Do you want to instantly know the amount of inventory you have and where it is stored? Maybe you've been in the unenviable position of products being out-of-stock, with back orders piling up.
When your inventory management is done well then order fulfillment goes smoothly. But you can't achieve this if you're using antiquated methods like managing inventory using spreadsheets or closing down your operations for a stock count.
Here is where inventory plugins come in!
Inventory plugins are automated inventory management systems that help you track and keep accurate count of your inventory and allow you to see your stock situation in real-time. They help you manage all your stock from one place, especially if you have multiple storage locations or warehouses.
They also keep track of sales order and help you see which products are selling well, which products are not, and how you can take that as an opportunity to promote products that are lagging behind.
On top of that, inventory plugins allow you to make the right decision because they help you see the relationship between stock and sales. For example if one item is selling more than the other, is it because it is popular or is it because you have a lot of it in stock compared to another item?
On CodeCanyon you will find hundreds of inventory plugins for WooCommerce and WordPress. In this article we'll look at some of the best plugins in this category.
There are different kinds of inventory management plugins:
- Comprehensive software stack systems that bring together business functions point of sell, invoicing, CRM, and inventory management.
- Standalone inventory systems that can be integrated with your online store, sales and shipping systems that you currently use.
Bestselling Inventory Plugins for WooCommerce and WordPress
With a low-cost, one-time payment, you can purchase any of these high-quality inventory plugins for WooCommerce and WordPress and streamline how you manage your inventory.
Best WooCommerce Stock Inventory Plugins
These plugins are addons that will assist with your stock and inventory management.
1. Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce
Suppliers usually keep their inventory on a regularly updated file that you can sync to update your stock. With Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce, you can synchronize your stock quantities from an external CSV file, Google Spreadsheet, Google Drive, Dropbox or FTP. You can also synchronize your product prices by simply updating your product prices from the same CSV file.
Other features:
- multi-vendor support
- daily, twice daily or hourly updates
- compatible with variation products
2. Trending: WooCommerce Attribute Stock – Share Stock Between Products
Let's say you sell tea in packages of 25mg, 50mg, and 100mg. Or Metropolitan opera tickets priced according to seating sections in the theatre. Either way you want buyers on the website to be able to see how many of each kind are remaining. The WooCommerce Attribute Stock plugin allows you to manage stock based on product attributes.
Products that share more than one attribute are tracked and available quantities are displayed on the front-end to prevent overpurchasing. You can you to easily track and manage: shared stock, variable stock, linked stock, product addons, product combos, parts, measurements, ingredients, and more!
From the admin page you can manage attribute stock items by setting SKUs, internal notes, low stock threshholds, product filters and more. You will receive alerts when stocks with particular attributes are running low or are finished. You can also keep track of your attribute stock with WooCommerce stock reports.
It is compatible with 99% of other plugins, such as variation swatches, POS systems, subscriptions, product bundles, cart stock reducer, WP-Lister, WPML, and more.
3. WooCommerce Quickbooks Connector
WooCommerce Quickbooks Connector automatically syncs your WooCommerce store orders, customers, inventory, products, payments, and bank deposits to QuickBooks Online. It offers real-time two way syncing. Any updates you make on your QuickBooks Online automatically reflect on your WooCommerce store and vice versa.
4. WooCommerce Product Stock Manager
WooCommerce Product Stock Manager allows you to manage stock for products and their variables from one screen. On the admin interface you can add products by product name and ID, status, weight, SKU, title, and much more. You can also search product by name within the same page, even edit and update information.
You can manage the product sale price of all products in the same window. You can also do bulk edits and updates for variation products. Variations will include attributes like SKU, sale price, regular trice, stock status and more. There is color labeling of low and full stock.
5. Trending: WooCommerce Multi Locations Inventory Management
Do you ship products to customers from multiple warehouses? Does your business sell from multiple store locations? WooCommerce Multi Locations Inventory Management is the perfect plugin to manage your product stock from multiple locations.
The plugin automatically:
- detects the nearest product location
- shows availability and pricing of products based on the location of a product
- allows visitors to choose their preferred location based street address.
Other features of this system include:
- supports multiple locations for simple as well as variable product type
- adds each location’s inventory to your default WooCommerce inventory
- assigns a delivery area for location with WooCommerce shipping zone
- visitors can see selected warehouse location on checkout and cart page
It is compatible with WooCommerce Shipping Pro for UPS and WooCommerce Shipping Pro for FedEx. The system integrates with Google Maps, and third party inventory tools with WooCommerce Rest API
6. Product Alerts for WooCommerce
You need a system to notify you when your stock levels are running low. It should be able to do so by sending low stock alerts via email, SMS, or notifications on your dashboard.
Using Product Alerts for WooCommerce, admin can enable or disable this alert for individual products, set the low stock quantity, set the message subject, heading and types of message you would like to receive: HTML, Plain Text or Multipart.
7. WooCommerce Out of Stock! Manager
WooCommerce Out of Stock! Manager is a powerful and flexible tool that lets the store admin assign custom low stock values to a set of products and/or categories. You can set custom levels for each product. An email is sent to the store admin, if one or more of the items have reached a configured custom warning level.
You can also customize each product page to show texts like "in stock" "out of stock", "above custom stock level" or "under custom stock level".
8. Point of Sale Barcode Inventory Plugin for WooCommerce
With this plugin you can manage inventory directly by scanning product barcodes. The plugin only works with Webkul’s POS System for WooCommerce. Hence the POS System for WooCommerce is required, to make use of this plugin.
