How Trading Businesses in UAE can benefit from ERP Software?
Trading Enterprises have to deal with warehousing, retail, and wholesale management, along with inventory management. Managing stocks is a crucial part of any trading activity as it is the stock in which a trading enterprise deals. Maintaining the right amount of stocks is very important.
If the company is dealing with perishable items like food items (that come with expiry), a proper warehousing system has to be maintained. Plus, FMCG products are high in demand, hence, a supply chain management system has to be built which can take care of consistent demand, and build an inventory management system which makes sure that each stock which is in demand is available at the warehouse.
Considering the market, usually, the stock is stored in warehouses spread across the geography to deal with the customer demand in time and reduce the loss especially when it comes to the perishable products.
In such scenarios, when the customer demands a particular product, having a reliable inventory management system will help the store manager in spotting the exact location where the particular product is available and rearrangement to get it delivered to the customer. When customers get what they want in the expected form/condition, and the business does not have to suffer a loss for it, your work is done.
Without proper trading ERP software, it becomes hard to track a particular product in real-time and make the environment deliver it to the market or to the customer in a timely manner.
How to conduct profitable inventory management?
If you are a company that caters to the national market you most probably have products stored in multiple where houses spread across the country. The best example of this Is an eCommerce solution where customer from any location in the country ask for a particular product and your job is to deliver it to the customer in time without costing him or you more than the market price.
Robust inventory management systems integrated with your E-Commerce solution will display the customer only those products which are available in the nearby warehouses and which can be delivered in time within the given budget. Those products which are not available in the stock will be displayed as out of stock or out of the sale to the customer.
This becomes possible as inventory management software will update and notify the real-time information to both the customer and the trader. Cloud computing and the availability of real-time data helps here.
The right inventory management software can be integrated with accounting purchase and sales modules to ensure that the stock levels are filled automatically and the products that have high demand never go out of stock.
Must-have Features in any ERP System for the trading industry
Stock Management
As the name suggests stock management keeps a track of stock at warehouses spread across various locations and those which are in transit. Quality and value of the stock are maintained in the software and periodic physical verification of the stock is done to ensure your quality product delivery. The management gets a notification when the stock level of the product goes down.
Supplier Management
Right from maintaining the supplier records, the type of stock they supply, their credit limit, a period of replenishing stock, etc can be tracked by a competent supplier management feature. Here, whenever a stock refilling is needed, the system automatically prepares a purchase order and sends it to the corresponding supplier. Other factors like the due payment to the supplier are also paid attention to and the purchasing manager is informed when the payment date is near. Once the payment is done, even that is recorded.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management is very important when you are a retail trader. This is an important feature where the system keeps track of the customers’ demand, the demand frequency, products ordered frequently, allowed credit limits, preparing and sharing a credit note, etc.
Enquiry/Order Management
Trading ERP software receives and processes customer enquiry and checks the availability of the product in the system. The sales manager or supervisor is notified regarding enquiry and data is shared to them showing the present-day stock levels and its location.
Automated Stock Refill
The system has to make sure that a particular stock level is maintained in the warehouse, especially the stock of fast-moving consumer goods. Reorder quantity is manually set for every product according to which the system sends alerts to the purchasing department.
Budgeting Stock Requirements
Here the system forecasts the stock requirement for every product forthcoming months or years. This is done by analyzing past data and current scenarios. The system keeps a track of stock purchases from the supplier, the time of replenishment, and the frequency of orders to make the forecasts.
Robust inventory management system when integrated with the trading ERP software if deployed in your business organization can give you a bird’s eye view of your business and its status of growth 24/7. Features like real-time updates and cloud management help you to gain maximum from the software and keep track of every activity of the business from anywhere at any time.
