Shopify Inventory Management App for DTC Brands

Shopify Inventory App Basics

Inventory App Selection

There are boatloads of Shopify inventory management apps out there, so which one is right for your business? This may depend on some of the above criteria and will also depend on the type of business, how large your SKU count is, and your current warehouse setup. While many of the same core elements can be found in most systems there are some apps that are very simple (for a single part of inventory management) and others that are a full warehouse management system. The decision for which inventory management app to pick is of course also impacted by the price of an app. The best system will provide enough efficiency gain to justify the cost while increasing overall ROI through those efficiencies. We'll discuss ROI calculation later in this article.

Feature Exploration

When looking for a Shopify inventory management app it's very possible to get overwhelmed with features. There are lot's of features that may not add many benefits to your store, especially if you have a 'simple' product and control your fulfillment in-house. Keeping a streamlined system that uses automation to reduce choice makes it easier to realize efficiency gains. What you'll generally find in older systems, or 'tier 1' inventory apps is they can handle nearly every possible scenario and the data forms to do that is bulky to incorporate.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Given the extra help provided through an inventory management app, it should easily outweigh the cost of the system over X months. In the example below we are evaluating a software that costs $199/month/employee with a $14,500 setup and implementation fee. This software is expected to produce 25% more productive employees. So with 4 employees, each month I could expect to get the value of an additional employee, at least, with the implementation of the system. As you can see the cost-benefit of a Shopify inventory management app based on the level of efficiency is gained becomes quite compelling in a relatively few months.

Inventory App Benefits

The real benefits of running a Shopify inventory app come down to what you are having your people doing. As you can see in the table above, it's all about efficiency though there are other factors like reduction in the cost of printing, etc. that may also factor in. With the implementation of a new inventory management app, oftentimes the benefits go beyond your initial estimate, unlocking new capabilities within the warehouse. Here are some other unforeseen benefits that happen during the implementation of a Shopify inventory management app.

Consolidated Software

You might have one system handling orders, another system doing shipping labels, and yet another maintaining purchasing. Most modern inventory management apps will enable you to combine these and other software into one.

On-Task Effectiveness

In other words, the way your employees are consistently tasked to keep things on track. If you are printing and transferring and having to go back in to do double work, it isn't the most effective way to do that. You may find that the automated actions (undirected work) coming from the inventory management app or WMS are actually making things go much smoother than you expected.

High Stock Turnover, Lower Dead Stock

An inventory system makes it clear to see which items are turning over fast, and which are not. Likewise, from this data, you can see which products are sitting for long periods of time (increasing your average inventory carrying cost per sq. foot.). Part of this can benefit from better merchandising, and part of it can be helped through the use of purchase planning tools within more inventory management systems.

Mobile Pick Lists - Less Printing

One of the most underrated benefits of a modern mobile Shopify inventory management app is the ability to create batches of digital pick lists. Keeping the information within a phone becomes a massive advantage over printing out 20-30 orders at once with traditional systems (think ShipStation style). Using a mobile pick list enables you clear benefits for finding products, evaluating quantities picked, information on the product etc.

Best Shopify Inventory Management App

For many people reading this article, we're anticipating that you have a storefront with items that span across (most likely) apparel & fashion, jewelry, health/wellness/supplements, or food & beverage with a few other closely related in sporting goods or consumer goods. For your store, you are probably looking for something that will take you from a single Shopify <> ShipStation connection all the way through to needing a tier 1 fully automated packaging and shipping label setup. Our choice may be biased though it is not inaccurate that we've built the best Shopify inventory management app.