As e-commerce continues to grow, inventory management becomes increasingly critical for businesses to maintain their competitive edge. With the multitude of inventory management platforms available in the market, it can be challenging to choose the right one for your business needs.

This blog explores Shopify inventory management apps, focusing on their capabilities to automate and optimize e-commerce operations. It compares Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner, highlighting differences in features like forecasting, reports, purchase orders, replenishment, backorder management, analytics, goal setting, and pricing. Fabrikatör distinguishes itself with comprehensive features like backorder management, customizable analytics, and goal setting at a competitive price, while Inventory Planner offers standard functionalities.

Let’s start with the main problems that eCommerce businesses and Shopify store owners face in terms of inventory management.

Inventory issues eCommerce and Shopify shops face

• Being Out-of-Stock or Overstock: If a store doesn't stock enough inventory of a product, the store faces being out of stock. Being stockout is especially risky for best-selling products which are the revenue-generating products for that store while being overstocked increases the warehouse costs, affecting cash flow. You need prioritisation grid to solve excess inventory problem
• Inefficient Inventory Management: Poorly managed inventory leads to operational inefficiencies, affecting order fulfillment and customer satisfaction.
• Lack of Visibility Into Sales and Inventory Data: Without clear insights, businesses struggle to make informed decisions, risking overstock or stockouts.
• Not Replenishing on Time: Delayed restocking can result in missed sales opportunities, especially for high-demand items.
• Not tracking incoming inventory when planning inventory: Difficulty in monitoring incoming stock complicates inventory planning, affecting sales strategies.
• Difficulty Setting and Achieving Growth Goals: Without clear objectives and metrics, businesses find it challenging to drive growth and measure success.

Quickly jump to the comparison table: Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner

Why is Shopify inventory tracking not enough?

If you're new in eCommerce, with limited product variety and low inventory, Shopify’s limited inventory management features may be enough for your store. However, what about in the future? Keeping a more professional inventory record is essential, particularly if you have a variety of products and want to expand.

You need an inventory management system that can completely automate with Shopify and has features made expressly to optimize inventory for your store's success if you want to accomplish your aim.

• Limited Tracking Capability: For merchants with intricate workflows, Shopify's native inventory tracking is too simplistic, resulting in manual changes and a higher chance of error.
• Multichannel Capabilities: Shopify allows multi-location monitoring; however, the maximum number of locations that you can track is determined by your price plan. Additionally, it has limitations on certain items, so if you sell through various channels, you will need to manage them independently.
• Limited Data & Limited Forecast: Shopify's inventory tracking only retains data for ninety days, which makes it difficult to do long-term analysis, estimate demand, and assess past performance. As a result, your store's Shopify inventory data could not be trustworthy.
• Limited Replenishmenet Capabilities: Shopify's inability to generate purchase orders for numerous SKUs and recommend order quantities presents a barrier for expanding organizations when it comes to inventory replenishment.
• POS Issues: Shopify's POS feature can cause problems because it permits sales of goods long after inventory is depleted, giving an inaccurate impression of reorder points.
• Restrictions on Third-Party Fulfillment Integration: Using third-party fulfillment services (3PLs) to create transfers for products is not permitted by Shopify.

What do Shopify inventory management apps offer?

Shopify inventory management apps are designed to help e-commerce businesses manage their inventory efficiently. These apps help you keep track of their products, monitor stock levels, and streamline their supply chain operations.

With Shopify inventory management apps, you can automate many inventory-related tasks, such as stock updates, order management, and purchase order processing. These apps provide you with real-time visibility into their inventory levels, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and avoid stockouts and overstocking.

Why should you choose an inventory management app for your e-commerce business?

Inventory management affects your bottom line directly. Poor inventory management can lead to stock-outs, overstocking, wasted resources, and lost sales. Businesses need to have a clear understanding of their inventory levels, sales trends, and customer demand to optimize their operations and maximize profitability.

Effective inventory management will help you reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and increase revenue.

Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner

In this blog, we will compare two popular Shopify inventory management apps - Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner.

Both apps are designed to help you manage your inventory efficiently, but they differ in their features, functionality, pricing, and user experience.

The table below gives an overview of the features.

Now, we will analyze the key differences between these two apps and provide insight into each feature so you can choose the most suitable app for your business.

Features Overview: Fabrikatör vs. Inventory Planner

Demand Forecasting for Shopify Store

Forecasting enables you to predict future demand with greater accuracy.

‍By analyzing historical sales data and market trends, forecasting features allow you to identify potential risks and opportunities, enabling you to make data-driven decisions. This helps you avoid stock-outs and overstocking, optimize your inventory levels, and ensure you have the right products available at the right time.

Both Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner offer forecasting capabilities that help you predict future demand and optimize your inventory levels.

Fabrikatör's forecasting provides actionable insights such as dynamic recommendations: which products to restock, how many quantities to restock, and when to restock.  Its forecasting algorithm takes into account various factors: Seasonality, trends, and historical data to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of your demand patterns.

Sales Reports for Shopify

Both Inventory Planner and Fabrikatör offer “Reports” feature to enable you to analyze your sales, inventory, and purchasing data.

