The fashion industry is growing at a rapid pace and to keep up with the same they need an inventory management software which is dynamic and scalable to their growth.

Building smooth systems to manage your inventory’s stock can be a challenge and there are a few myths scattering in the huge fashion industry on how it should get done. There are countless myths about inventory management software (IMS) that plague the world of fashion business and may even prevent new businesses from becoming successful.

Let’s crack down some of the common misconceptions and myths about the inventory management software in the fashion industry.

Myth: 1

Warehouse people don’t need to be trained for IMS

Whichever industry you are currently working, training is the initial part that you must complete in order to attain the best results. Likewise for getting the best results from inventory management software its training is the establishment of effective inventory management.

Fashion industries that have successfully implemented inventory management software emphasize the importance of teaching the underlying methodologies before handing out the software.

Myth: 2

Using IMS would endanger the security of a company’s data

Nowadays the challenge for protecting sensitive data has increased exponentially. Hence, fashion designing companies think that using any technology or inventory management software increases the risk of sensitive data (design ideas) being stolen by their competitors or anyone.

However, the inventory management software developers know the importance of data and the concept of data encryption. Data encryption is a relatively easy approach that these software posses for the protection of data, and that is outside the seller’s direct control. 

Myth: 3

Oldschool method of using spreadsheet & paper is better

If you’re just starting out or owning a small business of apparels or clothing without trying to expand it, then excel inventory tracking would surely work excellent for you.

Spreadsheets are recommended when your team who is managing the inventory part is limited to 1 or 2, but if its greater than that, handling a spreadsheet or paper to track inventory makes it laborious for the whole team to collaborate and update the template each time.

Also, the accuracy decreases as members of a team increases while using a spreadsheet for inventory management. Thus having an inventory management software which automatically does every mathematical calculation of stock counts without any human error is something that large business owners must leverage.

Myth: 4

Standardization of data is the responsibility of IMS

IMS is a software developed by humans. You can not expect software to run your whole fashion business unless you are the owner of that software!!.

Moreover, standardization of data is a crucial part for all fashion brands. E-commerce data standardization is requisite in optimizing many fashion business processes, including product info upload, order management,  inventory management and fulfillment, customer relationship management, etc.

Fashion products data is often unoptimized with contradictory inputs and data, from different sources for product codes, brands, manufacturing, models, unique product identifiers. 

So an inventory management software isn’t capable of standardizing all this data across different platforms. Machine learning technology can be of great use in enhancing the software for standardization of inputs and data.

Myth: 5

Sales of current season’s stock would increase using IMS

All those who are in the fashion business understands the value of particular seasons sale (i.e Autumn-Winter (AW) or Spring-Summer (SS)). And the human mind is required rather than an inventory management software for the planning on what type of fashion product would increase sales.

To transcend your competitors IMS would only assist you as a seller to manage the inventory, purchases, shipment process etc. All the other things need to be handled manually,  like:

• What stock to sell in particular season
• How long a trend would last for specific fashion
• Determining the NOSS (never out of season stocks) products

Conclusion

Well, these were a few of the core myths that fashion industries think about using an Inventory Management Software. Many small fashion companies try to get their business underway and then organize the inventory management later down the track. However, inventory management is the fundamental thing that has to there when a business launches.

Misconceptions and myths about inventory management software can cause contradictory impacts on fashion business. With the right tool, your fashion business can remain competitive, profitable and very informed about the trends in the market.

Effective and accurate inventory management software will help you maintain the right quantities of stock, follow trends, calculate the lead time for restocking as well.

Author Bio:

Abhishek is a listener, who speaks less and writes more. Will choose Pizza over anything. Doing non-technical stuff, with a degree in technical field. Has stage fear thus prefers “Stealth-mode” conversation. He is the Content Curator at Orderhive.