Inventory

[Fluffy]

Has anyone found a good method of keeping track of inventory?  I started a spreadsheet, but couldn't add pics that would stay in the row with the info.

So now, I just keep a big folder of pics, containing folders by date made.  I've lost track of what has sold. And I have consigned some shirts, and don't know what still is available.

At www.fluffyscompleatboutique.com I put up photogalleries, but it is too time-consuming to actually keep those accurate for what is available, so I've sort of started saying, "Some combinations of size and design will take two weeks."

I perused art management software, but that has premade categories that are irrelevant, and lack some categories I need.

What works for you?

[John]

Its good to be as close to zero with inventory as possible. For the inventory you do have it is optimal to have it automatically remove from your inventory upon sale. Items sold online present the easy solution but for others in consignment you are stuck with a more manual method.

Online sales would be handled through your web page. A database of your items should feed the content of the website along with the photos (in filename) within the database. When someone orders an item online the item is flagged sold and removed from the display by adjusting the quantity to zero.

Offline sales on the oteher hand could be done by using a web interface to the same database. By giving each item a unique id you can track what is sold offline, then using your own webpage you would enter this id and set the quantity to zero. This would control the inventory both online and offline in one place. As soon as you sold an item, online or offline, the content of the web site would be automatically adjusted at the same time your inventory is being controlled manually. To combine both methods of inventory control is best practice.

I'm still kind of asleep so i hope i answered this with some amount of coherance.

[tiedyejudy]

I have a very small business, and can't afford a lot of pre-packaged business solutions.  So I created an excel spreadsheet with a progressive numbering system, a description, size, pattern, and date sold.  Here is an example:
SKU#   Description       Size                Pattern               Date Sold
89   Sleeveless Romper   18 months   Rainbow Swirl   07/01/06
90   Sleeveless Onesie   L(27-34 lb)   Rainbow Vee   05/06/06

When I upload my pictures to my harddrive, I resize them so that the longest side is 200 pixels; I save the picture and name it sku089, sku090, etc.  to correspond with the number in my inventory. 
When I create my webpage entry, I insert the reduced picture, identify it by item number (089, 090, etc), list description, size, pattern, price and shipping cost; I build a paypal button that corresponds to the item.  All of this is done (thanks to John telling me how to do it!) using my Microsoft Front Page software to directly update my website.  When I sell an item, whether via internet sale or direct sale, I update my webpage to remove the item, and update my inventory to add sale date.  It took awhile to set it up initially, but it is a breeze to maintain.  Every time I finish a new item, I take a picture, enter it into the inventory, create the webpage entry, create the price tag which shows the inventory number and price, and the garment is ready to be tagged and put away.  When I go to shows, I bring a copy of my inventory sorted by item number.  Whatever I sell, I check the tag for the item number and mark it sold in my inventory.  Then when I get home, I update the version I have on my computer and I remove the sold item(s) from the webpage.  I can also sort my inventory by description if I need to determine what items I am running low on for reordering of blank stock.
I have tried multi-purpose tracking inventory/invoice systems such as Access, and they were more complicated than I wanted.  BTW, for consignments you could make a slight change to item number by adding 'CS' as an identifier in front of the number (for consignment sales).  I'm always in favor of whatever makes logical sense to you.   
Whichever way you decide to track your inventory, you need to be dedicated and consistent or it won't be much help to you. 
Good luck in your business!

Judy

[John]

If you have Microsoft FrontPage and Access you have the complete solution.

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011140711033

http://mavweb.net/front_page-support.asp

[steve]

I'd use some shopping cart software like zencart. It's set up to keep track of these things. You could put consignment things in their own category, then make a subcategory for each of the consignment accounts. You would not have to publish these categories. You could change the items through the admin backend, or do it in bulk by downloading the appropriate tables to a csv file via phpmyadmin--open them in an excel spreadsheet--make you bulk changes quick, the reupload the table overwriting the old.

That's my next project--populating a store enmasse using a spreadsheet uploaded via phpmyadmin. Bulk upload the prices, description, item number, categories and urls to the images. There is a certain somebody I know who now runs a big apparel operation that used these exact techniques. He was able to put up 100s of items at a shot.

Steve

Steve