How to Manage Uniform Inventory: 5 Pro Tips

Why Should I Manage My Uniform Inventory?

As a growing business, one of the most challenging hurdles is figuring out how to manage uniform inventory for your employees. We often work with clients who spend far too much time managing uniform requests and keeping track of inventory when they should be worrying about more important things pertaining to their daily operations.

At Accent Branding, we have been helping companies manage uniform inventory and orders since 2005. We have learned a lot along the way. We have five pro tips to share with you regarding managing uniform inventory to streamline your day-to-day workflow, making your life easier and your employees’ lives easier.

How to Manage Uniform Inventory

So without further ado, let’s get into our five pro tips on how to manage uniform inventory for your employees:

1. Count Your Current Inventory

By far, the easiest way to get started with uniform management is first to figure out precisely what you have on hand. It is much harder to calculate a meaningful management approach without first knowing your starting point.

There are many ways to keep track of inventory; some of these paid services are great tools for those looking to maximize their organization, but you can’t go wrong with the trusty ole’ Excel spreadsheet (or Google Sheets spreadsheet if you are on the Google train).

To keep things simple and effective, we recommend giving each uniform piece a unique identifier, also known as a SKU. This process will vary greatly depending on what works best for you and your business, but generally speaking, something logical like SHIRTNAVYM for a size medium navy shirt will be much easy to remember than S0198M34N, for example.

Additionally, establishing a naming convention for your items will keep things consistent and easy to remember when dealing in large quantities. Make sure when counting your current inventory you do so accurately, making sure to have someone else double check your counts. It may seem menial, but often humans make mistakes when it comes to tasks involving repetitive counting and sorting.

2. Build an Online Company Store

Although this may sound outside of reach, at Accent Branding, we provide our customers with a seamless online company store that allows their employees to place orders, view order history, and have orders automatically fulfilled without the headache of manual uniform management.

Our customers can all agree that our automated system has revolutionized the way they conduct their business since they no longer have to worry about uniform management tasks. If you are looking for the same results, contact us today to schedule a demo and see our platform firsthand. 

3. Keep it Simple

Often times the biggest struggle our customers face when managing uniform inventory is that they have an unnecessary number of options for their employees. We love options here at Accent Branding, but sometimes too many options are worse than not having enough options. This is especially true with uniforms.

But if you find you need a large number of options, that’s where we come into play. Our automated online ordering system allows you to provide your employees with as many options as you want without having to deal with the stresses of managing each one. If you’d like to learn more about how we manage uniform inventory for other businesses like yours, get in touch with us today!

4. Curate PAckages for employees

In some cases, it may be beneficial to put together uniform packages, or a set of pre-picked pieces of clothing and accessories, to offer to employees. A common approach for this tip is to curate a new-hire uniform package that all employees must wear at a minimum.

Curated uniform packages make for a more streamlined ordering process and can save a lot of time and money in the form of employees spending less time picking the pieces for their uniforms. But if you don’t know where to begin with uniform curation, that’s why we’re here!

5. Save Time and Money With Accent Branding

At this point, you probably are wondering where you will find the time to manage uniform inventory for your company. But not to worry! We do that for a living and are always looking for new businesses to join the Accent Branding family. 

Our company specializes in uniform management for businesses, providing a customizable online ordering portal for employees to place orders that get automatically fulfilled by us. We are just the company for you if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution to managing uniform inventory and orders. Don’t reinvent the wheel; Get in touch today to learn more about our process and schedule a demo.