Looking for better insights into your sell-through rate, automatic stock level updates across sales channels, and to carry out fewer stock takes?
Enter, inventory management software.
When you first start your retail business, you might not feel like you need a software for inventory management. But get it anyway, as a gift to your future scaled-up business. Getting in at the start is a lot easier than adding it later on, and you’ll be saving yourself both time and money down the line.
Here are seven of the best retail inventory management software to consider, including the best options for small businesses. They’re in no particular order — retail is a broad sector, and each of these platforms has its own USP, and target audience.
💡 Best for: Retailers and brands working directly with manufacturers, or making their own products
💸 Starts from: Free plan, then $19/month
There are plenty of inventory management software options available when it comes to purely managing the stock that you sell across different platforms.
But the founders of Inventora realised that, when it comes to making and selling your own products, there wasn’t really a solution out there that could keep track of your raw materials as well as what you’re selling, and analyse the relationship between the two. And this is what Inventora is designed to be great at, and it’s affordable, too.
Inventora is a relatively new solution but is committed to taking on board customer feedback, and acting on it. Customers also praise the ability to easily distinguish between wholesale and retail orders, something we know will be music to the ears of the CREOATE community.
If you’re pre-revenue, you can use Inventora for free on the ‘Hobby’ plan, and thereafter the Business plan costs just $19/month.
💡 Best for: Very small or new retailers
💸 Starts from: Free plan, then $29/month
Sortly bills itself as ‘The Simplest Inventory System, Ever’, and — aside from a few bugs here and there — this goal seems to be reflected in their customers’ experiences.
Sortly was specifically designed to be a much more visual way to track the price, location, condition etc of each product in your inventory. The app is accessible via smartphones, tablets and laptops for added ease, and the platform is very well-reviewed on the whole.
The platform is touted as one of the best retail software for small businesses, as really small businesses can even use Sortly for free for up to 100 entries. After that plans start at $29/month (billed annually) or $49/month (billed monthly).
💡 Best for: Established retail stores (or chains)
💸 Starts from: $69/month (billed annually) or $79/month (billed monthly)
Lightspeed is a powerful and popular inventory management system, and one you’re likely to already have heard of if you’ve done a little research.
Lightspeed may be a little pricier than many of the other platforms on this list (and keep in mind every transaction will incur a fee of 2.6% + $0.10), but each account also gets a dedicated account manager, and one-to-one setup. You can also lower the price by agreeing to a longer contract, but many people report this is difficult to then cancel.
💡 Best for: Ecommerce businesses with a large number of SKUs
💸 Starts from: $39/month (billed annually)
SellerChamp scores over 4 stars on every review site we checked, including those based on customer reviews alone, which is a pretty rare achievement for a software.
But what makes SellerChamp so great? One thing that stood out to us was the number of people who mention how fast SellerChamp makes listing products across platforms like eBay. ‘
SellerChamp = speedy listings’, wrote one customer. ‘I own over 50,000 collectible vintage books, and work alone, so having a way to list 100-125 books in a day with SellerChamp as opposed to listing only 20 a day previously will make a huge difference in my future sales.’
SellerChamp has one-click integrations with all the major B2C marketplaces, including eBay, Etsy and Amazon, as well as major ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.
For online retailer businesses with a high number of SKUs — for example, those selling vintage items — SellerChamp is worth considering as a way to really speed up the time-consuming listing process.
💡 Best for: Multichannel or multi location retailers
💸 Starts from: Unclear
Rain is a software which also scores 4 stars or more across every review site we’ve come across (again, including those that are based purely on customer reviews). Nice work, Rain!
We know from speaking with many independent retailers that getting your inventory management system to work across all your channels can be a real pain. Rain, it seems, makes this relatively painless, automating processes which may not be automatic for you right now. It’s ideal for multichannel or multi location retailers.
It also works well for managing the sale of experiences or services, too, something several customers mention in their reviews. All in all, one worth considering for your brick and mortar retail store(s).
But, there are a couple of downsides to Rain — the first being that it’s only available in the US and Canada, the second being they’re reluctant to show pricing on their website (which in our experience is rarely a good sign when it comes to price point!).
💡 Best for: Multi-country retailers
💸 Starts from: Free version, then £49+/month
Zoho Inventory is an award-winning inventory management software that has a strong feature set for companies shipping inventory to multiple countries worldwide. The platform is highly customisable, coming with tools for warehouse management, stock-keeping, expiration monitoring and purchase order management.
The platform is straightforward and user-friendly, and is easy to navigate for beginners. However, Zoho Inventory is a standalone software, so it will require integration with other management platforms in most cases.
Zoho Inventory has a free option for users with limited inventory needs including 20 online and 20 offline orders a month, 20 shipping labels a month, and three e-commerce integrations. The full paid version begins at £49 per month for up to 10 users, 100 online orders (unlimited offline orders), and two warehouses. Depending on their business needs, brands can select the Zoho Inventory plan that works best for them.
💡 Best for: Multi-channel small businesses looking for an affordable inventory management solution
💸 Starts from: Free!
Veeqo offers a fully automated all-in-one software solution, which allows you to manage your shipping, inventory, and warehouse in one place. The easy-to-navigate platform contains sales in a centralised location for easy tracking and management of stock and sales.
Some of Veeqo's key features include its barcode scanner that helps speed up order processing. It also offers shipping management and has integrated with major couriers like FedEx and DHL.
Veeqo, and all of its features, are 100% free! They're able to provide cost-free services due to them benefitting from shipping volume passed to our partner shipping carriers. As a result, sellers have access to unlimited seller and orders as well as no shipping label limits.
👋 Looking to fill your retail store with independent brands, or start selling wholesale to independent retail stores? Take a look at CREOATE
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