From many deep conversations with our retail customers, we understood that inventory tracking is plagued by critical challenges. Increasing storage costs, inventory shrinkage, workforce shortages, and failing omnichannel strategies – the list goes on. Outdated practices are the bedrock of inefficiencies. But why are they not modernizing inventory tracking?
There is a common notion that modern digital solutions are expensive and time-consuming. Change management is another major challenge keeping them away from technology. Low-code development helps retailers effortlessly transform their operations and deliver exceptional customer experiences. When done right, the benefits of low-code solutions can outweigh the cost. In this blog, we will dive deeper into inventory tracking with low-code solutions.
Challenges with traditional inventory tracking systems
Inventory shrinkage
Did you ever find that your actual inventory is less than the recorded? You are not alone. Inventory shrinkage is a common challenge. The National Retail Federation estimated that the retail industry was losing more than $112 billion due to shrinkage. The reasons, you ask? Inventory shrinkage happens for more than one reason, including product damages, thefts, clerical errors, counting errors, etc.
Legacy inventory tracking applications heavily rely on human intervention and provide poor integration with technology solutions that would help control shrinkage. For example, you cannot integrate a legacy tracking app with RFID, geo-fencing, or a computer vision solution to monitor the movement of goods and people in and around your warehouse. Most legacy applications do not offer barcode scanning or OCR capabilities. Manual data entry is highly prone to clerical errors.
Lead time disruptions
Most retailers guess the lead time based on vendor location and shipping duration. But remember, while planning inventory, you should also consider how consumer behavior and demand will play out during a season. Not to mention, supply chain disruptions occur for a variety of reasons you have no control over. Could anyone guess a pandemic would hit the world and bring the entire supply chain network to a grinding halt? Or did you foresee the Suez Canal blockage?
While legacy systems offer limited visibility into inventory movements and vendor timelines, modern tools provide tracking accuracy to support operational efficiency. You should be prepared with strategies to meet consumer demand with optimal inventory levels. You should make conservative bets on cost-effective offshore suppliers and expensive yet highly responsive local vendors. Unfortunately, legacy systems do not support this decision-making process as it requires huge data and advanced analytics.
The inventory dilemma
All the challenges we discussed above together lead you to a constant state of dilemma – whether you should overstock to meet customer demands or understock to maintain lower carrying costs and boost profitability. The truth is that neither helps your business growth.
You should maintain optimal inventory levels to increase profitability and meet customer expectations, which further drives revenue growth. But, here is the catch. How can you determine the optimal level? Again, it’s data – not just your current inventory levels, but also your customer data, supply chain data, and historic seasonal trends. If your inventory tracking system falls out of sync, it will disrupt the entire ecosystem, and you can never solve the dilemma.
How a low-code inventory tracking application helps
Let’s discuss your options – you can buy a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution or build a tailored solution in-house. The problem with COTS solutions is their one-size-fits-all approach might not fit your needs. Your business needs are unique, and you need a tailored solution. Then, should you go with traditional development or low-code/no-code? If it were a decade ago, full-code development would be the clear winner. But as we enter 2025, low-code development entered the mainstream and became the top choice for enterprises, including the Fortune 500.
Low-code development is faster, easier to implement, maintain, highly customizable, and cost-effective. Let’s dive into the key capabilities you can have in an inventory tracking application with low-code development.
Digital checklists
You deal with a ton of checklists, such as stock receiving, replenishing, returns processing, cycle counting, etc. In traditional practices, retailers use paper-based checklists to perform these critical tasks. However, the manual processes are highly inefficient. The latency in data transition from the warehouse to the back office can open doors to erroneous, inaccurate, or obsolete tracking data.
You can address these challenges using low-code/no-code-based digital checklists. Using the visual approach, you can quickly create or customize checklists, assign them to warehouse staff, and track the status in real-time.
Discover how we helped Landmark Group, a leading retail company from the Middle East, transform its retail operations with digital checklists on Proceso.
Get a free copy of the success story.
Data extraction
Low-code inventory tracking solutions support barcode scanning and optical character recognition to automate data extraction. These capabilities serve as a highly accurate alternative for manual data collection and eliminate the scope for data entry errors. You can also leverage AI/ML models to infuse natural language processing capabilities into the low-code application to automate data extraction from unstructured sources, such as emails, images, handwritten documents, etc.
LOB integrations
Low-code/no-code platforms allow you to tightly integrate your applications with existing line-of-business applications, such as ERP, CRM, document hub, etc. This integration ensures inventory data flows seamlessly across systems, creating a unified view and eliminating silos. Your frontline staff can access essential documents and checklists through the solution without switching between applications or waiting for help.
Process automation
With Proceso, you can automate inventory tracking workflows, reducing manual intervention and improving efficiency at every step of the process. Faster and efficient processes lead to improved customer lead times and enhanced throughput.
Computer Vision
Proceso allows you to integrate computer vision solutions to monitor inventory movement, detect safety incidents, or identify empty shelves in real time. These capabilities ensure accurate tracking, reduced losses, and better efficiency.
Scalability
You can create low-code applications on the cloud for great scalability and flexibility. Cloud-native solutions can facilitate more complex workflows and effortlessly handle the influx of data.
Want to build your inventory tracking application with low code?
Proceso enables you to create a best-in-class inventory tracking application using low-code development. The cloud-native, highly scalable platform helps streamline tracking through seamless integrations and cutting-edge capabilities.
Talk to our experts and explore how Proceso can redefine your retail operations.
Get in touch with us