Inventory Software for Small Sellers, Explained by Category
You don't need software to manage inventory well. You need habits. Software makes good habits faster. Here's what each kind of tool is for, so you can tell which one fits where you are.
We don't rank brands or accept payment for placement. This page explains categories so you can evaluate any tool yourself.
The four kinds of tools
| Type | What it does | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet | A list of SKUs, quantities, locations and costs that you update by hand. | Starting out, one channel, under a few hundred active SKUs. | Manual updates, easy to forget a step, no live sync. |
| Inventory app | Tracks items, quantities and locations, often with phone barcode scanning and photos. | Organizing a stockroom, counts, knowing what's where. | May not connect to marketplaces; check what it syncs with. |
| Crosslisting tool | Copies listings from one marketplace to others; some delist when an item sells. | Resellers with one-of-a-kind items on several apps. | Supported marketplaces, whether delisting is automatic, browser-extension limits. |
| Multichannel inventory software | Holds one quantity per SKU and pushes updates to connected channels and sometimes a warehouse. | Repeatable stock sold in several places. | Monthly cost, setup time, how it handles bundles and variants. |
Start with a spreadsheet
A spreadsheet with these columns covers most small shops: SKU, Item, Location, Qty, Cost, Reorder at, Channels, Date added. Sort by location to make a pick route, by date added to find slow stock, and highlight rows where Qty is at or below Reorder at.
Signs you've outgrown it
- You've oversold more than once in a month.
- Updating quantities across channels takes more than 15 to 20 minutes a day.
- Someone else helps pick and pack, and they can't keep the sheet current.
- You restock the same items and want reorder alerts.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Does it connect to every marketplace you use, through an official integration?
- Does it use your SKUs, or force its own?
- Does it handle variants (size, color) and bundles?
- Can it store bin locations and print or scan labels?
- Can you export everything to CSV if you leave?
- Is there a free trial long enough to run a real week of orders through it?
Starter hardware
Barcode scanners
Scanners that type into any app or spreadsheet.
See options on Amazon (opens in a new tab)Thermal label printers
One printer for shipping, product and bin labels.
See options on Amazon (opens in a new tab)Also see the free IMXPlus tools, which do the most common inventory math in your browser. And we're building an IMXPlus app for small resellers.