Stock management is one of the crucial aspects of any business and water delivery services are no different. Even though water does not have an expiry date, we all know water quality certainly deteriorates and there is health concern about storing water in plastic bottles. This makes stock management for water delivery businesses even more important.
This blog will explore the challenges you might face managing stock without implementing water delivery software, its impacts, and how we can help.
Table of content
What is stock management in water delivery businesses?
Stock management refers to planning, tracking, and replenishing the goods to fulfill customers’ demands. In the water delivery business, stock management doesn’t limit itself to water management but also the plastic bottles in which the water is delivered. It includes managing and tracking the available filled and empty water bottles and bottles with customers.
What are the challenges faced in manual stock management?
Manual stock management is time-consuming and needs to be revised, leading to delayed deliveries and customer dissatisfaction. You might have excess or insufficient stock if you have inaccurate stock reports. Major challenges faced in manual stock management are:
Limited stock visibility
Human errors in manual stock management can result in skipping entries, becoming unaware of the available stock, and purchasing more. Inaccurate stock reports can result in selling out newly stocked products, leaving the old stock. This can lead to wastage and business loss. Manual stock management needs more visibility, leading to stockouts, delaying deliveries, and impacting customer experience.
Inefficient inventory process
Manual stock updation is prone to human errors, leading to misinformation about available stock. It requires hiring manpower for manual stock management, increasing administrative costs. Manual stock management is time-consuming, resulting in delayed deliveries and dissatisfied customers.
Keeping up with overstocking
Inaccurate stock reports make keeping the count of available stock difficult. This can lead to excess stock with a higher chance of wastage. Insufficient stock can lead to delayed deliveries and customer dissatisfaction.
Losing empty water bottles
Managing empty water bottles manually is difficult without precise stock reports and tracking. Empty water bottles with your customers can be easily lost if they are collected and tracked with precision. This can lead to financial losses.
Why is managing stocks in water delivery businesses crucial?
Efficient stock management ensures optimal stock, preventing stockouts and overstocking and fulfilling customers’ demands on time. The major challenges faced in stock management without water delivery software are:
Self-life management
As discussed above, water may not expire; the stored water quality does deteriorate. Also, keeping water in plastic bottles for longer periods can raise health concerns. These factors make adopting a first-in, first-out strategy crucial, which is difficult without efficient stock management.
Supply chain optimization
Inaccurate stock reports can disrupt the water supply chain, leading to delayed order deliveries and dissatisfied customers. It is difficult to manage and track water bottles efficiently without losing empty bottles and incurring losses.
Demand forecasting
Demand forecasting refers to predicting the stock required to fulfill future customer demand. Manual stock management is not only ineffective for forecasting demand, but it is also prone to errors in current stock levels.
High operational cost
Errors in stock counting can lead to stockouts or overstocking. Stockouts can lead to overselling, losing the opportunity to sell to customers, and facing losses. Overstocking can increase the costs of holding stocks, increasing the operational costs.
Customer dissatisfaction
Errors in stock management lead to delayed orders. Unable to provide accurate and on-time orders can leave customers dissatisfied, increasing the customer churn rate.
How can Water Delivery Solutions help in stock management?
Water Delivery Solutions is an integrated platform that automates and optimizes your entire business operations. It is a water delivery management software that comprises three platforms: the admin panel, the customer app, and the delivery driver app. These platforms work together to improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. The features of ‘Water Delivery Solutions’ help you manage your water bottle stocks are:
Stock reports
The system automatically generates stock reports that provide information including available filled and empty water bottles and empty water bottles with your customers. The stock report is auto-updated based on the order received and delivered to the customers. The system also generates a separate report for how many empty water bottles are with your customers and how many are returned.
Stock alerts
You can set threshold stock levels. When the level hits the threshold level, the system sends low-stock alerts. You can replenish the stock and avoid stockouts and overstocking. The low stock alerts ensure you have the optimal stock amount to fulfill customers’ demands.
Set pricing for bottles
You can set pricing for the bottles. The amount set gets auto-refunded once the bottle is returned. This enables you to cover up financial losses due to lost empty bottles.
Purchase order
You can create purchase orders for low-stock products from the system itself. You can then send the purchase order via email to your vendor or take its printout to make the purchase.
Conclusion
Implementing water delivery software is a strategic move as it not only improves your business efficiency but also helps you save costs. Improved efficiency and reduced operational costs add to profits and increased return on investment. Book a demo to see ‘Water Delivery Solutions’ in action and how it can help you improve business efficiency and productivity.
He loves to explore. His passion for helping delivery industries in all aspects flows through in the vision he has. In addition to providing smart solution to make delivery process flawless, Ravi also likes to write sometimes to make it easier for people from business industry looking for digital solutions.
