Picture this: The products you work so hard to sell online have "sell by" dates that are enforced by law. After this date, you have to throw them out. What would that scenario do to your supply chain and your efforts to manage inventory, not to mention your sales?
While common items like clothing, electronics and jewelry can sit around for weeks or months before someone purchases them, you, too, might have your own internal "sell by" benchmarks - dates by which you want to get them off the shelf and out the door so you can sell newer or different items.
For those who grow, manufacture, or distribute food products, time is of the essence and "sell by" dates are very real. They face other challenges as well:
- Demand. What foods are "hot" in a given moment?
- Supply. Are those things in season or even available?
Regulation. Food has to be traced and tracked by regulatory agencies. The producer has to know where an item or "batch" of items is at any given moment so they can be recalled if required.Unleashed, an inventory management software product developed in New Zealand, helps food producers keep track of what they sell and how much it costs to produce. It's specially tailored for the unique challenges facing merchants who supply restaurants, other food producers, and the general public, and who sell both online and off.
