In reality, recognizing business challenges is easy; every problem all relates to costs and money. So, anything that directly or indirectly costs you more money is a challenge that needs to be addressed. For small businesses, there are several key factors that cause significant costs, such as manual errors, wasted time, labor costs, lost sales due to damaged/expired products, or running out of stock when demand is high. However, not all small businesses face exactly these problems; their challenges depend on the type of business, the products they sell, and how they operate.
EMERGE is an inventory management software solution for small businesses with a user-friendly interface and powerful features. And the way EMERGE has addressed former user issues could be proof enough for you to choose us.
Below is a detailed breakdown of common small business inventory management challenges and how EMERGE inventory management software features address each one.
| BUSINESS | PROBLEMS IN THE INDUSTRY | INVENTORY SOFTWARE FEATURES |
| Showroom kitchen & appliance | - Managing complex, project-based orders: One kitchen sale is not a single product. It includes cabinets, appliances, accessories, and services, often delivered in stages.
- Showrooms deal with a mix of in-stock items, made-to-order cabinets, and supplier stock.
- The same product can have many sizes, colors, materials, and prices.
| - Simple assembly & kitting: Assemble products or kits from multiple items, including bundled and packaged products.
- Demand-based production orders: Create production orders directly from sales demand so that businesses can avoid overproduction and excess stock
- Variant management in table view: EMERGE automatically generates a matrix table with each attribute of size, color, and other variations that you created. You can then easily add details to these variations, such as price, images, and SKU codes.
- Real-time update: Real-time updates to product variant inventory in a table format give you an overview of that product.
More about simple assembly and production module |
Department Stores
Hypermarkets | - Have a wide range of goods across different locations/branches.
- One product can have multiple suppliers, and price fluctuation over time, together with many promotion campaigns.
- Mismatch of prices between the price tags in the physical store and prices in spreadsheets.
| - Real-time multi-warehouse inventory: Track and update stock in real-time across all locations and warehouses in one centralized system.
- Price review & fluctuation control: Quickly view the last purchase/ production/selling price when placing a sales order. Together with the automatic profit calculation feature, businesses can avoid selling below cost when prices fluctuate.
- Supplier management: Manage supplier performance based on price and delivery time compared to estimates.
- RFQ management: Mass send RFQs to multiple suppliers, compare the submitted quotes into a single report, and select the best offer.
- Price lists: Pre-set customized price lists for individual customers, customer groups, or all customers, with quantity-based discounts so that when users placing order, the prices will be automatically filled in.
More about purchase & order management |
Consumer electronics stores
Tech shops
Gadget stores | - No clear link between serial numbers, customers, and warranty periods.
- Poor visibility into inventory age and product lifecycle.
- Lack of real-time cost and margin control.
| - Serial number & warranty tracking: Track each product by serial number from warehouse receipt through sale, with warranty periods managed even after delivery.
- Inventory aging & valuation report: View inventory age and value to quickly identify slow-moving and fast-moving products.
- Sales profit margin reporting: Analyze profit margins with or without landed costs for each product or order.
- Cloud-based real-time access: Access real-time product costs, prices, and inventory data anytime, anywhere.
More about sales & after-sales management |
Home appliance stores
Home improvement stores | - Poor visibility and control over bulky, high-value inventory that has slow moving.
- One product often comes in different models, sizes, capacities, or finishes.
- Sales, warehouse, delivery, and installation usually happen at different times.
| - Dropshipping on demand: Fulfill orders via dropshipping when showroom space is limited, and demand occurs.
- Multi-warehouse inventory tracking: Monitor real-time stock levels across warehouses to quickly see where inventory is available.
- Partial delivery & billing flexibility: Support partial deliveries with flexible invoicing and deposit notes.
- Serial number tracking by model or size: Track products by serial number across different models or sizes for easy after-sales management.
- Sales trend analysis: Use sales reports filtered by product line to identify trending products and slow-moving items.
More about inventory & fulfillment management |
| Blinds and Curtains shop | - Most orders are made-to-measure.
- Custom orders with specific dimensions, fabric choices, and installation details are often overlooked during processing.
