from the product order to shipping by accurately finding the item availability and exact delivery dates.

8. Better ERP, better you- The right software will help you to enhance the enterprise resource planning, making your outgoing shipment accurate and reducing chances of return.

So if you are looking for the right software with all the above features, eVanik is here for you.

Are “Inventory management and warehouse management systems” the same?

Whenever we talk about warehouse management, the term inventory management comes along.

But are they both the same?

The functions of inventory management and warehouse are somewhat similar, as both of them help in tracking parts and products, picking, packing, shipping and receiving the order.

But critical analysis helps in understanding the major difference in both of them.

We can say that inventory management is an initial step in the warehouse management system.

For example- If you want to know about the location of any product, the warehouse management system will help you to know the exact location.

However, the inventory management system will reflect that the product is somewhere in the warehouse.

Another way to understand the difference is that the warehouse system consists of multiple compartments and rows for a particular product providing the entire detail of it.

On the other hand inventory management can only provide information on how much is present here.

A final look over!

The warehouse management system supports managing the processes of the warehouse, starting from receiving the product to delivery.

A right system ensures less damage and high profit for your business, all you need to do is follow a smart management process in every step.

The system gives you convenience and provides your customer’s satisfaction. Moreover, you can always keep track of the work done and improvise accordingly.

Since change is what makes you better, a good WMS software will help you to understand and create a strategy to be better, actually to be the best.

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Why you Should Sell on Flipkart?

Seamless and free listing feature

Payment only after making a sale

Access to a larger customer base

Larger Product Niches

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15 Effective Inventory Management Techniques

15 Inventory Management Techniques for your business

1) FIFO ( First in First Out) Method

2) Minimum Order Quantity ( MOQ)

3) ABC Analysis

Category A

Category B

Category C

4) Safety Stock Inventory

5) Centralize your Inventory

6)Batch Tracking

7) Dropshipping

8)Managing Relationships

9)Contingency Planning

10)Regular Inventory Audit

11)Set par levels

12)Prepare for different Seasonality

13)Tracking your sales

14) Accurate Forecasting

15) Lean manufacturing system

Conclusion

20 Reasons to use Order and inventory management systems

What is inventory management in E-commerce?

What is the Order Management system?

1) Speed up pick and pack process

2)Helps to keep an eye on the inventory

3)For effective business practices

4)To delight customer experience

5)To eliminate Deadstock

6)For more directed Investment

7)To improve the ability to meet market demands

8)For improving marketing results

9)Helps to lower your stress

10)reduce the time required for inventory control.

11)For proper planning and Forecasting

12)To improve the delivery

13)To ship packed products with integrated partners

14)To ensure the efficient changes to the Market

15) To Unleash your best fulfillment strategy

16) Update pricing strategy based on competition analysis

17) To Automate your most straightforward tasks

18) Increased customer satisfaction

19) Pick a Customized System

20) For Warehouse Integration

Conclusion

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1. Shiprocket: