The Best Multichannel Inventory Management Software
Find a system for your specific inventory and fulfillment needs, from custom kitting to lot tracking. Whether you’re in eCommerce or wholesale, review software compatible with your sales channels, including brick-and-mortar stores and online marketplaces.
- Simple interface
- iOS and Android apps
- Wide variety of add-ons
- Multi-warehouse inventory visibility
- Native warehousing mobile app
- Automated PO creation
- Provides batch tools through the order manager to track process workflows
- Integrates directly with QuickBooks for easy data migration
- Can handle millions of SKUs for scalability
We assessed multichannel inventory management software for companies from small online retailers to large 3PL providers, focusing on pricing options, scalability, and functions like support for barcode scanning.
- Zoho Inventory: Best for eCommerce
- Extensiv: Best for 3PLs
- Acctivate: Best for Distribution
Zoho Inventory - Best for eCommerce
Zoho Inventory’s master of stock capability helps you maintain accuracy in the high-speed, multi-platform environment of online retail. As the “master” of stock, Zoho Inventory syncs inventory changes from new purchases or sales across platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and your Shopify store. This way, you never have to worry about overselling or running out of products mid-sale, keeping all your stock data current and integrated.
When you first connect Zoho Inventory to each platform, it imports the current inventory level, using the highest recorded count if the item is listed across multiple channels. From then on, Zoho Inventory controls inventory, reducing manual data entry and giving you accurate stock data from the jump.
As the master of stock, the system is also adept at handling unconfirmed items. It flags any products that aren’t a direct match in SKU or name as “unconfirmed.” You can later manually link these mismatches to existing items in Zoho Inventory, which prevents your stores from displaying inaccurate stock info. Overall, this prevents duplicate listings, prompting your team to confirm or map items before Zoho updates inventory counts.
Real-time alerts for new orders help you stay on top of fulfillment, especially for high-priority orders. You’ll receive instant stock updates that can help prevent backorders, which is vital for keeping your customers happy and the sales flow streamlined.
Zoho Inventory is also a scalable pick if you’re just starting out as an eCommerce business. Its free plan covers 50 orders, one warehouse, and one Shopify store. As you grow, you can upgrade to their $29/month plan (billed annually) to support two users and 500 orders.
Read our full review of Zoho Inventory.
Extensiv - Best for 3PLs
Extensiv’s 3PL Warehouse Manager helps third-party logistics providers handle high-volume orders across multiple channels. Its SmartScan tool, in particular, provides barcode-level tracking of every SKU in your warehouse. As your team scans items, the system reflects real-time inventory locations and quantities. This helps you save on time and labor, minimizing the hassle of manual checks.
With tools like bin move and wave picking, SmartScan can help streamline your picking routes. You can pick multiple orders in one go by grouping items in the same area of the warehouse. This way, pickers can fulfill several orders simultaneously, which cuts down on travel time. The bin move capability, meanwhile, makes it easier for your warehouse staff to shift stock from one bin or location to another within the facility. This makes it much simpler to tweak layouts as new inventory arrives or high-demand items need to be within quicker reach.
Additionally, SmartScan lets you schedule routine cycle counts. You can set these on a weekly, monthly, or as-needed basis. Your team can use SmartScan’s barcode scanning to confirm quantities and locations as they move through inventory. This means all counts are logged and auto-updated in the Extensiv system, keeping your inventory data current without disrupting your warehouse workflows.
Find out more on our Extensiv product page.
Acctivate - Best for Distribution
Acctivate helps wholesale distributors manage inventory across a variety of warehouse types. Through its advanced multi-warehouse management tool, you can strategically place inventory closer to different customer regions, reducing costs and shipping times. You can manage stock in several locations:
- Physical warehouses: Track stock in locations like cold storage or regional warehouses.
- Virtual warehouses: Organize segments like quality assurance or in-transit stock, making it easier to manage products awaiting quality checks or going through customs.
- Third-party warehouses: Monitor inventory at fulfillment centers or partner locations.
In addition, Acctivate supports inventory transfers between warehouses. It logs all details, including transfer dates and any associated costs. If demand spikes on one channel, you can simply transfer stock from other locations to prevent fulfillment gaps. Plus, with automated reorder points, you’ll get a notification and a direct purchase order when your stock dips below custom thresholds, so you can avoid stockouts down the line.
Acctivate is useful when seasonal or regional demand spikes, allowing you to respond dynamically to customer orders across all locations and channels. While it’s compatible with barcode scanning, it does not natively support RFID, so a third-party integration may be necessary for RFID-tagged inventory.
Get more details on features and pricing for Acctivate.
What is Multichannel Inventory Management Software?
Multichannel inventory management software, sometimes known as multi-source inventory or multichannel listing software, tracks information about the items that your company builds, buys, stores, or sells across every available sales channel. As a highly specific form of inventory management and distribution software, these eCommerce systems coordinate merchandise sales across digital marketplaces and physical retail locations.
With more businesses relying on multichannel sales, inventory management software is necessary to keep you informed of exactly what merchandise you have on hand and where it is along the supply chain at all times. Further, the inventory control modules of this software will automatically alert you when to re-order stock to avoid unexpected shortages and stay ahead of customer demand. Improve your eCommerce operations with multichannel inventory management software.
