Usually, entrepreneurs don't see a big difference between inventory and warehouse management software, but they are subtly different. This article will help you to grasp a wide diversity of those two types of systems and realize which one is better as a business project or as an assistant for your existent company.
What Is The Main Difference Between Inventory and Warehouse Management Software
Inventory management software
Basically, inventory management software systems make control of inventory and stock levels and are primarily used with managing assets through a simple barcode-based system. In their turn warehouse management systems additionally provide you with information on product location at the moment and help to monitor the activity. It is strategically important to choose the right management software that will meet your demands in the best way. So let's take a closer look at those two types of management software.
By using inventory management systems, you can minimize the number of mistakes you would make when managing inventory manually. They give you information on the quantity of products you have in stock at the particular storehouse. Accordingly, they help you to cut expenses, reduce the number of unnecessary goods in storage, and provide more accurate fulfillment. Such a system automatically gathers data, takes calculations, and creates records. It does not only save your time and money but also gives you a possibility to optimize the use of warehouse space by analyzing such data. So inventory system enables you to track where and how long products are stocked and which suppliers they come from.
One of the best known and powerful inventory management solutions that has a global base of customers which continues to grow is Veeqo. It enables web store owners to control and manage their stock from one dashboard. The provider makes it possible for its clients to sync their inventory in a real-time between marketplaces and shopping platforms and forget about overselling.
Warehouse management software
Warehouse management systems are in general more comprehensive than inventory ones. They help to track and manage items from receiving to shipping and give you complete control of your inventory from storage location and movement around the warehouse. In order to provide you with information on the flow of products, such systems use barcode scanners, wireless LANs, and mobile computers. According to this workers receive actual information on the item location and reduce the number of errors, thus increasing the efficiency of picking, packing and shipping.
An example of strong and reliable warehouse management system is PathGuide. With 25 years of experience, it has become a robust solution that many companies have found as a true expert in warehouse practices. The system gives you a possibility of absolute control of inventory from storage location and movement around the warehouse to order fulfillment and replenishment. It enables you to get access to real-time data in order to operate and regulate the operations in progress. PathGuide also provides customers with overall reports that are necessary for business planning>
Inventory vs Warehouse: Conclusion
The reason for why those systems seem similar is because in some cases they are. They two are substantial parts of business management. They both can help clients to supervise product levels, track goods, and products through barcodes. They also improve the efficiency of picking, packing, and shipping of the items as well as make those processes simpler. Thanks to offered benefits it is easy to receive orders based on existing inventory.
Shopping cart integration for Warehouse and Inventory software
According to what has been already mentioned, it is obvious that the bulk of clients for such types of management software is composed of e-Commerce in particular. As e-retailers use different shopping carts, the problem of collaboration with them in order to retrieve all needed information (orders, products, customers, etc.) appears to the software providers. Accordingly, inventory and warehouse systems are looking for opportunities to integrate with different shopping platforms and, ideally, to cooperate with all of them at once. But it is not as easy as it seems because the process of integration even with one shopping cart is complex and needs much time and money to be done.
With a firm intention to boost their business and save money, system providers start surfing the web in search of the right solution, and eventually some of them do find one and somebody don’t. One of the reliable services that can help providers in this case is API2Cart. It gives an opportunity to get access to the database of 40+ shopping carts at the same time. The service is integrated with such favorite and widely used by merchants shopping carts as WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, X-Cart, OpenCart and other top platforms.
If you would like to find out more information about integration with shopping carts via API2Cart, schedule a FREE сonsultation with our representative and discuss the details.
