Stock Control Archives – unicommerce.com

The Challenges of Multichannel Inventory Management and How Can D2C Brands Overcome Them in 2023

Team Unicommerce — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 07:56:56 +0000

Today, there are a lot of new technologies that are bringing about a paradigm shift in the way retailers are able to sell their products. To catch more eyeballs, retailers are trying to tap their customers on every available sales channel. The increased demand has resulted in the rise of many start-up brands moving their business from just selling on marketplaces to a mix of marketplaces and D2C websites.

But managing a vast inventory and several SKUs across multiple sales channels makes it challenging for retailers to thrive in this cut-throat competitive market. The answer is to embrace advanced technologies to get ahead in the market, here is when a robust inventory management system comes in handy.

Challenge #1: Limited or Poor Inventory Visibility

Many retailers struggle with the problem of limited or poor inventory visibility across multiple sales channels. Therefore, it becomes increasingly challenging for them to manage, control, and optimize business operations, leading to delayed shipments and lost sales.

You can simplify multichannel selling with a real-time inventory management system. The features offered by these systems not only enhance stock visibility but also reduce inventory loss. For example, with the Item-level traceability feature, businesses have the ability to track each item of every product throughout the life cycle.

Read: How Multi-Brand Car Service Company Attained 9X Sales Growth with Inventory Management operations

Challenge #2: Inefficient Expiry Management

As more retailers try to bring their business across multiple sales channels, the challenge is maintaining operational efficiency across these different channels. With changing demand, it is important to efficiently manage products that get close to expiry. Industries dealing with low-shelf life products like FMCG, Pharma, Beauty & Personal care, etc., need efficient expiry management and rotation methods to minimize the number of expired products piling up on their shelves.

Using FIFO (First In, First Out) and FEFO (First Expire, First Out) based picking and batching helps businesses reduce obsolete inventory by selling items based on the current status of their shelf life. This helps ensure high-quality products to customers, thus increasing their satisfaction.

Read: How can you Minimize Stock Losses for your business by using FIFO & FEFO?

Challenge #3: Manual Inventory Update

To stay ahead of the competition, businesses need to keep their inventory updated across multiple sales channels. Managing huge inventory with manual procedures is prone to more errors and leads to slower order processing. If a brand sells on three sales channels, it needs to track inventory across all three sales channels, manually inputting product information into each platform. This is a time-intensive process.

Updating inventory becomes much easier and more efficient with software. Using inventory management software makes it easy for businesses to monitor huge stocks, therefore, improving order fulfillment and accuracy across multiple channels.

Read: How Hamilton Housewares attained 99% Order Fulfillment Rate?

Challenge #4: Frequent Stockouts

The last thing any e-commerce business wants is to run out of stock when the demand for its product is high. Managing optimum inventory across multiple channels can be a real challenge for your business. To avoid stockouts, it is important to calculate the right amount of product units (SKUs) needed in stock at any given time.

With an automated inventory management system, you can easily eliminate imbalances and errors in stocks. These highly-advanced systems allow retailers to set a minimum limit. If the stock goes below the limit, it automatically adds products to respective vendor panels for processing. The comprehensive reports by inventory management software also provide businesses with data that allow them to know the highest and lowest-selling SKUs and analyze trends over time.

This data can also be leveraged during sales and the festive season to make well-informed strategic decisions. These self-regulating operations prevent unnecessary stockouts and manage seamless sales across multiple channels.

Read: How Unicommerce Empowered Vastramay to Manage their Inventory Seamlessly

Challenge #5: Inventory Discrepancies

Tracking inventory across multiple channels may seem a straightforward task, but since the inventory process is always on the go, it’s not uncommon for inventory to get misplaced, lost, or stolen. This leads to a loss in revenue and harms your business’s bottom line.

With the cycle counting feature, retailers can accurately analyze the physically recorded data and map inventories correctly. Not only does this help identify inventory issues, but it also provides reasons and suitable corrective actions to overcome these challenges.

