Author: AJ Batista

Any business owner must use reliable inventory management software to keep up with their operational demands. But with the presence of a range of alternatives out there, such as Orderhive (Cin7), it is undeniably daunting to select the right software. This is why we wish to gladly usher you into SKULabs, the panacea solution to take your business to an unparalleled level.

With its unmatched customer support, competitive pricing, and user-friendly features, SKULabs remains the best alternative software to streamline your business operation and maximize sales and profits.

Similarities between Orderhive (Cin7) and SKULabs

Both SKULabs and Cin7 provide comprehensive inventory management solutions designed to assist your business in streamlining its operations. Their shared/common features include shipping management, order management, and multi-channel integrations, just to highlight a few. This implies that any business seeking to replace its Orderhive (Cin7) has SKULabs as the best option.

Why SKULabs is a Better Option to Orderhive (Cin7)

SKULabs offers you user-friendly software that is easy to use, even for non-tech-savvy users. Plus, we offer transparent and competitive pricing that is customizable and designed to smoothly suit your business budget. We also offer unmatched customer service. By switching to us, you will substantially save money and time while streamlining your business operations, giving you ample time to focus on your business expansion and growth.  

Unmatched Customer Support

While both offer identical features, SKULabs stands out with its unmatched customer support. Our team is highly knowledgeable and responsive, guaranteeing that any concerns or issues your business faces are promptly addressed in a timely and efficient manner.

We appreciate the significance of top tier service. This is why we offer unmatched customer support to our platform users to make sure that they get the most out of their trust in us. We have our customer support team available through live chat, email, or phone to offer real-time customer care and service and speak to any concerns or issues your business might raise.

We further provide committed and dedicated account managers to your business to assist you in setting up your account, onboarding your team, and offering continuous support to make sure you are receiving the most from our platform.

Besides our standard customer support, we further offer you an array of resources to assist you in effectively using our software, including video tutorials, webinars, and knowledge base articles covering everything right from basic features of our platform to advanced workflows.

We remain committed to offering our platform users the needed and unswerving support for their business success. We help you focus on your business growth with confidence by addressing all your concerns.

Transparent Competitive Pricing

Besides this great customer support, we further offer competitive pricing, with plans starting at just 299 dollars a month. We ensure transparency in pricing, with no concealed contracts or hidden set-up fees. This makes our customers exactly conscious of what they are paying for from the go. We will closely work with you to get the plan that best suits your business budget and needs.

We acknowledge the uniqueness of each business. We, therefore, offer customizable plans that are tailored to your particular needs and concerns. Whether you are a larger enterprise or a small business, we have a plan in place that will seamlessly work for your business. With SKULabs, you find powerful inventory management software at a price that will not break the bank.

User-Friendly

At SKULabs, we are proud to have created inventory management software that is both user-friendly and powerful. We have designed our plan with an intuitive and clean interface, which makes it easier for you to use and navigate, even for users who are never tech-savvy. You do not need extensive training to immediately start enjoying our software.

Shopify Reviews

We take pride in having received various positive reviews on Shopify, with several clients recognizing our excellent customer care and customer service. SKULabs prides itself on a strong reputation for offering unrivaled customer support, which is manifested in our Shopify reviews. We presently have a 4.9 of 5 stars rating on Shopify, with many constructive reviews from our satisfied customers.

Our platform has been praised for ease of use, exceptional customer support, and powerful features. Our users acknowledge the user-friendly interface of our platform that makes it effortless to use and navigate. They have also appreciated the transparency in our competitive pricing and the ability for our users to customize plans to suit their particular needs.

Our customer support is what sets us apart from other providers of inventory management software. Users consistently praise our customer support team for their knowledge, responsiveness, and willingness to go overboard to assist users in solving their problems and receiving the most out of this platform.

How to Switch from Orderhive (Cin7) to SKULabs

Switching to our solutions is straightforward. We have a team of experts in place to guide you throughout the process of making the switch. They ensure your data is seamlessly migrated to get you up and running immediately. Our software stays friendly to users, so you can begin using it right after you switch with no all-encompassing training.

If you are seeking new inventory management software on the market or your current provider is closing down, then SKULabs is the comprehensive solution for your problems. Our unmatched customer service, competitive and transparent pricing, and user-friendliness set us apart from Orderhive (Cin7) and make us its ideal replacement. With our software, you will be certain that your inventory management needs and concerns are in good hands, enabling you to focus on what you can do best operating and expanding your business. 

Check out our satisfied users’ reviews on Shopify for our consistent praise of the platform’s ease of use, exceptional customer support, powerful features, and transparent, competitive, and customizable pricing plans.

Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can assist your business in growing. We have a ready and dedicated team to help you succeed, and we remain proud to have a strong image for offering the support needed by our users to thrive in their businesses.

