The Negative Impacts of Poor Inventory Accuracy

Herb Billings, Vice President of Product Strategy at Datascan, is back in the studio with host Tyler Kern for another episode of Herb’s Hot Takes. This episode digs into the negative effects organizations can experience when they exhibit poor inventory accuracy.

Every retailer in the world is affected by inventory accuracy, whether it is positive or negative. Retailers that pay close attention to their inventory and conduct accurate counts can attain significant bottom-line benefits.

However, the opposite is also true. There are five clear impacts of poor inventory accuracy – fewer sales, lost customers, increased inventory costs, wasted labor, and lower employee morale.

This is especially true in an age where omnichannel strategies are becoming more critical. Traditionally, retailers would either have an item or not, and they could potentially call another location to verify that an item is in stock for a customer to pick up at the other location.

This manual verification hid the actual inaccuracies that lurk behind the scenes of many retailers – inaccuracies that the omnichannel approach of today is exposing. Retailers can respond to these new challenges, but it takes commitment to inventory accuracy and leveraging data in a more insightful way to make it happen.