How to Find the Right

Shopify Inventory Management App

Content Outline

• What is a Shopify inventory management app

• Shopify inventory vs. Shopify inventory app

• Current needs

• Company size

• Feature focus

• Platform selection

• Platforms

What is a Shopify Inventory Management App?

Welcome to a full breakdown of all things related to your selection of a new Shopify inventory management app. The goal here is to present the right inputs for you to have an effective evaluation of the many inventory apps available. Then, you'll have an easy way to pair those needs up with the list of available inventory apps out there. So, how to find the right Shopify inventory management app? Let's first understand what is a Shopify inventory management app and how does that differ from Shopify inventory.

Shopify Inventory vs. Shopify Inventory App

Understanding the difference between Shopify inventory and the various inventory apps in the Shopify app store and beyond is a good starting place. For simplicity's sake, we're going to say the difference is that an app will extend the capability of Shopify's basic inventory management and has the ability to make inventory adjustments depending on the purpose of the app. That said, here are a few overlaps and differences:

If you're thinking there's a lot of overlap, you'd be correct. Many inventory apps replicate some of the same information and actions that can be taken within Shopify admin. This is primarily because a good inventory management app will require this same information to effectively perform actions related to stock movement on that inventory. When you use an app and fulfill an order, that order status gets updated to Shopify, which then reflects on the Shopify admin. The same is true for an inventory app that pulls inventory data, then picks and packs that order. Once an order is fulfilled this inventory level is updated back to Shopify. Where apps come in handy is for their extensibility to Shopify's basic inventory system.

Current Needs

The most important step when looking through your options for Shopify inventory apps is to consider your own needs. A company doing $5m annually is different from a company doing $1m annually which is different from a $50m company. At each stage of growth, different challenges come up that likely add to the requirements of any given system. Some current needs that may arise at various stages include:

• Tracking allocation of inventory to bin locations

• Routing orders to different warehouses or store locations

• Pulling in orders across different sites you're operating

• Automatically placing purchase orders based on order volume and lead time

• Barcode creation and scanning

• Connection with ERP

• Connection to shipping and fulfillment accounts

• Connection with physical hardware for sortation, picking, or packaging automation

• Automated replenishment of bin inventory from holding stock to pick stock

• Storage of inventory based on the expiration date

• Storage of inventory based on the temperature zone of the product

• Managing multiple unit of measurement on products

Each of these elements will demand more from your systems. Coordinating all of this at one point or another will become the primary challenges you face within the 4 walls of your warehouse. As you start evaluating tools, the best approach is to develop your list of requirements and split this into 3 columns: features you must have, features you would like, and features that are a good addition. As you talk with vendors you'll be able to have the vendor check these off during the demo.

Company Size

As was mentioned your company size will have a big impact on what you require within the Shopify inventory management app you require. In the beginning, native inventory features within Shopify will cover your base scenarios. As you get to a volume where managing inventory and shipping orders start to impede each other because one cannot keep up with another, it's probably time to consider something to help out with your fulfillment. Once you start receiving multiple pallets across a variety of SKUs, it becomes a nightmare to manage even with spreadsheets and 1-2 small apps. Then, as a brand matures into thousands of orders per month, it becomes very important to involve a WMS or an ERP. Since most of the large ERP systems either have a connection with, or have agencies who can create this connection, try to utilize their expertise if you already plan to utilize an ERP.

Inventory Management Requirements by Company Size

Inventory Management Feature Focus

When it comes down to it, the features any system provides are really just there to enable an employee to do the job better, faster, and cheaper. If it doesn't accomplish those things, then is the tool really worth it? Here the intention is to make an outline of features that you might be looking for depending on the type of products you offer.

Shopify inventory management with perishable items carries an extra layer of requirements so that it doesn't get sent out if spoiled.

With many SKUs you will deal with bin locations in a more dynamic way than might a company which only has a few SKUs.

Companies who manage their own last-mile delivery have a very different picking style which needs to meet the needs of delivering those orders.

Platform Selection

The time has come to take a look at what characteristics we evaluate when thinking about how to find the right Shopify inventory management app. The Shopify app store is filled with apps that do a small part of this process. There are other apps that may cover the entirety of this process, and yet there are others that are a full EPR and can go way beyond where we think of the traditional inventory management task. By and large, the top-level classification comes down to the breadth of feature coverage divided by the cost of the platform, with the benefits provided added to this to deliver an overall score of the platform. The factors we primarily looked at included:

• Implementation cost and ongoing cost

• Availability across all platforms

• Barcode scanning

• Integrations

• Warehouse management

• Inventory management

• Picking workflow

• Fulfillment Workflow

• Shipping

• Channel availability

• Shopify Connection

Each of the platforms listed below ranks well in one or many of these areas, though some are specifically strong in one category or another. The goal here is to present a variety of options so that you can find the best option given your circumstances.