For retailers, inventory inspection and tracking is one of the most important business management activities.  Considered a routine business practice, inventory tracking is an integral exercise that enables the management team to monitor stock movement and gauge business performance.  Unfortunately, inventory tracking is a tedious and resource-intensive exercise, which is usually postponed or rarely conducted by business owners.  In other cases, the exercise is conducted shoddily and unprofessionally resulting in indefinite conclusions regarding stock movement.  Dillydallying and ineffectual inventory practices enable unscrupulous employees and managers to mismanage and steal a firm’s inventory — resulting in massive losses.

Luckily, barcode technologies have come to the rescue of retail trade.  Using barcode equipment and programs, retailers can now easily track their inventory anytime they wish; without deploying massive resources to the exercise.  And to make matters even better, retailers do not have to spend their limited capital in buying expensive and sophisticated barcode equipment and software for their inventory needs.  They can now rent/lease all the barcode equipment they need from select vendors at relatively low costs.  To woo all the retailers that still doubt the beauty of this arrangement, barcode vendors and manufacturers have created three invaluable inventory tracking solutions.  Offered at very affordable rates, these inventory options are ideal for all types of retail businesses.

Basic Periodic Inventory

This is the simplest, easiest and most affordable inventory tracking option.  Falling under the periodic category, this solution is used for periodic/occasional inventory updates, such as annual inventory audits.  Under this specific arrangement, retailers can collect a simple inventory that involves barcode scanning and quantity tracking.  For this option, a retailer needs to rent a basic/simple inventory kit.  Alternatively, the retailer can opt to go deeper and collect additional fields of data.  The additional data requires the retailer to go for more intensive but relatively affordable barcode inventory rentals.  The second option requires a specialized data collection and inventory program.

Comprehensive Periodic Inventory

This is another periodic inventory option, which means that it results in occasional inventory updates too.  This inventory solution digs up detailed information regarding a particular stock item, such as its description, color, price, and size among other attributes.  This option requires a barcode reader that is preloaded with a database featuring the product’s barcode number and its additional attribute data.  Many vendors will be happy to rent the required barcode equipment to willing retailers at a reasonable fee.

Perpetual Inventory

A conscientious retailer can decide to conduct an ongoing or perpetual inventory inspection and tracking exercise to enhance business efficiency.  Considered the most intensive and effective option, this is the most recommendable inventory solution for any retailer.  This option needs you to rent specialized barcode equipment and then request standard or custom software to analyze the stock information.  Despite ongoing sales and purchases, you can still be able to update stock movement in real-time.  The offered system enables you to track various product attributes, such as item code, description and quantity settings.  Finally, if you wish to verify the system data, you can conduct a stock audit at any time and compare the findings.