If that wasn’t enough, inventory management could complicate things further in the retail world. If your customers cannot find what they are looking for, you might lose not just a sale but also their return business. On the other hand, a large inventory can tie up considerable working capital and limit flexibility and response time in front of market fluctuations.

But that’s not all, managing healthy levels of inventory can be affected also by specific industry issues. These issues include seasonality in the fashion business, becoming outdated in the tech world or the problem of perishable goods for grocery retailers.

Another challenging area is managing a multi-channel operation. This becomes even harder when too many IT systems are in place to handle the different sides of the business. Different platforms often cannot communicate properly, creating inconsistent data, time wastage, and uncontrolled costs.