Inventory Accuracy Improvement: How to Stop Losing Time, Money, and Units

Inventory accuracy problems do not usually announce themselves politely. They show up as oversold SKUs, late shipments, angry retailer scorecards, and customer service threads that never seem to end. If you are trying to grow, inventory accuracy improvement is not a project you tackle when you have spare time. It is one of the fastest ways to protect revenue and reduce chaos.

Most brands start by blaming the software, then the warehouse, then themselves. The truth is that accuracy is a system outcome. It comes from how receiving is done, how product moves through locations, how picks are verified, how returns are processed, and how quickly issues are surfaced to the people who can fix them. The goal is not perfection. The goal is to make accuracy repeatable under pressure.

Why accuracy breaks during growth

Growth increases complexity faster than teams expect. You add SKUs, channels, promotions, and new packaging. You expand into retailers with strict requirements. You also add more hands touching inventory. Every one of those changes increases the number of ways inventory can drift away from what your system says.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, described what new customers often bring with them when they switch providers: "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy." He explained how that pain turns into losses: "They were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items."

That story is common because small problems compound. A wrong putaway creates a mispick. A mispick creates a return. A return creates a manual adjustment. A manual adjustment creates a mystery. By the time the dust settles, the inventory ledger is more fiction than fact.

Start with the basic rule: scan everything

If you want inventory accuracy improvement, you need a simple, enforceable baseline. Everything that moves should be scanned. The moment people start doing work off-system, accuracy becomes a guess.

Connor said it as clearly as anyone can: "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." That is not a slogan. It is the foundation of an audit trail. Paper is invisible to systems, which means paper creates gaps. Gaps create drift. Drift creates oversells.

Scan discipline also makes training easier. When the workflow requires a scan at each step, the warehouse does not rely on memory and good intentions. It relies on confirmation.

Fix the invisible zones in receiving and internal moves

A lot of inventory errors are born in receiving. Product arrives, gets staged, gets moved, and only becomes visible after putaway. If your system cannot track those transitions, you will see the same pattern: the storefront says you have inventory, but the floor cannot find it quickly.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, described what strong tracking looks like: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." That is the difference between a warehouse that can locate product instantly and a warehouse that has to hunt.

He gave a practical example of why it matters: "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now, and if I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10." When product is visible while it moves, you prevent the quiet losses that happen in staging areas and temporary locations.

Use cycle counting to catch drift early

Inventory accuracy improvement is not only about preventing errors. It is also about detecting them quickly. Cycle counting is the mechanism that keeps your inventory ledger honest week after week. If you only do a wall-to-wall physical inventory once a year, you are not managing accuracy. You are documenting how far it drifted.

The most effective cycle counting is risk-based. You count high velocity SKUs more often, high value SKUs more often, and locations with a history of variance more often. The point is not to create busywork. The point is to keep drift from becoming normal.

When your WMS has a strong audit trail, cycle counts also become more actionable. You can trace where the variance likely occurred and fix the process, not just the number.

Make accuracy visible to customers, not just to operators

Accuracy improvement accelerates when customers can see the truth in the same way the warehouse can. If customers cannot see what is happening, they will create tickets, escalate questions, and interrupt work. That interruption itself reduces accuracy, because it pulls attention away from execution.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, described the value of customer-facing visibility: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." She explained why that reduces friction: "They can actually watch those progressions going on." When customers can self-serve reliable data, warehouse teams can focus on scanning, picking, and packing correctly.

Visibility also changes decision-making. When a customer can see that an inbound is still in receiving, they stop planning promotions around inventory that is not yet available. When they can see allocations, they stop overselling across channels.

Reduce pick errors with verification, not hope

Pick errors are the most painful accuracy failures because customers feel them immediately. A wrong item shipped is not just a refund. It is a customer who is less likely to trust your brand again.

Improving pick accuracy usually comes down to three levers. First, clear bin labeling and location control. Second, scan verification at pick and pack. Third, process design that avoids look-alike confusion. If your warehouse allows pickers to bypass scans when they are in a hurry, you are effectively paying for errors later.

Connor connected the dots between operational discipline and financial outcomes. When accuracy is weak, brands lose money shipping the wrong things. When accuracy is strong, brands can pursue same-day shipping and still keep mistakes low.

Stop treating returns like an afterthought

Returns are where inventory truth can fall apart quietly. If returns are processed inconsistently, you will see phantom inventory and missing inventory at the same time. A returned item that is not scanned back into stock looks like shrink. A returned item that is restocked without inspection can create customer complaints later.

Even in well-run warehouses, returns can be subjective. Connor described that challenge in plain terms: "Returns can be tricky." The best approach is to define clear decision rules, scan every return step, and quarantine questionable items until disposition is confirmed. Accuracy improves when returns are treated as a controlled workflow, not a side task.

Build improvement into the culture

Accuracy improvement is not a one-time cleanup. It is a habit. The best operations review errors, adjust workflows, and keep tightening the loop between what happens on the floor and what the system records.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10 Fulfillment, described how feedback drives better execution: "Feedback is defining feature at G10: feedback to customers, feedback to retailers, feedback on issues." When feedback is timely, small changes compound into meaningful accuracy gains.

The deeper point is that continuous improvement requires visibility. If you cannot see where drift happens, you cannot stop it. If you cannot show customers what is happening, you cannot reduce the interruptions that create errors. Accuracy is built through a system that keeps the truth and makes it usable.

How G10 supports inventory accuracy improvement

G10 focuses on scan-based execution and transaction-level tracking, so inventory stays visible while it moves. That is what makes accuracy durable under pressure. Connor defined the operational baseline: "Having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." Bryan defined the tracking standard: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." Maureen tied improvement to customer-facing visibility: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility."

If you are trying to improve inventory accuracy, start by removing the blind spots. Enforce scanning. Track inventory through every touch. Cycle count to catch drift early. Give customers real time visibility so they stop guessing. When those pieces come together, accuracy becomes less of a fight and more of a normal state. That is when growth stops feeling like chaos and starts feeling like control.