While Inventory Planner offers the standard template reports for your business's common needs, with Fabrikatör, you can also create widgets from the reports you will use. In addition, you can compare your store data over different periods, to identify trends and patterns.

Create your report with Fabrikatör: Whichever data you need, you can create your own report with 100+ business metrics and filters updated in real-time, synced with your store. You can always edit and also regularly send the report to your team’s email.

‍Standard Reports: Stockouts, Sales at Risk, Revenue Forecast, Selling Fast, Selling Slow products’ report is already prepared for you. Furthermore, the sales performance reports specifically focused on Fantastic Sales, Moderate Sales, Poor Sales, Dead Stocks, Out of Stocks, or Inventory Levels are also available with one click.

Purchase Orders on Shopify

For Shopify merchants, both Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner offer robust Purchase Order (PO) functionalities, allowing users to generate, modify, and share POs seamlessly with suppliers and team members.

However, a distinctive advantage of Fabrikatör is its backorder feature. Unlike Inventory Planner, Fabrikatör enables you to monetize incoming inventory by setting arrival times and adding buffers to POs, thus allowing customers to purchase products even when they're out of stock, enhancing revenue opportunities and customer satisfaction.

Shopify Replenishment

With the right replenishment, you can optimize your stock levels, reduce carrying costs, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize your inventory levels for maximum profitability.

Fabrikatör's replenishment feature automates the replenishment process, ensuring you always have the right quantity of products in stock.

Inventory Planner also offers you the ability to automate your replenishment tasks or stock management. If you’re looking for dynamic replenishment recommendations synced with real-time data, Fabrikatör analyzes sales data and inventory levels to generate purchase orders automatically, saving time and minimizing the risk of human error.

Backorder & Preorders for Shopify

When it comes to backorders, Inventory Planner falls short when compared to Fabrikatör.

Fabrikatör provides you with the ability to turn out-of-stock products into instant revenue and keep your customers engaged. The Backorder feature in Fabrikatör allows you to take customer orders for out-of-stock products, enabling them to capitalize on sales opportunities and build customer loyalty.

By leveraging Fabrikatör's Backorder feature, you can turn out-of-stock products into revenue and keep your customers engaged, ultimately boosting your bottom line and gaining a competitive edge.

Here, you can see how Fabrikatör backorders work:

Shopify Analytics

Fabrikatör's analytics feature provides you with insights that unlock the true growth potential of your business. The platform offers flexible reports that enable you to analyze their sales data and inventory levels, providing you with valuable insights into your business operations. With Fabrikatör's analytics feature, businesses can identify trends, optimize their operations, and make data-driven decisions.

As mentioned in the Reports section, Inventory Planner also has reports enabling you to make analytics and they merge the two features.

Goal Setting

Fabrikatör's goal-setting feature enables you to turn your growth mindset into a habit by setting and tracking growth goals like average order value (AOV), sales revenue, number of orders, and more.

Fabrikatör Goal Setting provides you a real-time visibility into your progress toward your goals, enabling you to adjust your strategies and tactics accordingly.

It's designed for you to focus on achieving your growth objectives and driving long-term success.

After setting your goals, they will appear in your main dashboard & updated with your real-time data for you to see where your goals stand in reality.

Inventory Planner does not offer a Goal Setting feature.

Pricing: Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner

When comparing the features and pricing of Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner, it's important to note that Fabrikatör offers a wider range of features at a more affordable price point.

Despite being more expensive, Inventory Planner's feature set is limited to Forecasting, Purchasing, and Reporting, whereas Fabrikatör offers additional features such as  Backorders and Goal Setting.

Fabrikatör's starting price of $99/month is significantly more affordable than Inventory Planner's starting price of $249.99/month.

This makes Fabrikatör a more attractive option for you looking to optimize your inventory management processes without breaking the bank.

How to solve inventory issues with Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner:

• Out of Stock Products: While you can set backorders and turn out-of-stock products into revenue, Inventory Planner does not have a backorders feature. Forecasting is offered for both platforms, with Fabrikatör you can set your lead time and get dynamic restock recommendations. Also with its diverse data rendering, forecasting is observed to be more accurate.
• Inefficient Inventory Management: Both Inventory Planner and Fabrikatör offer reports, in addition to template reports, with Fabrikatör you can create your own reports with 100+ metrics as well.
• Lack of Visibility Into Sales and Inventory Data: Both apps support replenishment, and with Fabrikatör, you can benefit from the replenishment recommendations prepared with real time data and forecasting.
• Inaccurate Purchase Orders: You can create PO’s with both Inventory Planner and Fabrikatör. With Fabrikatör, you can set lead times to your PO’s and activate backorders. Synced with your front-page, enables you to keep selling while your products are on the way.
• Difficulty Setting and Achieving Growth Goals: Setting growth goals is not supported in Inventory Planner. You can use the reports provided and set your goals manually. With Fabrikatör, your goals are placed in your dashboard, showing the progress with real time data.
• Pricing: Fabrikatör offers a more affordable pricing plan starting at $99 per month compared to Inventory Planner's starting price of $249.99 per month.