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, manual operations can be inefficient. Businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve their operations and streamline processes. One area that can greatly benefit from this type of innovation is warehouse management, where countless inventory and logistical challenges often arise daily.

Luckily, there’s a solution that can dramatically improve the efficiency and accuracy of inventory management and order fulfillment: Barcode Scanning. The benefits of barcode scanning are more evident if the barcode scanners integrate with your warehouse management system (WMS) or inventory management system (IMS). 

With the ability to quickly scan and identify items, barcode scanning technology can significantly improve your business’s bottom line. In this article, we’ll explore the many benefits of barcode scanning and tell you why SKULabs is the go-to inventory management software if you need to get started with barcode scanning.

Better inventory management

Tracking your inventory in real time is key to running a successful warehouse operation, and barcode scanning allow you to do just that. By scanning barcodes on products, your IMS can quickly and accurately update stock levels, ensuring you always have an up-to-date view of your inventory. This helps with reordering, prevents stock discrepancies, prevents overselling, and eliminates human errors from manual counts.

Barcode scanning systems also enable seamless integration of multi-channel listings, improving real-time inventory control. When you select a stock-keeping unit (SKU) in your WMS, you will see all the inventory locations for the given product and what you are advertising on each channel.

You can then identify which channels or warehouses need restocking. With manual operations, this information could take hours to figure out.

Improved picking accuracy

When it comes to order picking, accuracy is crucial. Customers don’t want to wait days for their incorrect orders, and the cost of replacing them can be detrimental to your bottom line. With barcode scanning, you can eliminate this problem, as a quick scan of the product’s barcode ensures you’re always picking the right item.

Barcode scanning guides pickers to the correct storage location and prompts them to pick the right product before moving on. They can quickly grab the product without any confusion or mistakes common in manual processes. This speeds up the order fulfillment process and gives you the tools you need to accurately hit those estimated delivery dates.

Improved warehouse efficiency

Efficient warehouse operations contribute to faster order processing, shorter lead times, and decreased costs. Barcode scanning can streamline various aspects of your warehouse operations, including receiving, putaway, picking, stock checks, transfers, and dispatch to name a few.

For example, using barcode scanning during the receiving process can quickly identify the product and storage location, enabling warehouse staff to put away items more efficiently. This can also be applied to the picking process, making the task faster and more precise. Ultimately, barcode scanning reduces manual intervention and paperwork, allowing staff to focus on their core functions and drive productivity.

Improved security

Inventory shrinkage is a common problem faced by warehouses and retail stores. When integrated with IMS and warehouse management systems, barcode scanning systems ensure the traceability of all product movements within a warehouse by adding timestamps for each transaction. This enhanced visibility helps you keep track of your products and identify any discrepancies in stock levels. You can identify suspicious activity and missing items and take the necessary measures to prevent common human errors or theft.

Decreased costs

The benefits of barcode scanning go beyond improved efficiency and security. It can also help you save costs in your warehouse management and order fulfillment processes.

For instance, you benefit from reduced clerical costs. Unlike in manual operations, you don’t need warehouse employees to manually enter orders and check them, as barcode scanning automates the process. This can reduce labor costs significantly and help you save on your overhead.

Implementing these systems will also help reduce or eliminate the costs associated with picking errors. Additionally, improved inventory management minimizes overstocking and stockouts, reducing storage and carrying costs.

How to use barcode scanning with SKULabs

SKULabs is one of the warehouse management systems that work well with barcode scanning to automate and optimize your warehouse operations. They connect to just about any Bluetooth or USB-enabled HID scanner. Barcode scanning can be used throughout SKULabs to streamline picking, packing, shipping, warehouse transfers, purchase orders, as well as cycle counting.

For instance, this software allows for barcode-based order verification for more accurate and faster order fulfillment. Line items can be scanned and verified as you are packing to eliminate the common mistake of placing the wrong item in the wrong box that we see too much, which also can lead to customer dissatisfaction and time and money wasted on returns. 

With SKULabs, you can also print and scan individual pick slips. These can be used at the time of picking to ensure the correct items are chosen for each order. Every pick slip printed using SKULabs has a barcode in one corner. Once you scan this barcode, the order will quickly open, allowing you to scan-verify your items while picking and placing them into your order bins.

SKULabs also allows for batch picking and packing, where you select several orders at the same time. Once you select your desired orders, you can print a packing slip for each order and a single pick list for all of them.

Use the pick list to pick the items from the warehouse and set them on a sorting table. When packing, you can select one of the printed packing slips and scan their barcode labels. This way, you will easily pull the order and scan them for verification. After scanning all the items, you can ship the package confidently knowing it contains the correct items for the order.

The great thing is no matter what your picking and packing routines are, SKULabs can accommodate. It is very open ended and does not force you into a set routine that might not be best for your operations!

