Best Practices for Inventory Management on Walmart Marketplace

Management of your tasks can be daunting and this gets even more challenging when it comes to the company’s inventory management while tending to the needs of your business. Walmart’s inventory management is the best example of it. Its vast product libraries can be truly impossible to tackle. Walmart’s inventory management problems have been difficult to understand forever. Let us dive deep into the concept of Walmart’s inventory management system and also list down some smart ways to handle your Walmart inventory management.

What Inventory Management Software does Walmart use?

In the sea of modern technology where everything can be managed easily by tools and software, a big fish like Walmart is forced to imply a competitive advantage in their work ethics as well. Walmart’s inventory management system is managed by software known as Retail Link. Retail Link is known for its detailed and unique features that facilitate Walmart’s order management system to a relatively professional approach.

Retail Link can be called a Walmart inventory management app because it is a web-based application with tedious functions. This application is loaded with fantastic features that are known to be the requirement for Walmart order management. Retail Link not only has provided real-time sales data but with statistical insights for future predictions and analysis. The management of accounts related to suppliers is handled by Walmart Inventory management. Inventory levels help to recognize the short stock with out-of-stock and much more. On top of that, analytics for future demands also come in handy and is a salient feature of Retail Link for Walmart Inventory Management system.

If you are a supplier or a seller actively taking part in Walmart inventory management, what would be required to complete your order?  The list of the steps will be:

• Managing Orders for several accounts
• Tracking of Shipments for Walmart Order management
• Communication with sellers and suppliers
• Helping out in Walmart distribution centers

All of this significantly contributed to Retail Link aids in managing Walmart order management, Walmart stock management, and supply chain operations.

How does Walmart manage inventory?

With the duo of the latest technology and top-notch supply chain management practices, Walmart Inventory App never fails to manage the inventory with its unique features and complete demands of the users. Suppliers and Sellers both take a competitive advantage with the upfront technology. Some honorable mentions through which Walmart’s inventory management system works are listed as:

• Advanced Inventory Management System
• JIT Inventory
• Cross-Docking
• CPFR
• VMI

Advanced Inventory Management System: Walmart uses a highly robust system for Walmart inventory management as discussed above which is Retail Link. Another software used is Walmart Distribution Center Network. The main purpose of this Software is to track the inventory levels and movement of inventory in real-time. Most of the time, Walmart inventory tracking allows us to forecast the demands with future trends. They allow the additional advantage of monitoring stock levels and readily replenishing the inventory when essential. Walmart inventory tracking is made easy with this software.

JIT inventory: Walmart inventory tracking is always on another level. You might never walk into the store and see something out of stock. This is because of the Just-in-time inventory of Walmart. This type of Walmart inventory management is used when a low level of inventory management is needed. JIT allows only orders and receives the inventory from Suppliers and Sellers as it is needed. JIT inventory allows for reducing the waste of products, minimizing the holding costs, and keeping the level of inventory significantly low. Walmart’s warehouse system actively supports this.

Cross-Docking: Have you ever gone to a Walmart store and seen that what once was a grocery section is now filled with medicine? Of course, you will say no. This is because of the streamlined process of the supply chain. Walmart’s order management takes credit for it. This can be achieved by an effective method known as cross-docking. The process of cross-docking is quite simple. Walmart Marketplace receives the goods from the suppliers, sorts all of these stocks by destination with facilitated aid, and at last loads them directly into the vehicles for delivery. This delivery is done for the prevention of long-term storage of the products in the stores, reducing the handling costs on the store itself.

CPFR: Walmart Marketplace believes in a CPFR system for collaboration with their respective suppliers. This system is known as Collaboration, Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment. All of these aspects are handled related to the Walmart inventory management of the store. Optimized levels of inventory can be handled by this method and not only this, the products are then available to the customers in their time of need. As the collaboration with the suppliers and sellers was managed efficiently.

VMI: Walmart inventory management is managed in one more unique way which is called Vendor-Managed Inventory. The method is super simple. It involves the supplier the management of inventory levels and replenishment of products. Replenishment of products in Walmart is critically important because this ultimately lets the inventory management team breathe a little easier and never feel on the edge of everything.

We have already focused on the enormousness of Walmart as a Company and how it manages its multi-national chains. So, their practices and systems are supposed to be this specific and perfect. The big companies function with this kind of streamlined model as Walmart’s Order Management system provides. Walmart can efficiently manage its inventory and ensure that its products are available to customers when they need them.

SMART Walmart Inventory Management

Inventory management is essential for sellers on the Walmart Marketplace. Walmart’s marketplace requires a SMART method for inventory management practices that enables the systemic approach to run a huge system. Here are some best practices for Walmart inventory management on Walmart Marketplace:

• Set Realistic Lead Times
• Monitor Your Inventory Health
• An Inventory Management System
• Replenishment Strategy Optimization
• The Importance of Communication with Marketplace

Set Realistic Lead Times: Accurately setting your lead times is important for managing customer expectations and avoiding stockouts. Make sure to consider factors such as order processing times, shipping times, and delivery times when setting your lead times. This makes Walmart’s inventory management super efficient with an optimum success rate.

Monitor Your Inventory Health: Regularly monitor your inventory health metrics such as sell-through rate, days of supply, and stranded inventory. This can help you identify slow-moving products, overstocks, and understocks, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your inventory levels. For Walmart inventory tracking you can use Walmart Inventory App.

An Inventory Management System: Using an inventory management system can help you track your inventory levels, set reorder points, and avoid stockouts. You can use third-party inventory management software that integrates with Walmart Marketplace to automate Walmart inventory management tasks and optimize your inventory levels.

Replenishment Strategy Optimization: Regularly reviewing your sales data can help you optimize your replenishment strategy. Use your sales data to identify your fast-moving products and adjust your reorder points accordingly. Consider using automated reorder triggers to ensure that you never run out of stock and facilitate quality Walmart order management.

The Importance of Communication with Marketplace: It’s important to communicate with Walmart Marketplace about your inventory levels and availability. A Case Study of Walmart Inventory Management suggested that keeping inventory levels up to date makes communication super easy. Make sure to keep your inventory levels up to date and proactively communicate with Walmart order management if you anticipate any issues with fulfilling orders.

Minimizing stockouts and maximizing sales should be the ultimate goal of an individual working in a Walmart marketplace. Following these SMART Practices can help you manage stocks and orders at the same time.

Bottom Line/Conclusion

Large businesses have state-of-the-art management systems when it comes to handling their operations. Walmart’s marketplace is exposed to both suppliers and sellers and the strategies for inventory management come in handy for both practices. Walmart is a billion-dollar industry that handles its practices at its best with updated software, the latest models, and streamlined workflow. Add these practices to your Walmart Marketplace and you are good to go for solving Walmart inventory management problems.