What is an inventory management app?
A inventory management application is a web or desktop application that allows companies to manage their inventory. An inventory management app typically tracks the location, quantity, unit cost, and shipping information for all items in a company’s warehouse or supply chain. The application may also provide a stock dashboard that shows the total number of each item in stock at every warehouse and on order from suppliers.
Inventory management apps are similar to many other business-to-consumer (B2C) delivery apps with real-time mapping components, such as task apps, delivery apps, and transportation rental apps. Instacart is a popular inventory management app that works with thousands of grocery stores across the United States.
Examples of inventory management apps built with Crowdbotics:
- A web app to save resellers time
- An app that allows users to see and bid on residential availability for inventory storage. Users can manage inventory and track tracking information.
What is the typical cost to build an inventory management app?
An inventory management app usually costs about $37,500 to build. However, the total cost can be as low as $25,000 or as high as $50,000. An inventory management app with a low number of features (also known as a minimum viable product, or MVP) will be more affordable than an app that includes all intended functionality.
For example, here are some previous inventory management app price quotes from Crowdbotics:
How long does it take to build an inventory management app?
An inventory management app usually takes 400 hours to build. However, an inventory management app can be built in as few as 267 hours, or in as many as 667 hours. The exact timeline mostly depends on how complicated your specific app is. As a general rule, it will take longer if you require highly custom designs, niche features, complex logic, or non-standard release platforms.
For example, some previous inventory management apps build with Crowdbotics received the following hourly estimates:
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Crowdbotics has quoted and built hundreds of applications for teams of all sizes. Browse our historical estimates by industry and app type to understand possible costs and considerations.
How to successfully grow your inventory management application
An inventory management app can grow by increasing the efficiency of the sales cycle. For example, an inventory management app for retailers can be optimized to provide a view of the products that are available in each store. This means that it would be easy to see which stores have the item in stock and which do not. It also makes it easier for salespeople to take orders from mobile devices, without needing to communicate with managers back at headquarters.
Risks and challenges of building an inventory management application
An inventory management app faces risks related to the manipulation of inventory data, product theft, and customer dissatisfaction. Before creating an inventory management app, you should consult with a legal professional to ensure that your intended use case does not violate the rights of suppliers or distribution channels. You will also want to ensure that you can identify and prevent tampering with product data through an API integration with third-party solution providers.
