Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner

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.

Here are the main problems that most the e-commerce business have, and the solutions that inventory management platforms offer for each:

Main Problems of E-Commerce Businesses

• Out of Stock Products
  ‍Backorders
  Forecasting
• Inefficient Inventory Management
  ‍Analytics
• Lack of Visibility Into Sales and Inventory Data‍
  Replenishment
• Inaccurate Purchase Orders
  ‍Purchase Orders
• Difficulty Setting and Achieving Growth Goals
  ‍Goal Setting Reports

Quickly jump to comparison table: Fabrikatör vs Inventory Planner

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 stock outs 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. It is essential for businesses 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 a Nutshell

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

Forecasting

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.

Reports

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.

With Fabrikatör: Create your own report: 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

Fabrikatör and Inventory Planner both have Purchase Orders feature.
You can create, edit and share those PO with your supplier / teammates in both apps.

Since Inventory Planner does not have a backorder feature, you cannot turn your on-the-way products into revenue.

With Fabrikatör, you can set the arrival time & add a buffer to your PO’s and activate backorder to enable you buyers to purchase your out-of-stock products.

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

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

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.
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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.
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Inventory Planner does not offer a Goal Setting feature.

Pricing

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.
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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.

Pros & Cons

Final Verdict: Problem - Solutions

• 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.