Stock associates rely on the HotWax Commerce Inventory Cycle Count App to perform regular inventory cycle counts at stores and warehouses to maintain accurate inventory for online sales and accounting. These counts are crucial for identifying any inconsistencies in inventory quantities. Stock associates create a list of products and their actual inventory counts in the Inventory Cycle Count App which is then reviewed by an authorized store or warehouse manager. The supervisor usually reviews the variance between the actual and systemic inventory levels and either approves or rejects them if they seem accurate. Upon approval, inventory variances are applied in HotWax Commerce OMS and subsequently pushed online to keep inventory numbers accurate. However, counting all the units of a SKU to log an inventory variance makes it difficult to log real time inventory adjustments caused by damaged stock or even recovered stock.
When the inventory variance is obvious and quantifiable, such as a store associate seeing that a damaged shoe is no longer sellable, recounting all the units of that SKU isn’t feasible and discourages associates from reporting inventory deltas. The new feature to directly log a change in inventory, along with a reason for that change, allows stores to make agile adjustments to their inventory without the overhead of recounting their entire stock to identify the delta.
Understanding that changing the inventory levels at a location is not an action that should be accessible to every employee, this feature leverages the new permissions framework rolled out last month to ensure that only Facility Managers or higher are allowed to access this function.
This proactive approach ensures that synchronization of inventory levels between the OMS and Shopify is maintained. By promptly recording the inventory variance, store/fulfillment managers can swiftly resolve any discrepancies, preventing order rejections, and mitigating the risk of overselling.