Read: Why Choose Cycle Count Over Physical Counts?

Key Takeaways!

Businesses with multi-channel inventory management are better equipped to meet the changing demands of customers. Unicommerce’s robust Inventory Management System can help overcome these inventory challenges and streamline the order fulfillment process for your business!

Related read –

Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –

The post The Challenges of Multichannel Inventory Management and How Can D2C Brands Overcome Them in 2023 appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Healthcare Industry in India: Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions

Team Unicommerce — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:54:36 +0000

The Healthcare Industry in India is constantly evolving, and in recent years, it has experienced a significant transformation which is driven by technological advancements and shifts in consumer behavior. This has led to a wave of disruption and created new opportunities for healthcare brands and retailers. Let’s delve into the current scenario in healthcare sector and explore the challenges and opportunities faced by e-commerce healthcare sellers in India.

Healthcare Landscape: The Current Scenario

In today’s healthcare landscape, there are several notable trends and developments that are shaping the industry. One of the key drivers of change is the rapid growth of telemedicine and the widespread use of health and wellness apps. The online space has emerged as a powerful platform, enabling pharma, healthcare, and wellness brands to reach a wider audience across India. Notable players such as Netmeds, Healthkart, 1mg, PharmEasy, and many others have played an important role in this digital revolution.

The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the trend of people prioritizing their health and overall well-being; this led to the popularity of nutraceutical brands like Oziva, Kapiva, Plix, Power Gummies, Fast and Up, and more. According to Invest India, the Indian healthcare market is projected to reach US$ 50 bn by 2030 and is expected to expand further. This means it’s the right time for retailers to capitalize on this opportunity and streamline their operations.

Healthcare Industry in India: The Growth Drivers

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Utilizing RPA in the Indian healthcare industry enhances workforce efficiency, drives cost reduction, and generates a compelling value proposition.
Shifting Disease Burden: The healthcare sector in India is facing a significant burden due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for 50% of the disease burden and 60% of all deaths. However, there are positive developments and initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges and driving growth in the industry.
Policy Support & Incentives: Policy support and incentives play a crucial role in promoting healthcare industry growth. The Indian government has allowed 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in Greenfield and Brownfield projects, while also taking measures to correct unfavorable duty structures. Additionally, a single window clearance e-portal has been introduced to improve ease of doing business.
Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan – Self Reliant India: Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan (Self-Reliant India), a comprehensive package of INR 20 lakh crore has been allocated to promote manufacturing in the country. This initiative aims to strengthen the healthcare industry and support its growth.
Insurance Coverage: Insurance coverage is gradually increasing in India, with 20% of the population currently covered. As incomes rise and urbanization continues, it is expected that more individuals will have access to insurance, further bolstering the healthcare market.
Emergence of Telemedicine: The emergence of telemedicine has been a game-changer, providing convenient and accessible healthcare services. Government initiatives like e-health, combined with tax benefits and incentives, are driving the adoption and growth of telemedicine in India.
Medical Infrastructure: Significant investments are being made in medical infrastructure, with over $200 billion expected to be spent by 2024. This investment will contribute to improving healthcare facilities and expanding access to quality care across the country.

Overall, with the integration of RPA, policy support, increasing insurance coverage, telemedicine advancements, and investments in medical infrastructure, the healthcare industry in India is poised for enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, and a promising value proposition.

However, e-commerce healthcare sellers in India face numerous challenges, particularly in the operational aspects of their business, such as warehouse management, inventory control, and the ability to sell seamlessly on multiple marketplaces. So let’s get started with the warehousing challenges and their solutions in the healthcare industry!

