Small and mid-sized retailers lost approximately 3.2 million euros in profit over the past year due to inventory errors, according to internal data from Selectsoft, a Romanian provider of ERP solutions for SMEs. At market level, losses generated by inefficient inventory management can account for between 5% and 15% of a company’s profit, while around 40% of small businesses either do not track inventory at all or still rely on outdated manual systems.
Against a backdrop of changing consumer behavior, product diversification, and increasingly intense competition, inventory management has become one of the key challenges for retailers and distributors. In recent years, companies have had to manage increasingly complex product portfolios while maintaining control over actual stock levels, delivery timelines and expiry dates, as well as product traceability.
“Retailers are under greater pressure than ever before. Customers expect immediate product availability, a wider variety of options, and fast delivery, while businesses must meet these expectations without building up unnecessary inventory or losing sales due to stock shortages. For companies still relying on manual processes or incomplete data, these imbalances have a direct impact on profitability,” said Călin Buciuta, founder of Selectsoft.
According to Selectsoft, the most common challenges in the market include poor inventory visibility, stockouts, and overstocking. In an effort to respond quickly to demand, many businesses end up ordering higher volumes than actually needed, a frequent challenge for industries such as fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, technology, and grocery retail.
At the same time, insufficient stock levels or supply delays frequently lead to customer loss, affecting long-term financial performance. Approximately 1 in 5 inventory records contains errors, indicating an average inventory accuracy level of around 80%, while in physical stores this can drop to approximately 65%, significantly below the 95% benchmark achieved by high-performing organizations.
“Many of these issues can be prevented through automation and real-time access to inventory data. Companies using modern inventory management systems can reduce stockouts by as much as 50%, as inventory decisions are based on actual data rather than estimates. We are already seeing measurable improvements for one retailer operating 16 convenience stores. By implementing our solution, we reduced the time spent on goods received from around one hour per day per store to just 15 minutes per store, while supplier ordering time decreased from eight hours per week to approximately two hours,” added Călin Buciuta.
To help reduce inventory errors, Selectsoft is developing an integrated ERP system that connects inventory management with sales, procurement, and supplier ordering processes. The platform enables real-time inventory monitoring, automated alerts for low-stock or slow-moving products, demand forecasting based on sales history, and integrations with POS systems, Romania’s e-Invoicing system (e-Factura), and e-commerce platforms such as Gomag, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
