Did you know that 67.4% of supply chain managers use Excel spreadsheets as a management tool? Since inventory management is the backbone of an efficient eCommerce business, ensuring a perfect balance between demand and supply is important. Excel is easily accessible for anyone starting a new business, especially for new eCommerce users who can easily track their limited number of products. But what happens when your eCommerce store starts growing, and your needs change? At that point, Excel may not provide enough flexibility and feature diversity to ensure success in the inventory management game. Let’s discuss how to keep track of inventory on Excel, whether Excel is the right tool for you, and more.

How to Set Up and Track Inventory on Excel?

Let’s start with a brief guidance. If you're new to the eCommerce world, you can set up your Excel inventory and start using it for many tasks.

1️⃣ Create Your Inventory List

Initiating your inventory management system in Excel begins with the basics: setting up a spreadsheet dedicated to tracking your stock. Each column should represent a key piece of data: product name, SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), current stock levels, reorder points, and supplier information. This structure not only organizes your inventory but also streamlines the process of monitoring and ordering stock.

📌 Are you looking for a free Excel spreadsheet for your inventory? Click here for our ready-to-use inventory management Excel spreadsheet template.

2️⃣ Utilize Inventory Formulas for Efficiency

One way to manage inventory effectively is by knowing and being able to apply inventory formulas correctly. For inventory management, you need calculations and results of formulas such as average inventory, Reorder Point Formula, Inventory Turnover Ratio, Gross Margin Return on Investment, Inventory Sell-through Rate, and ABC Analysis. ****With Excel’s conditional formatting, you can apply formulas, get alerts, and follow stock levels that require immediate attention.

For more detailed and successful inventory management, you can use the advanced features of Excel.

3️⃣ Make Inventory Analysis and Use Reports

Excel’s pivot tables and charts offer robust analysis and reporting capabilities for businesses seeking more profound insights into their inventory management. They help you gather and analyze your data differently, explaining how sales change over time when demand increases or decreases and how quickly you sell your inventory.

4️⃣ Automation Techniques

You can use Excel's macros to automate repetitive tasks, making things faster. However, Excel has its limits. For example, while it has Data Validation to help prevent mistakes by only allowing certain types of data, it can't handle complex automation like some other software can.

We revealed what you can achieve with Excel spreadsheets when managing your eCommerce store’s inventory. But will Excel's inventory management capabilities be enough for your eCommerce inventory needs? What limitations might you encounter when using Excel?

Excel's Drawbacks in Inventory Management

Even though Excel is a widely accessible and very well-known tool, it inevitably presents some drawbacks when it comes to comprehensive inventory management.

🤯 Complexity

As businesses grow, their inventory management needs become more complex. Imagine trying to track the inventory of many products with a wide variety using Excel. Wouldn't it be challenging? Excel's manual data entry and lack of real-time update capabilities can lead to a waste of time, data errors, and, ultimately, significant challenges in scaling operations.

🫣 Error-prone Structure

The manual nature of inventory management in Excel significantly increases the risk of human error. From incorrect data entry to oversight in updating stock levels, these errors both affect the efficiency of operations and customer satisfaction negatively.

😑 Challenging Stock Tracking

A critical limitation that often goes unaddressed is Excel's inability to provide real-time visibility into stock levels, leading to out of stock. Out of stock issues result in lost sales and damage customer trust and brand reputation. The lack of an integrated system to alert when stock is low or to predict stock needs based on historical data means businesses are often reactive rather than proactive in their inventory management.

Do you want to manage your inventory effectively without facing these challenges and errors? It’s all possible with Fabrikatör!

Why is Fabrikatör Better Than Excel When Managing Inventory?

Because Fabrikatör is designed specifically for your eCommerce business inventory needs, unlike Excel! When Excel no longer meets the needs of your store, some common phrases you may hear are:

• "This process is too time-consuming." 😣
• "I'm having trouble keeping track of everything!" 🤯
• "Our reports are not accurate." 🙁
• "Integration with other tools is a challenge." 😬
• "Our customers are not happy with delays." 😞
• "We need a better solution!” 🚀😊

When you hear similar sentences, the first thing to do is not to ignore them. ⚠️ The second is to choose an effective and useful inventory management software that suits your business needs and start using it immediately. And this app is none other than Fabrikatör! Why? Let's explore together why Fabrikatör is more effective than Excel.

🔹 Efficient Restocking

Unlike Excel's manual process, Fabrikatör's automated replenishment saves time and reduces stock-out risks. 🕒 Besides, you can set low stock alerts in Fabrikatör to stay notified when inventory drops, preventing stock-outs that Excel's manual process can't handle. ⚠️

🔹 Purchase Order Management

With Fabrikatör, you can create purchase orders in seconds and share them with your suppliers. You can create and track purchase orders easily with Fabrikatör. It offers automation and control Excel can't match. 📦

🔹 Advanced Analytics

Fabrikatör's analytics provide insights into sales and inventory trends beyond Excel's capabilities. Fabrikatör offers customized reports with hundreds of dimensions, delivering insights quickly—something Excel struggles to match.  📊

🔹Backorders

With Fabrikatör’s backorders, you can continue selling even when temporarily out of stock. By accepting backorders, you can turn stock shortages into revenue opportunities, avoiding lost profits experienced with Excel.

🔹Demand Forecasting

One key feature of Fabrikatör is sales forecasting, which is not possible to do with Excel alone. Fabrikatör uses advanced algorithms to predict market trends and customer demand, helping businesses minimize out of stock situations, maintain balanced stock levels, and prepare for demand fluctuations. These benefits are not achievable with Excel's basic capabilities.

Unlock Your eCommerce Store's Potential with Fabrikatör!

While Excel serves as a solid foundation for inventory management for many startups and small businesses, it's important to recognize its limitations, especially as your business grows. Understanding when and how to transition to a more sophisticated inventory management system like Fabrikatör can save your business from stockouts, inefficiencies, and scalability challenges.

Would you like to eliminate the hassles of Excel and easily transition to Fabrikatör? In addition to its countless benefits, Fabrikatör is highly praised, with a 5/5 rating on the Shopify app store. 🎉 Make seamless transition to Fabrikatör, streamline your tasks, and boost your productivity immediately! ⭐

Give Fabrikatör a try now and book a demo for delving into every detail together! 🚀

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