5 Major Warehouse Management Challenges in Healthcare Industry in India

Here are five significant challenges that the healthcare industry faces in terms of managing its warehouse:

1. Ensuring Optimal Stock Control: Inventory Management

Healthcare warehouses often deal with a wide range of products, including medications, medical supplies, equipment, and consumables. Each item has its own unique requirements, and failing to effectively monitor and control inventory can lead to stockouts, excess inventory, expired products, and increased costs. Striking the right balance between stock availability and minimizing excess inventory is crucial to avoid financial losses. Especially for the healthcare industry, where products have expiration dates and strict regulatory requirements, maintaining optimal stock control can be challenging.

Solution: Warehouse managers need to accurately forecast demand, monitor inventory levels, and implement efficient replenishment processes to prevent stockouts or excess inventory. With a well-designed inventory management system, you can effectively manage inventory and meet the demands of this dynamic industry.

2. Preserving Product Integrity: Storage and Temperature Management

The success of healthcare and wellness products heavily relies on their ability to maintain optimal quality throughout their lifecycle. Healthcare products are often sensitive to storage conditions, including temperature and humidity. Some drugs require specific storage conditions, such as refrigeration or controlled room temperature, to maintain their potency and efficacy. Maintaining appropriate storage conditions is essential to preserve product integrity and ensure patient safety.

Solution: Healthcare and wellness companies and distributors should establish robust storage management systems. For example, various products require specific storage conditions, such as room temperature or low-temperature environments. To effectively manage these requirements, a system should be implemented to quickly identify and segregate each batch based on its specific storage needs. The products should be stored in a way that allows for easy identification and access while minimizing the risk of temperature fluctuations.

3. Expiry Management: Ensuring Product Shelf Life

One of the significant challenges faced by healthcare brands is effectively managing product expiry dates. Healthcare products have limited shelf lives due to factors such as stability, potency, and regulatory requirements. Failing to monitor and address product expiry can lead to significant financial losses and potential risks to patient health if expired products are distributed.

Solution: Warehouse managers need to have a robust expiry management system that includes regular monitoring of product expiration dates, proper rotation of stock, and batch tracking for quick identification of expiration dates. Stock rotation methods like first-in, first-out (FIFO) or first-expired, first-out (FEFO) facilitate the timely removal and disposal of expired products. Also, implementing a batch-tracking system enables the association of specific products with their respective batches or lots. This allows for easy identification and traceability of products throughout their lifecycle.

4. Efficient Order Fulfillment: Pick, Pack, and Ship Processes

Accurate and efficient order fulfillment is crucial in healthcare warehouse management to ensure the timely delivery of products. This involves picking the right products from the inventory, packing them securely, and shipping them to the correct destinations. With a wide range of products and varying order volumes, optimizing these processes can be challenging.

Solution: A robust e-commerce order management system can help streamline the picking process by providing real-time visibility into inventory and automating order tracking. Dhani, a digital financial and healthcare services company, successfully tackled a similar issue by adopting a robust Unicommerce system, which helped them achieve an order fulfillment rate of over 99.99%.

5. Tracking Every Product: Traceability and Serialization

To ensure safety, combat damaged products, and comply with regulations, healthcare companies must track every product throughout the supply chain. Traceability involves documenting the movement of healthcare products from the moment they are received as goods until any potential returns, while serialization assigns a unique identification code to each product unit for traceability and authentication.

Solution: Implementing a robust warehouse management system (WMS) using technologies like barcode scanning and item-level traceability for product verification can provide real-time visibility and prevent the dispatch of damaged or expired products. Notable brands like Kapiva, PharmEasy, and Cureka are leveraging technology solutions like Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Order Management Systems (OMS), and others to achieve operational excellence.

Let’s Conquer Healthcare Warehousing Excellence!

The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, presenting new challenges for effective warehousing operations. However, using a robust Warehouse Management System (WMS) solution can help healthcare companies effectively overcome the challenges they face in warehousing operations. These solutions not only provide powerful integrations but also simplifies order processing across multiple marketplaces, paving the way for warehousing excellence!

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