Inventory changes constantly. Throughout each day, sales, returns, new receipts – even damage and theft – affect your inventory levels. While daunting, effective inventory management and inventory control are the most important jobs in a successful retail or wholesale business.

Effectively managing inventory gets harder as your business scales and the amount of inventory you’re handling increases. Taking advantage of technology can make things easier for yourself and your employees. This is why an inventory management system is invaluable to any retail business.

Inventory management refers to the process by which you track the amount of product you have on your warehouse shelf, in-store, or sitting with other retailers and distributors. This enables you to succeed in having the right number of units in the right place, at the right time, and for the right price.

When effectively tracking and controlling your physical inventory, you’ll know how many of each item you have, when you might be running low on products, and whether you should replenish that item in order to keep selling it.