POS Barcode Inventory Management for WooCommerce has the following main features:
- assign inventory to the products directly
- search product through a barcode scanner
- assign master stock to the product
- assign product stock to the outlet
9. Advanced Product Stock Status For WooCommerce
Advanced Product Stock Status For WooCommerce let users to know exact stock status names in product details page based on colors. It does so by assigning different colors to different levels of stock for each WooCommerce product or globally.
You can create custom stock status message with color, show status in shop page or single product page and also show variations stock status in a table view.
Free Inventory Plugins for WooCommerce and WordPress
WooCommerce Stock Manager
WooCommerce Stock Manager allows you manage stock for products and their variables from one screen. You can set up products by SKU, display product thumbnail image, filter products by: type, category, stock manage or stock status. You can also manabe stock, stock status, and back orders.
WP Inventory Manager
WP Inventory Manager allows you to manager products, equipment, spare parts, art and more. It is perfect for car dealers, art collectors, parts dealers, or others. The paid version of this plugin allows you to use paid addons.
Z Inventory Manager–Inventory Tracking and Management Plugin
Z Inventory Manager is intuitive, easy to use online inventory management and tracking plugin for WordPress that your sales, purchase orders, shipments, receipts and more. With this plugin you can manage your inventory and check stock levels in real-time online. You can act on low inventory and generate purchase orders to fill your stock, then keep track as your items arrive with purchase receipts. Reports allow you to monitor all your inventory at a glance and focus on specific items.
WooCommerce POS Inventory Count
WooCommerce POS Inventory Count allows you do a physical inventory count for WooCommerce by scanning QR codes and importing and update counted quantities from inventory scanner.
Importance of Inventory Management
Inventory done right means happy customers which translates to return customers.
Inventory management means planning, forecasting, and being aware of different seasons of the year because some products perform better in particular seasons. It also means if the products are left over at the end of the season, instead of letting them fill up space, you can offer them at a discounted price in the next season to get rid of them, and open up space for newer products.
Inventory Management Best Practices
Choosing the right inventory management plugin is only one aspect of inventory management.
When inventory management is not done right, some problems you will come across include:
- overstock
- out of stock
- back orders
- no idea what location a product is housed
- mis-picks
- mis-shipment
- defective products shipped
Let's look at some inventory management best practices that will help you avoid these problems.
Proper Training of Inventory Staff
Nearly every aspect of your business is dependent on a proper inventory count. When inventory shows an item is available and this turns out to be wrong, it puts sales people in the uncomfortable position of explaining to customers why they sold something that wasn't available. Train your staff on how to managing inventory and how to use the in-house inventory management system.
Investing in Counting Cycles
How many inventory counts do you want to have each year? Do you want to have a continuous or periodic count? Categorize what products to give priority each count? Do you want to order yearly or periodically?
Connect Your Inventory System to Your Sales System
Every item that is sold should be automatically deducted from the inventory so you can see what your true stock levels are. Yes, you'll still need to count your stock when the time comes in order to smooth out discrepancies.
Understand Your Best Customers
What your best customers buy can often be a reflection of a market trend and you can promote it to customers that fit a similar profile. Knowing what they want helps you have it in stock. Don't disappoint your return customers!
Prioritize Quality Control
Do your products meet quality standards that customers expect? Defects in products mean loss of sales as a result of returns and customer dissatisfaction. This is where quality control comes in.
- Implement a system for detecting defective products. Look out for defects such as tears, breakages, leakages, color discrepancies, or faulty descriptions on labels.
- Count damaged or defective products separately. Many defective products indicate poor storage conditions, bad quality control by manufacturers, or flawed transportation process. Of course, return damaged goods to manufacturers for a refund or replacement.
- Storage conditions can also affect the quality of your products. Think about what storage conditions are ideal for your inventory. Consider the effect that light, heat, or humidity can have on your products.,
Take Advantage of Surplus Stock
Surplus stock creates an opportunity for sales and promotions. This can be a source of easy money. Donate what you can't sell and get a tax write-off instead of dumping it.
What Should You Look For in an Inventory Management Plugin?
Here are some things you should consider when choosing an inventory management system:
Compatibility and Customization
In addition to being able to customize it to specific needs of your company, an inventory system should be compatibility with your existing software and hardware.
Variants and Composite Products
Same products can come in different colors, or alternate feature sets. The system must be capable of accommodating variants. And if you want to create a new product packages by combining existing products then the system should accommodate composite products.
Scalability
An inventory management system should be capable of growing and expanding with your business. Looking for a new system years down the road will cause unwanted distraction.
Offline Access and Synchronization
An inventory management system should allow you to access your files both online or offline, so you can provide uninterrupted service to your customers. It should also be capable of offline to online synchronization so you don't need to worry about losing any information.
Mobile Access
You may need to be able to manage your inventory anytime anywhere from your smartphone or tablet, even create purchase orders automatically from your mobile.
Integration with Third Party Services
Compatibility with other plugins including third party services like payment gateways, marketing gateways, etc should be a no-brainer.
Security, Technical Support, Regular Updates
The safety of your customers' personal and financial information should be a high priority.
Manage Your Inventory With an Inventory Plugin from CodeCanyon!
Streamline your inventory management using inventory management plugins from CodeCanyon.
Choosing the right plugins vastly simplifies how you run your business. The following selected posts will guide to the right plugins.
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