Inventory Planner

What is Inventory Planner

Inventory Planner is a specialized software designed for inventory forecasting and planning, primarily for e-commerce and retail businesses. Its core purpose is to help companies optimize their stock levels by predicting future demand accurately. This prevents common issues like overstocking, which ties up cash, and stockouts, which lead to lost sales. The platform analyzes historical sales data and supplier lead times to provide intelligent purchasing recommendations. It automates the creation of purchase orders and provides deep insights through comprehensive reporting. Inventory Planner is part of the Sage Group, a major enterprise software company, which lends it significant credibility and resources. It is built to serve high-volume retailers, multi-channel sellers, and businesses with multiple warehouses or international operations.

Inventory Planner Features

• Demand Forecasting: The tool uses your historical sales data and trends to generate accurate forecasts of future customer demand. This helps you understand what products will sell and in what quantities.
• Purchasing Recommendations: Based on the forecast, lead times, and desired stock levels, Inventory Planner provides clear recommendations on what to order, how much to order, and when to place the order. This removes guesswork from purchasing.
• Automated Purchase Orders: You can create and send purchase orders to your suppliers directly from the platform. This feature saves a significant amount of time and reduces manual errors, especially for businesses placing hundreds of orders.
• Reporting and Analytics: Get access to executive-level reports with customizable summaries. These reports provide insights into inventory performance, overstock, stockouts, and overall business health, delivered automatically to the right people.
• Multi-Location Management: For businesses with multiple warehouses, stores, or sales channels, Inventory Planner centralizes inventory data. It helps manage stock transfers between locations to ensure products are where they are most likely to sell.
• Open-to-Buy Planning: This advanced feature helps you plan your purchasing budget. It calculates the right amount of inventory to buy to meet forecasted sales or future revenue targets, ensuring you invest your capital wisely, even for new products.

Inventory Planner Pricing Plans

Inventory Planner offers several pricing tiers designed to scale with a business's needs. The plans are typically based on factors like the number of SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), the number of orders processed per month, and the number of integrations required.

• Starter Plan: Aimed at small businesses and startups, this plan includes core features like demand forecasting, purchasing recommendations, and basic reporting for a single warehouse.
• Professional Plan: Geared towards growing businesses, this tier often includes support for multiple warehouses, more advanced reporting capabilities, and priority support.
• Enterprise Plan: Designed for large, high-volume retailers, this plan offers custom solutions, dedicated account management, advanced analytics, and integrations with complex ERP systems.

Each plan provides access to the core platform, with higher tiers unlocking more advanced features and higher usage limits.

Inventory Planner Free Plan

Inventory Planner does not offer a permanent free plan. However, they provide a free trial for new users, which typically lasts for 14 days. The trial period grants full access to the platform's features, allowing businesses to connect their sales channels, sync their data, and evaluate the forecasting and purchasing recommendations. This is a good way to see the tool's value before committing to a paid subscription.

How to use Inventory Planner

Getting started with Inventory Planner is a straightforward process:

1. Sign Up and Connect Your Store: Create an account and integrate your e-commerce platform (like Shopify, BigCommerce, Amazon) or ERP system. The platform has seamless integrations with many popular systems.
2. Sync Your Data: Allow Inventory Planner to sync your product catalog, sales history, and current stock levels. This initial sync may take some time for businesses with large amounts of data.
3. Review Forecasts: Once the data is synced, the platform will automatically generate sales forecasts for your products. You can review these predictions and see how they are calculated.
4. Configure Settings: Adjust key variables like supplier lead times, days of stock you want to hold, and ordering schedules to match your business operations.
5. Generate Purchase Orders: Use the purchasing recommendations to create purchase orders. You can review, edit, and send them to your suppliers directly from the tool.
6. Monitor Performance: Regularly use the reporting dashboards to track key metrics like stock turnover, profit, and potential lost revenue from stockouts. Use these insights to refine your inventory strategy.

Pros and Cons of Inventory Planner

Pros:

• Accurate Forecasting: Its algorithm provides reliable demand predictions, significantly reducing stockouts and overstock.
• Time Savings: Automating purchase order creation and recommendations saves many hours of manual work each week.
• Improved Cash Flow: By preventing overstocking, businesses can free up capital that would otherwise be tied up in unsold goods.
• Powerful Reporting: The detailed analytics offer valuable insights for making strategic, data-driven decisions.
• Multi-Location Support: It effectively manages inventory across multiple warehouses and retail stores.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: Some of the advanced features and reports can take time to fully understand and utilize.
• Cost: The subscription fee might be a considerable expense for very small businesses or those with tight margins.
• Initial Setup: The initial data sync and configuration can be time-consuming for businesses with a very large number of SKUs.

Inventory Planner Integrations

Inventory Planner offers a wide range of integrations to create a centralized view of your operations. It connects with:

• E-commerce Platforms: Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Amazon, Walmart Marketplace.
• ERP Systems: Brightpearl, NetSuite, Cin7, Fishbowl.
• Accounting Software: Sage, QuickBooks, Xero.
• Other Tools: It can also connect to various other systems through direct integrations or third-party connectors to sync sales, purchase order, and supplier data.

Inventory Planner Alternatives

• Netstock: A strong competitor focused on inventory optimization for small and medium-sized businesses. It is known for its visual dashboards and focus on inventory policy.
• Cin7: A comprehensive inventory management system that includes forecasting features. It is a broader tool that also covers order management and warehouse management, making it suitable for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution.
• Skubana: An operations platform for e-commerce businesses that includes inventory planning and forecasting. It is known for its automation capabilities across the entire order fulfillment process.
• Sellbrite: A multi-channel listing and inventory management tool. While its forecasting is less advanced than Inventory Planner's, it is a good option for sellers focused primarily on syncing inventory across multiple marketplaces.

Inventory Planner API

Yes, Inventory Planner provides a REST API for developers. The API allows for custom integrations and enables users to programmatically access and manipulate their data. You can use it to pull forecasting data into other systems, update product information, or create custom workflows. To get an API key, you typically need to generate it from within your Inventory Planner account settings, usually in a section dedicated to API access or integrations.

Here is a generic example of an API call to fetch products:

{
  "method": "GET",
  "url": "https://app.inventory-planner.com/api/v1/products",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}

For detailed documentation, developers should visit the official Inventory Planner developer portal or support section.

Inventory Planner Affiliate program

Inventory Planner has a Partner Program rather than a traditional, open-to-the-public affiliate program. This program is designed for agencies, consultants, and technology providers who work with e-commerce brands. Partners can refer clients to Inventory Planner and may receive benefits such as referral fees or commissions. To join, you typically need to apply through their website and demonstrate how you can bring value to their ecosystem. If you are an influencer or content creator interested in a collaboration, it is best to contact their marketing or partnership team directly through their official website to discuss potential opportunities.