SKULabs also facilitates the receiving of orders in the warehouse from transfers or purchase orders for more accurate tracking. The platform has a receive tab that allows you to scan the barcodes on the incoming items and quickly add them to the existing inventory.

This warehouse management software also has a great cycle count utility that uses scanning to count inventory in sections.

Cycle counts are small batches of inventory counting tasks for a single location, or a single group of items within a warehouse. Performing cycle counts frequently for smaller portions of your inventory allows you to keep stock levels accurate without interrupting your day-to-day operations and avoiding the dreaded month-end inventory counts.

Cycle counting using barcodes is a breeze with SKULabs, giving you the ability to easily verify how much stock you have on your shelves to prevent overselling or inventory loss. The best thing about SKULabs is that it will synchronize your multi-channel inventory while still giving you fine grained control over how much stock you would like to advertise to each sales channel. The software can track what’s coming in and going out of different sales channels in real time. As a result, it can automatically push the available inventory quantity of a given item to all the listings linked to the item.

Optimize your warehouse operations with SKULabs

Barcode scanning has revolutionized warehouse operations, providing many benefits that cannot be achieved through manual operations. Whether you’re running a large distribution center or a mom-and-pop warehouse, incorporating barcode scanning into your workflow can streamline inventory management and order fulfillment.

SKULabs is an ideal warehouse management software that allows you to use barcode scanning throughout your operations. With this tool, you can improve accuracy and minimize costs while increasing efficiency in order fulfillment. Would you like to learn more about leveraging barcode scanning with SKULabs? Contact us to learn how this software can help you optimize your warehouse operations.

Starting an eCommerce business can be lucrative, given that online sales are expected to hit $6.3 trillion in 2023. However, inventory management and ensuring streamlined order fulfillment can be a real challenge, especially when dealing with multi-channel sales. That’s why choosing the right order fulfillment and inventory management software is critical.

This article explores some of the challenges you’re likely to encounter when finding the right order fulfillment and inventory management software. We also discuss why SKULabs is the best eCommerce solution.

The challenges of finding the right inventory management software

If you’re in the market for inventory management or order fulfillment software, you’re likely to face several challenges. The challenges include finding a solution that:

Connects to multiple sales channels and marketplaces

You need software that can connect to different sales channels and marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, and more. It should also be able to sync inventory levels in real-time across all these channels so you’re not overstocked or understocked.

Has the option to use barcode scanners

With barcode scanners, you can quickly and accurately scan products as they enter the warehouse or before leaving. Scanning ensures that all orders are accurate and that all stock levels remain up-to-date.

Allows for cycle counts

An ideal solution should allow you to take cycle counts of your inventory, so you can keep track of what’s coming in and out of the warehouse. Doing frequent cycle counts will help identify discrepancies between physical stock levels and those recorded on the system.

Can generate purchase orders

A good eCommerce software should allow you to generate purchase orders directly from the system, so you can send them out quickly and efficiently. This will help streamline the ordering process while eliminating any errors that the manual data input could cause.

Creates shipping labels from within

Generating shipping labels directly from the inventory management system is essential for efficient order fulfillment. This feature streamlines the order processing process and makes it easier for customers to receive their orders on time.

Provides a way to handle returns

You’ll need a system that allows you to track and manage returns in one centralized location. This way, you can monitor the volume of returns, identify any trends causing them, and take corrective action where necessary.

Generates good reports

Access to accurate and up-to-date data is essential for making informed decisions and staying on top of your business operations. An ideal inventory management software should generate useful reports and data insights, so you can track performance and identify areas for improvement.

Has a dedicated batch-picking system

Dedicated batch-picking systems can really help your team in saving time and improve accuracy. This allows you to put a scanner in your picker’s hands, and rely on the software to make the decisions on what to pick, how much to pick, and the proper path through the warehouse. This also helps to eliminate costly manual coordination between your various warehouse teams. 

Connects with QuickBooks

Integrating your eCommerce software with QuickBooks is a great way to ensure that your sales, orders, and inventory data is accurately tracked and recorded. The integration will make it easier for you to manage and reconcile financials and give you better visibility into the performance of your business.

Why SKULabs is the best eCommerce solution

When looking for the right inventory management software, you’ll realize that most will likely be similar. The secret is finding the one that hits nearly 85% of your requirements. SKULabs hits and exceeds this threshold since it has all the above features.

For instance, SKULab’s order-picking feature allows for barcode-based order verification. With this feature, you can scan all your order items before shipping them, allowing you to fulfill them with 100% accuracy.

SKULabs also streamline your shipping process by printing labels from the different shipment providers you rely on. You can print these labels without switching between different software as SKULabs integrates with carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS, and many more!

As for inventory management, SKULabs allows you to see the stock levels for all your items across different sales channels in one place. Even when you rely on a multi-channel sales strategy, you can track and sync quantity changes in real time.

