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Grexpro Admin 27th June 2023

Fashion retail is a glamorous business, yet it is full of unprecedented challenges and lucrative opportunities. That means apparel and footwear businesses always have to be on their toes to seek new solutions for focusing on the bottom line and figuring out ways you can make things run more efficiently. One of the easiest ways and areas that need attention in the fashion domain is warehouse management. The new solutions help companies track inventory and supply chain and capitalize on new opportunities in the fashion market.

When everything is running smoothly, all eyes are on eking additional efficiency by putting profits out of sight for a short time. For instance, when retailers focused on optimizing their supply chains, squeezing more out of the interconnected networks and using leaner inventory management strategies. However, the scenario changed completely after the pandemic outbreak. Fashion and footwear businesses were more focused on digitizing their entire bottom line as this was the only way they could have survived the COVID-19 wave. In fact, statistics suggest that as more brands and retailers moved to the online marketplace, the demand for warehouse management systems grew exponentially. According to The Business Research Company, increasing demand from eCommerce companies for larger warehouses with better tracking and forecasting is expected to drive the warehouse management system market. The rising eCommerce trends across industries require enterprises to constantly track all equipment and forecast inventory to meet demand and maintain large cargo movement. Therefore, in the modern-digitized world, apparel and footwear companies need software that measures operations and productivity using insightful information to track products and conduct other business functions effectively.

Primarily, warehouse inventory management systems only delivered vital functions, including the storage location information. However, WMS’s functionality has improved from basic best practices in grab, load, and ship features to sophisticated programs facilitating improved interactions with material-handling devices and yard maintenance. Organizations focused on long-term growth strategies need to transform their initiatives to drive success digitally. Investments in technology enable companies to improve processes and automate operations for productivity and efficiency gains. A good WMS provides real-time inventory visibility for manufacturers and distributors and creates new efficiencies within inbound, warehousing, manufacturing, and outbound processes throughout a warehouse or plant. Let us now explore the benefits of using WMS in the business model and understand why many brands are moving towards incorporating these solutions.

Here are the advantages WMS offers to the fashion and footwear industry: 

• Improving Receiving and Quality of Control 

The primary goal of the WMS is to reduce the steps in a process or inventory. The WMS optimizes inventory receiving during inbound processes and enables cross-docking, creating picks, receiving and staging inventory to ship out the delivery. These processes can be performed quickly without putting the inventory into overstock or pick locations within the warehouse. Cross-docking can help move products more quickly based on sales orders and reduce overall handling and movement of inventory.

Besides, many warehouses help businesses put inventory in the right location as it enters the warehouse. It is a pivotal feature that helps bring additional efficiencies to allow forward pick locations to be topped up during the receiving process. The warehouse management system empowers the visibility of products while ensuring maintenance of optimal stock levels and mobilizing crucial warehouse operations like picking, cycle counting and reordering for multiple warehouses at all times.

• Enhancing Inventory Control, Accuracy, and Movement of Inventory 

The advanced WMS can improve inventory control and accuracy within warehouse processes and make inventory movement more efficient and productive. The tool allows brands to facilitate inventory control and accuracy to give businesses exact information on ongoing measurements of inventory accuracy and reduce stock shrinkage and shutdowns. They help companies to improve operational efficiency within the warehouse and reduce deadheading.

• Managing Order Types and Meets Customer’s Compliance Requirements 

The consumer purchasing pattern has shifted drastically, enabling businesses to strive for new channels to support customer needs, making them omnichannel. Therefore, it is critical for businesses to succeed using outbound processes managed within the WMS to make the business model highly flexible and configurable. Multiple order types are managed within the modern solution to optimize the picking processes for the specific order type. Modern tools can efficiently pick orders directly from eCommerce, various touchpoints, and even traditional wholesale stores. For instance, if a huge collection of new shoes is already in the order, the WMS may suggest picking the oldest product rather than from latest item. Likewise, customer compliance requirements can be generated through the WMS.

Closing Comments-  

As shortages and disruptions become the norm in the new world of eCommerce and brick-and-mortar sales, fashion brands and retailers are looking to technology and innovative strategies to keep up. Moreover, changing consumer preferences puts pressure on footwear and clothing companies to automate their processes to let buyers get the satisfaction that would otherwise be impossible with human-directed work alone. The new warehouse management systems are not only ways to automate various processes but also to meet surging omnichannel demands. The cloud warehouse management system by CloudGrexPro helps brands meet these surging demands and allow customers to have higher satisfaction. Leveraging our modern WMS technology can help fashion and luxury businesses keep their operations agile, efficient and scaling.

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