Do you like to play guessing games? They are great brainteasers to play at holiday parties, or on rainy summer days on vacation, for example. You know the ones. Like “Charades,” where you have to act out something without saying anything and everyone has to guess what you’re trying to show them through your actions. Or “Taboo,” where a player has to get their partners to guess a word through clues. How about the  “Guess What’s in Inventory” numbers game?

Okay, that’s not an actual game. But, if you don’t have an inventory management system in place for your retail business, you probably don’t have an accurate inventory count, and that means you may as well be playing a guessing game when it comes to tracking inventory and figuring out what’s selling and what’s not. 

You just can’t make up inventory numbers when it comes to running an efficient – and profitable – retail business. And yet, even in this technology-driven era, where retailers, no matter the size, are competing with online mega-businesses like Amazon, too many retailers are allowing themselves to fall behind the times when it comes to managing inventory operations.

According to the 2017 Wasp Barcode State of Small Business Report, of the 1,100 small businesses surveyed, 43% don’t track inventory or use a manual process.

A further breakdown reveals that only 18% use an inventory control system; 21% use a spreadsheet program; 15% use an accounting system for inventory; 14% track inventory by hand; and 8% don’t track inventory at all. And, according to the survey, not much has changed between 2015 and last year.

Are you one of those retailers? Perhaps it’s time to give up the losing guessing game and get an inventory management system that always wins.