- Fabrics and materials are consumed per order, but are not accurately deducted from inventory.
| - Production Module: Tracks work progress, materials, costs, and other information related to production orders. This allows businesses to monitor production progress and inform customers.
- Tasks and Notes: Records important details about customer requirements before and during order fulfillment. These notes appear on all documents related to the order, such as quotations, production orders, delivery notes, invoices, deposit slips, etc.
- Automatic Inventory Updates: When a production order begins, EMERGE automatically deducts the amount of raw materials used for that order from inventory, preventing over-selling.
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Sanitary ware Store
Bathroom showroom
Plumbing supply store/company Bath emporium | - Sanitary ware products come in a wide variety of sizes, styles, finishes, brands, and specifications. They are often sold in sets and this leads to many pricing errors and incorrect deliveries during sales and fulfillment.
- Bathroom projects involve multiple items, phased deliveries, and coordination with contractors.
- Hard to track which items belong to which project, partial deliveries are messy, and missing items delay installation.
| - Variant product management: Manage sanitary products across different sizes, finishes, brands, and specifications using clear attribute-based variants.
- Accurate picking & dispatch: Move seamlessly from sales order to shipment by generating picking lists and dispatching items using barcode scanning system for precise fulfillment.
- Partial delivery for projects: Apply partial deliveries for projects that require multiple items at different stages, while easily tracking stock issued to each project.
- Project-based inventory workflow: Deliver items to multiple projects simultaneously, monitor inventory allocated to each project, and transfer stock between projects when needed.
More about warehouse operations management |
| HVAC & Plumbing Contractors | - No job-level visibility of materials, costs, and status: Materials issued to the wrong job, leftover items not returned to stock, no clear view of job progress vs materials used
- Poor real-time visibility of available parts and stock locations, while HVAC and plumbing work often involves urgent repairs where parts must be available immediately.
- Projects include equipment, spare parts, subcontracting, and labor, with costs spread across time.
| - Project-based inventory workflow.
- Create multiple projects and deliver stock directly to each one.
- Inventory is tracked in real time, returned items are recorded back to the warehouse, and used materials can be invoiced to the specific project.
- Group materials and equipment by job, with all related purchase orders managed under the same project.
- Real-time inventory visibility: Instantly locate items and check stock availability anytime, anywhere, without calling the warehouse or suppliers.
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| Hospitals and clinics suppliers | - Complex orders and partial fulfillment: One order often includes many items, split deliveries, backorders, and frequent changes.
- When a recall or inspection happens, suppliers struggle to quickly identify which batch or shipment went to which hospital.
- Sudden urgent orders make stock planning and replenishment difficult.
| - Partial shipment: Divide your shipment into multiple smaller deliveries, with status updates and automatic display of remaining item quantities in each shipment.
- Backordering & dropshipping: Place multiple purchase orders or dropshipping during the sales order fulfillment process. All these additional purchases are managed under the original sales order.
- Batch reminder report: Display all the batches that have been sold with the batch number. With just one click, you can send emails to the hospitals that purchased these shipments for various purposes.
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Durable medical equipment (DME) providers
Specialty medical equipment suppliers | - Each item must be tracked individually for warranty, maintenance, rental, and location.
- After-sales service and long lifecycle management. Equipment requires servicing, spare parts, and support long after delivery.
- Few orders but very expensive, so mistakes in stock, pricing, or availability are costly.
| - Serial number tracking: Assign a unique serial number to medical equipment when you put it away in your warehouse and enter the warranty period when you sell the product. This serial number can be used to track the product even after the sale, especially useful for warranty tracking.
- Approval process: Set up approval requirements in sales, dispatching, purchasing, etc., to enhance accuracy. Managers can approve or reject the command.
- Support case management: Consolidate all support cases in one place. Trace down orders belonging to that customer. Within each order, identify which items require support and supplement the relevant documentation.
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| Disposable and consumable suppliers | - Short shelf life causes high risk of expired stock and wastage.
- High-volume sales but low margin.
- Demand volatility and bulk purchasing pressure. Sudden demand spikes force overstocking or emergency purchasing.
| - Inventory list with visible expiration date: Filter out inventory batches that have 30, 60, 90, x days nearing expiration.
