Maximize Your Shopify Inventory Management Skills - Discover 8+ Inventory Reports!
To maintain a stable operating ecommerce business, you have to keep track of Shopify product inventory. Without tools that help you manage and analyze inventory management, you’re risking losing customers due to out-of-stock issues and wasting money on dead stock storage. These are just a few problems that inventory management reports can solve.
If you run a store powered by Shopify, some Shopify inventory management capabilities are already included, but they don’t give you much flexibility. For better Shopify inventory management reporting, you can use a tool like Mipler reports that will give you insights into different aspects of inventory management.
Before we dive into the different types of Shopify inventory management reports you can create, let’s see how exactly you will benefit from them.
Regularly created inventory reports help you achieve the following:
Shopify advanced inventory data will visualize in numbers how many different products are selling fast and how many are moving slow, risking overburdening you with dead stock expenses.
You can cross-reference this inventory management data to your marketing campaigns to understand when they helped certain items be sold more actively. Plus, you can rethink how to promote less popular products and adjust your prices or sales techniques before those items become unsellable.
30% of consumers claim that out-of-stock events hurt their shopping experience, and the same percentage tends to switch stores in case of a stock shortage. With this being one of the biggest inventory tracking Shopify ecommerce can experience, inventory movement and low-stock reports will help you overcome it.
Your Shopify inventory planner can be improved based on forecasting. If you have enough sales data for analyzing purchasing trends and inventory history, you can predict when to restock specific products in the inventory in Shopify.
Unless you’re running a dropshipping business, you’re paying for acquiring inventory from suppliers, storing it at warehouses, maintaining and repairing it if needed, and sending it out for delivery. Inventory reports will alert you if some products are kept too long without getting sold, calculate your total cost on dead stock inventory in Shopify, etc.
There’s no universal answer to how many inventory parameters you should track and what types of reports you need to prioritize for Shopify manage inventory sucessfully. But some reports will be helpful regardless of your business objectives and other nuances of the inventory on Shopify platform.
An inventory on-hand report will show you how many items you have available. More specifically, it can include parameters such as:
Use case: Say you’re planning to launch an occasion-related promotion, and you expect a spike in demand for certain items. Going through an on-hand stock report, and making the Shopify track inventory, will help you assess if you need to order more of the promoted products. On the contrary, the report can help you spot that you have a lot of certain items left, and you can think of new ways to promote them.
Shopify inventory history reports show you stock data within a certain time range. The metrics included in historical data might be the following:
Use case: You can view inventory data by week, month, or another period and cross-reference it with your marketing and advertising campaigns. This will help you see what impact your promotion efforts have on stock turnover and cost.
If you have warehouses across different locations, it’s critical to track them separately and adjust inventory levels based on location-driven demand. For instance, you might want to distribute your inventory closer to existing and potential customers as fast deliveries are not only appreciated by consumers but are often a deciding factor.
Location-specific inventory reports will help you understand how many products are kept at different warehouses, as well as what products are moving fast and slow depending on location. This, in turn, will help you avoid stockouts and improve your replenishment plans.
Use case: If you see that one location has a significantly higher inventory turnover than the other, it might signal you to focus on better-performing locations and plan logistics in a way that it gets closer to customers.
An inventory value report will identify the best- and worst-selling products, their cost and retail value. It can also highlight SKU profitability dynamics based on margin rate, inventory turnover ratio, and other parameters.
Such reports can be cross-referenced with ABC analysis or location data to measure inventory value by location or with regard to ABC groups.
Use case: You’ll need this report to assess the overall business operation and prepare financial statements at the end of a given period. When you know how much it costs for you to store and maintain your stock and how much you can earn on it, you can understand which products are the most beneficial and which ones you should stop selling.
The goal of such reports is to predict customer demands based on existing purchasing trends, your inventory history, and sales dynamics. Other factors like seasonality might also be included in the forecast.
Live example of Inventory Forecasting report for ShopifyArmed with a Shopify inventory planner with forecasting, you can:
Use case: In case of a major sales event like Black Friday, a forecasting report will give you product popularity estimates to keep up with the shopping trends but not end up with excessive dead inventory.