Generating purchase orders isn’t a problem with this order fulfillment software. You can quickly fill in the name of the distributor, store, and purchase terms. 

SKULabs offers basic reports and insights, including inventory summary, history, and cycle count. Its insights feature gives you advanced reporting and metrics related to all your sales, shipping, products, and order fulfillment efficiency.

The integrations are unlimited with SKULab. It lets you connect with shopping carts, marketplaces, point-of-sale solutions, shipping providers, and accounting and payment platforms like PayPal, QuickBooks, and Stripe.

Choose the right eCommerce solution

Running a successful eCommerce business requires an efficient inventory management and order fulfillment solution. While you can choose any inventory management and order fulfillment software, SKULabs stands out due to its comprehensive features.

It’s an all-in-one eCommerce solution that allows you to track all your multi-channel orders in one place, control, and sync inventory in real time, pick and ship inventory with 100% accuracy, and more. Sign up now to take advantage of all the features SKULabs offers.

USPS will begin requiring HS Tariff Codes on all EU-bound shipments.

What will this mean for eCommerce sellers?

Starting on March 1st 2023, there will be a new set of guidelines for businesses that send packages to countries that are now following the EU customs regulations. If you are not prepared for these changes, this can significantly slow down and add confusion to your current shipping operations costing you money, valuable time, and negatively impacting customer satisfaction.

What changes are taking place?

USPS will begin to require HS Tariff Codes on all EU-bound shipments. Every item will now need to be listed and accounted for on your customs declaration forms.

The other significant change occurs on the item’s descriptions. This requirement will force you to be more descriptive on the items in the box. For example, instead of “clothing”, it must be “men’s shirts”, “boy’s vest” or “women’s jacket”.  More examples from the USPS website below:

Guidance for Acceptable Descriptions

What are these new changes designed to do for you?

For Businesses

• Prevent loss of international outbound revenue
• Follow new EU regulations, reducing fraud and increasing accountability
• Improve speed and efficiency of cross-border ecommerce
• Meet safety and security requirements, preventing delays, fines, and penalties for noncompliance
• Increase competitiveness

For Consumers

• Know EU rules and how to properly describe contents in international shipments
• Send packages with peace of mind, avoiding delayed, discarded, or destroyed packages

What countries follow the EU custom’s rules?

Austria	Germany	Norway
Belgium	Greece	Poland
Bulgaria	Hungary	Portugal
Croatia	Ireland	Romania
Cyprus Republic	Italy	Slovakia
Czech Republic	Latvia	Slovenia
Denmark	Lithuania	Spain
Estonia	Luxembourg	Sweden
Finland	Malta	Switzerland
France	Netherlands

What steps can my eCommerce business take to simplify this process?

Whether you are selling on a single channel, or you are a multi-channel operation, these guidelines will have an impact on your shipping processes unless you are fully prepared. 

Innovative software solutions such as SKULabs can help you streamline this process by automatically filling out the required forms, and sending electronic trade documents to your supported carriers.

Your time is too valuable to manually complete these forms for each of your international shipments. Let SKULabs do the work and  save you both time and money! 

Contact Us to find out how to get your international shipping on track before March 1st!

Coming this summer 2023, USPS will be launching a new and much anticipated service, USPS-Ground Advantage.

Exclusively available to official USPS partners like SKULabs!

A light at the end of the tunnel to a long running plan for consolidating packaging options from USPS yet incorporating the best of each option, is finally coming to fruition. We expect to see this launched some time in Summer 2023. 

USPS will now consolidate First Class Package Service, USPS Retail Ground, and Parcel Select Ground, all into a simpler and more affordable method – USPS Ground Advantage. 

What does this mean for you?

Lower Prices

January 2022, the United States Postal Service implemented changes that reduced shipping USPS Retail Ground products by 7% and by 12% for Parcel Ground Select. These discounted rates will still continue for the new service incorporation.

Faster Shipping / Better Reliability

USPS – Ground Advantage will adhere to the standards of the First Class Package Service by ensuring all deliveries will be delivered in a 2-5 days window vs the previous 2-8 days as offered by Retail Ground and Parcel Select. Additionally the increase to 70 lbs that was instituted at the end of last year for the First Class Service, will also be standard on this new method. This offers a much broader option for your shipments while still hitting those shipping deadlines with accuracy!

Reducing the Decision Making

We are all aware of the challenges of researching the best shipping methods. Will it make it there on time? Do my products fit the weight restrictions? Is it affordable? USPS-Ground Advantage eliminates these questions and reduces your decision making process by incorporating the best of all packages into one. This empowers you to focus on more important aspects of running your eCommerce single or multi-channel operations! 

SKULabs is proud to announce that we will be the front-runners of this new incorporation from USPS, and we will be ready to launch this coveted new service as soon as it is available!

Click here for more information on how to set this up in you SKULabs account.