- Sales report with profit margin based on each product or each order.
- Automatic profit margin calculation during quotation: When you enter the selling price, EMERGE will automatically calculate the profit margin and profit percentage for this product based on that selling price.
- Drop-shipping: Order directly from the supplier to the customer, saving time on shipping goods to and from your warehouse.
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| Retail and pharmacy suppliers | - Some stores run out of best-selling items, while others have excess inventory of slow-selling goods, making inventory planning difficult.
- Retailers expect a wide range of prices, discounts, and promotions. Therefore, the same product may be sold at different prices to different customers and employees. Employees may forget which price list applies, and promotions may be applied incorrectly or inconsistently.
| - Customer Management: Pre-set price lists for each customer or group of customers. When your staff places orders later, EMERGE will automatically apply the appropriate price list with discounts and special pricing for that customer.
- Real-time Inventory Levels at Locations and Warehouses: Access the live inventory status of each location and warehouse, so you know which items are running low and can restock promptly.
- Inventory Forecasting: Forecast the quantity needed to purchase over n days based on previous sales at a specific location.
More about healthcare supply chain & distribution business management |
| Beauty & personal care shops | - Managing a huge number of SKUs with many different variations in color, scent, size, packaging, and gift sets.
- Products need to be closely monitored for expiration dates, quality, and even packaging, while businesses need to stay up-to-date with trends.
- Selling across multiple channels with numerous promotions, product samples, and free samples demands accuracy.
| - Variant product management: Create and manage thousands of SKUs. Each variant has its own SKU, specs, price, and stock.
- Inventory timeline: See how each product or variant moves month by month, so you can easily spot bestsellers and slow-moving items.
- Batch & expiry management: Assign batch numbers and expiration dates when products are put away in the warehouse or at a location. This makes it easy to identify near-expiry batches and avoid expired items sitting on shelves.
- Product sales report: View sales quantity and profit margin per product, helping you track true net profit and avoid margin loss from discounts, bundles, or free items.
More about product management features |
| Pet accessories shop | - Old designs or seasonal items sit unseen for months, causing cash flow bottlenecks without anyone realizing it.
- Demand is driven by trends and emotions, making it unpredictable. This often leads to customer returns because they no longer like the item, chose the wrong size, or it doesn’t fit, but inventory levels aren’t always accurately updated to reflect sales figures.
| - Inventory timeline report: Display the quantity of each item over time, so that you can see the inventory aging on those products.
- Exchange & return management: Create exchange or return slips for returned items quickly with the help of EMERGE in tracing the origin of the order and the item. The system automatically updates inventory levels and generates corresponding debit invoices for the order that the item belongs to.
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Apparel stores
Clothing shops
Fashion boutiques
Sporting goods stores | - Too many variants, but no clear visibility per variant.
- Unsold stock after the sales season ends, heavy discounting without clear visibility about profit margin
- Not record enough data to forecast.
- No real-time margin visibility during price changes between sales channels
| - Variant table visibility: Manage all product variants with clear attributes, pricing, and stock levels in a single table.
- Real-time margin visibility: Instantly see profit margins while creating customer orders, helping you avoid selling below cost even during seasonal promotions.
- Connected data & sales trend insights: Store purchase, manufacturing, sales, promotions, and project data in one system to generate sales trend reports and plan future purchases more accurately.
More about fashion & accessories business management | Hardware & building material stores
Auto parts sellers | - Poor control of inventory and selling products by piece, box, meter, kg, or pallet, often from the same SKU.
- No real-time link between cost changes and selling prices.
- Inventory loss, shrinkage & slow stock turnover
| - Multiple units of measurement: Manage base and additional units with different packing codes for accurate stock and transactions.
- Quick price review: Before quoting, you can view the last purchase cost and the last production cost to confirm pricing and avoid selling below cost.
- Item- and order-level profit reports: See exact profit margins for each item and each order in sales reports.
- Product status & expiry tracking: Use inventory list reports with 30, 60, or 90-day filters to identify products nearing expiration.
More about technical & industrial business management |