Key Features
- Inventory control and auditing: Measure stock levels along the supply chain to reconcile inventory records with actual item stock counts.
- Inventory costing: Establish the cost value of individual inventory items for profitability tracking and tax accounting purposes
- Price management: Change price info or set sophisticated pricing tasks to determine discount eligibility or bulk purchasing rates
- Location tracking: Aids in picking, packing, and shipping of the correct merchandise from warehouse storage to retailers and customers
- Stock count and lot number tracking: Create an up-to-date record of the on-hand units for each product SKU to maintain accurate stock levels, especially for inventory which cannot be easily tracked as individual units
- Barcode, serial number, and RFID tracking: Accurately track items being sold/repaired/built via various means, from microchip and serial number scanning to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers
- Kitting: Pick and package multiple pieces of merchandise to form a complete product set
- Bill of materials: Sometimes called a manufacturing recipe, a BOM lists all material quantities and assemblies needed to manufacture an end product
- Color/size matrix: Track different product combinations available to order by color or size
- Inventory hold management: Reserve existing stock to fulfill customer orders and prevent duplicate orders
- Replenishment thresholds: Automate reorder points to signal when inventory items need to be re-ordered to ensure that out-of-stock situations do not occur
- Multichannel advertising: Build ad campaigns across multiple social media channels and digital marketplace platforms
- Marketplace listing: Advertise and sell merchandise online through digital marketplaces like Amazon and eBay
- Product list management: Control the different posts you make on third-party platforms to ensure uniformity. Upload your entire product catalog with accurate product information, pricing, and shipping details
Benefits
Multichannel inventory management software makes it easier to control your eCommerce and physical inventory:
More Accurate Inventory
The main benefit of multichannel inventory management software is the ability to track merchandise across every sales channel your business uses. The more locations you have, whether physical or digital, the more you need to be completely certain about your inventory numbers. Otherwise, you can leave customers with unfulfilled orders or leave retailers with shortages. Multichannel inventory management solutions are specifically designed to assist with measuring inventory over eCommerce platforms, such as a custom store website or mainstream digital marketplace.
Multichannel inventory management software includes tools to calculate standard conversions, such as yards to meters or pounds to kilograms in order to facilitate easier sales to international buyers. There are also opportunities for user-definable conversions like reducing pallets to cases for greater flexibility in individual item quantity tracking.
Other methods of tracing inventory include catchweight tracking and back order tracking. The first Provides for a means of managing where items are tracked by one unit of measure (for example, packages or cases) but priced on the basis of weight (or another measurement). The second provides the ability to reserve incoming stock to meet the obligations of pending customer orders.
Better Understanding of Warehouse Operations
Multichannel inventory management software measures stock levels as merchandise arrives and leaves warehouses. Using more intelligent inventory movement management can lead to decreased expenses related to warehouse tasks such as picking, packing, kitting, and shipping, not to mention more streamlined operations overall as items move through the warehouse.
Do you know who is buying your product? Do you know when they are most likely to reorder or what specifications they check before purchasing? Your warehouse operations can reveal valuable insight into customer trends, and inventory management systems provide a better understanding of stock movement and inventory items across multiple sales channels. For example, you may identify buying patterns at certain warehouses based on regional buying habits.
Easier Cross-Channel Marketing
Inventory management and multichannel eCommerce software allow online stores to advertise their products and services on various websites and social media outlets. This solution allows for in-depth ad coordination between channels like Amazon, Twitter, Google, and more. Accurate inventory numbers can be used to update ads in real time for special sales and discounts, further driving sales.
Higher customer satisfaction via visibility to on-hand stock levels and improved ability to set delivery expectations can lead to higher reviews across different sales channels. This, in turn, can lead to more sales as more potential customers trust your business based on these testimonial accounts.
Reduced Theft through Better Loss Prevention
Finally, multichannel inventory management systems provide protection from merchandise loss. These real-time updates on inventory improve the visibility of stock counts, minimizing opportunities for theft. Further, records of movement histories along the supply chain make forensic inventory loss analysis easier to conduct.
For instance, imagine a particular warehouse experiencing higher theft rates than another. Analyzing inventory records can reveal if these thefts occur during specific employee shifts. The warehouse manager can then increase their loss prevention measures during those periods. And more accurate stock counts can reveal when merchandise is most likely to be lost, allowing for compensation to prevent loss from occuring again.
Pricing
The cost of multichannel inventory management software will depend on several factors:
- Number of users
- Sales channels used (digital storefront, marketplaces, etc)
- Deployment method
- Number of warehouses and distribution partners
- Level of inventory being tracked
Several inventory solutions are available add-ons for other programs, like enterprise resource management tools and accounting software. Stand-alone multichannel inventory management solution pricing is available for a one-time purchase of a perpetual license or monthly subscription-based plan. Both subscription and on-time payment models may cover implementation and training expenses.
In the world of inventory, there is no one set price for an inventory product. An inventory system for a single eCommerce storefront is not capable of handling the needs of a multichannel company with listings on multiple digital marketplaces and social media channels.