Having a separate report on items that are low in stock allows you to take action in time. Even if your Shopify inventory planner has accurate forecasting, there still might be unpredictable sales spikes.
Based on what you set as a minimum stock level for each product or product variant, the low-stock report will show you items that fall below that level. This information will help you restock on time and adjust your plans in general.
Use case: Say you’re selling products that people use regularly. If you don’t react to low-stock levels, you might lose your loyal customers who are looking for the same product every month or a couple of months.
Dead stock reports show you those items that haven’t been sold in a given time period. The metrics you will see usually include the following:
Use case: Based on how much dead stock costs you, you can decide how to put it to better use: for instance, offer more expensive products as a free gift with an order and bundle less expensive ones with fast-selling goods.
ABC analysis is meant to give you an understanding of how different products contribute to your revenue. Based on profitability, your stock is divided into A, B, and C groups, where A is responsible for 70% of your sales, B for 25%, and C for 5%.
ABC analysis can be used as an independent classification method or together with XYZ analysis. When combining ABC+XYZ, you get a more accurate breakdown of products in terms of both sales and demand stability.
Number of products in each ABC group vs revenue per group:
It’s generally recommended to treat these product groups differently, both in marketing and inventory management strategies. With an ABC-based report, you can easily visualize what products are the most valuable to you and how many of them are in stock, have to be restocked soon, etc.
Use case: Knowing what products are in your A group, you can try negotiating better terms with suppliers to make the sales margin even higher. Or, if you see that your C group contains some items that are unreasonably expensive to order and store, you might want to change the suppliers or abandon those items.
Additionally, you can use our Shopify vs. Google Sheets integration to automatically export products (variants) with available stock quantity, velocity or any other columns to Google Sheets in near real-time.
With the help of Shopify inventory apps or other solutions, you can set the metrics you want to track and get regular reports automatically generated for you. You can analyze yearly and monthly inventory reports, as well as get daily snapshots for detailed assessment.
The Mipler reporting app provides you with plenty of customization opportunities so that you can adjust what types of inventory reports you need and what parameters to include in each one.
To track inventory on Shopify, start by logging into your Shopify account and navigating to the "Products" section.
From there, select the product you want to track and click on "Edit." Scroll down to the "Inventory" section and enable the "Track quantity" option. Enter the quantity of the product you have in stock, and Shopify will automatically update it as sales are made. You can also set up low stock alerts to receive notifications when inventory levels are running low.
Within the Shopify platform, the concept of inventory refers to the range of products accessible for sale within an e-commerce store's inventory. It encompasses more than just the quantity of each item but also incorporates distinguishing characteristics like specific codes, variations, and pricing structures.
Effectively managing inventory on Shopify involves actively monitoring stock levels, promptly adjusting product quantities following sales, and implementing alerts to signal low stock levels. Additionally, Shopify equips merchants with features to efficiently categorize and structure their inventory, fostering smoother business operations and improved customer satisfaction.
Mipler stands out as a top choice for Shopify inventory reporting. Its features and functionality make it a preferred option among Shopify users seeking comprehensive inventory management solutions. With Mipler, merchants can efficiently generate detailed reports on their inventory status, aiding in strategic decision-making and optimizing operations. Its user-friendly interface and robust analytics contribute to its reputation as a reliable tool for inventory tracking within the Shopify ecosystem.
Shopify seamlessly keeps tabs on the inventory of items showcased in your digital storefront. Utilizing its integrated inventory monitoring system, Shopify continuously oversees the quantities of products, promptly adjusting them with each transaction. This capability not only keeps sellers well-informed regarding stock levels but also guarantees the precision of product availability showcased to potential buyers. Furthermore, Shopify provides an array of customizable features and options to tailor inventory tracking methods, ensuring efficient management of stock. Ultimately, Shopify's prowess in inventory tracking streamlines operations for sellers, granting them the bandwidth to allocate resources towards other facets of their enterprise.
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