Disclaimer: Please note this article is not financial advice. The purpose of our blog is purely educational, so please consult a professional accountant or financial advisor before making any financial decision.
Dear ecommerce business owner, how is your inventory management going? We hope you are doing well. But if you're reading this article, you're probably having trouble with it.
Perhaps you're having difficulty tracking your inventory. In your search for the number one software that can help you out, you must have stumbled upon Dear Systems.
Well, you're in luck because Dear is a great inventory tool that’s popular among ecommerce businesses. But what makes it so great? What features set it apart from the competition?
This article will discuss how this tool works and the features that can help you with your ecommerce management tasks.
The Basics of Dear Inventory Systems
If it’s your first time hearing about Dear Inventory, we’ll briefly discuss the basics first. Dear Inventory is a cloud management software that helps businesses track, control, and manage their inventory. The software also integrates with accounting processes and various ecommerce platforms.
How Does Dear Inventory Work?
Dear Inventory requires a very simple process. All you need to do is sign up for an account and go through the management settings, all the way from establishing financial basics to adding your suppliers and customers.
How to use Dear Inventory? Once you’ve set up an account, you can start using Dear for managing stocks, purchases, sales, production, manufacturing, accounting, and third-party integrations.
Can Dear Systems process payroll? As of now, its wide array of features does not include payroll.
Dear Systems' Features and How It Helps Ecommerce Businesses
As a business relying on sales from various ecommerce platforms, you need an inventory solution that makes management easier. Dear Inventory might be the long-term fix you are looking for!
Below are the notable features of Dear Inventory that can help you with ecommerce management.
Integration: All in One Place
Let's kick-start this list with one of the top advantages of Dear Inventory: integration. It combines accounting processes, ecommerce platforms, popular marketplaces, and shipping carriers.
These platforms include Shopify, Quickbooks Online, Shipstation, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, and other Dear apps. In addition, you can customize how each channel works with the Dear system (for example, specific tax rules or capturing unique data).
From One Industry to Another
What you make and sell doesn't matter—Dear Inventory is versatile, catering to a wide range of businesses.
Examples include ecommerce, food manufacturing, health and supplements, brewing, and lighting businesses. But since ecommerce is our focus, we'll highlight the features that make it fit for this industry.
Automated Fulfillment: Pick, Pack, Ship, Repeat
We understand how complicated the fulfillment system can get with ecommerce. The pick, pack, and ship procedures differ per channel, but with Dear's automated feature, you can finish all processes through a centralized platform!
Moreover, you can easily monitor inventory from multiple warehouses located in different states, cities, and countries. This feature is perfect for ecommerce businesses looking to simplify and organize their day-to-day fulfillment tasks and expand in the future.
Seamless Catalog Management
One of the struggles of ecommerce businesses is keeping track of their inventory or product catalog. Things can easily get out of sync, especially when using multiple sales channels. But with Dear Inventory's features, you can certainly avoid this problem.
Say goodbye to complex and high volumes of product listings. You can now update product information, publish it on every sales channel, and sync your existing catalog without breaking a sweat.
Real-Time Transaction Synchronization
One of an ecommerce seller's biggest fears is running out of stock. You can lose a valuable customer for life because of this oversight, so you have to constantly update your inventory.
Fortunately, one of the features of Dear Inventory is real-time inventory tracking and synchronization. It will constantly update all your transactions from various sales channels, point-of-sale systems, and marketplaces, keeping them accurate. Consequently, you won't ever lose track of your stock.
The World at the Palm of Your Hands: Built-In Currency Conversion
Get rid of your manual tracking spreadsheets. If your ecommerce business handles transactions in multiple currencies, it can be tough to manage them. In this case, what you need is a piece of inventory software capable of handling complex data.
With Dear Inventory's built-in currency conversion tool, you can easily manage multicurrency transactions and focus on profitability.
A Few Limitations to Note
Despite all of these amazing features, Dear Inventory is no perfect software. It needs some more improvement in a few areas. Thus, you need to consider the limitations to set your expectations right and leverage this tool to your advantage.
- Dear Inventory doesn't integrate with Power Bi, a Microsoft business data software most ecommerce owners want to use with this inventory tool.
- Its system is not so user-friendly. However, once you get the hang of it, things will run smoothly from there.
- Integrating certain platforms can be time-consuming and tricky.
Overall, Dear is a game-changer in the ecommerce accounting scene. It offers the best integration solutions and makes ecommerce processes easier and more organized than ever.
It Takes Two to Handle Your Ecommerce Inventory
Dear software is an excellent tool, but you can't rely on it to get all the work done. You must also learn good inventory management practices to minimize mistakes, avoid discrepancies, and maximize the benefits.
Here are eight quick tips we can share with you.
- Perform regular checkups and maintenance on your inventory tracking systems to ensure a smooth and error-free workflow.
- Be mindful of inventory shrinkage to avoid overselling or order cancellations.
- Monitor market prices and adjust your inventory costs accordingly to make your pricing more dynamic.
- Try implementing a barcoding system to save money and time managing your inventory. Labeling your products with a barcode also makes them easy to locate and organize. If you decide to try the Dear Systems mobile app, use their wireless barcode scanning function.
- Optimize your warehouse spaces, technologies, and operations for an organized and accurate inventory.
- Think of inventory management not only as a basic task in your business but also as an ecommerce strategy. Learn how to do it and think about how you can use the process to accomplish a business goal.
- Review past purchases and use them as a guide in predicting and preparing future stock.
- Conduct checkpoints in your shipping workflows to prevent or troubleshoot any possible issues ASAP.
Unloop: Bookkeeping and Accounting Service for Inventory Businesses
Dear Inventory is a great tool to keep track of your inventory and avoid stock nightmares and workflow discrepancies. Moreover, you can set up almost everything you need to manage your ecommerce business, from product listing synchronization to multichannel integration. And when you need data for reconciliation or strategic analysis, everything is accessible, accurate, and up-to-date.
However, that's not all you need to survive in ecommerce. You’ll also need seamless bookkeeping and accounting because it goes hand in hand with inventory management.
Don't worry if you're unsure how to handle all of these; Unloop is here to help! We work with ecommerce businesses and help them clean and complete their books accurately. Our bookkeeping package offers some of the best accounting software to integrate with Dear Inventory, such as Quickbooks, Amazon, and Shopify.
Contact us today and find out more about what we can do to help you!