If you run a small, goods-based business, you’ll know that managing inventory well is critical to your success. But as the number and complexity of ecommerce channels continue to increase, and customer preferences continue to evolve, it can be overwhelming to manage inventory across multiple online and bricks and mortar stores.

You may manage your inventory using Excel, but this can be manual, time consuming and prone to errors. And while there are a number of inventory solutions on the market, many aren’t suitable for small, goods-based businesses. This can make it hard to understand the true cost and demand of your products, potentially impacting your revenue and cash flow.

That’s why we’re acquiring LOCATE Inventory (LOCATE), a cloud-based inventory management provider based in the US. The LOCATE team will be joining Xero to help us enhance our existing inventory solution in Xero, so you can better manage your inventory and improve your financial performance.

It’s still early days, but our vision is to provide an inventory management solution that will help you:

• save time on manual and repetitive data entry, so you have more time to focus on tasks that help your business thrive

• manage the balance of supply and demand in your business, so you don’t over-purchase stock and can better manage your cash flow

• make smart decisions about how you price your products, so you can improve the profitability of your business

• grow your business sales, by making it easier to sell on new sales channels and reach a wider audience

In the meantime, our product teams will be getting our platform ready by updating our existing inventory solution in Xero. In the months ahead, you’ll notice some pages will have a fresh new look. These will include the product details page (including history and notes), as well as the workflows to edit an item, make an adjustment to stock, import an item and import an opening balance.

This is all part of our work to upgrade the technology that underpins our platform, so we’re prepared to benefit from LOCATE’s inventory capability and expertise. As always, we’ll continue to listen to your feedback about what you’d like to see in Xero, so we can develop an inventory solution that gives you a complete picture of your profit margins by product and channel – all in the one place.