An inventory company is a business that typically hires its services out to other companies and businesses to perform inventory counting and similar services for the company. This can typically include yearly inventory counting for a large store, as well as more frequent smaller scale inventory work. An inventory company will usually perform these services for businesses that do not wish to allocate employee hours for inventory counts or for companies that wish to have the inventory process be as quick and efficient as possible.
Inventory counting is the process by which companies count the actual product, or inventory, located within a store to ensure an accurate understanding of materials or merchandise at a business. This can be done by employees of a business and may be done on a somewhat regular basis, such as every month or few weeks or yearly. Yearly inventory counting, especially at larger businesses, can be an extensive process that takes a full week or more to complete. In order to make this type of inventory count as simple as possible, some businesses hire an inventory company to come to the store and perform inventory counts for them.
An inventory company typically hires and trains employees to accurately and quickly perform inventory counts, often focusing on timeliness and the ability to find and count products accurately. Much as retail businesses will train cashiers with an emphasis on keeping transactions fast and accurate, inventory counters are trained to count products quickly and to meet certain goals while performing an inventory count. If these targets are not met, much like other businesses, the employees will often be encouraged to improve their abilities. Bonuses may be given to certain counters who consistently display fast and accurate counting skills.
Inventory counting is usually performed by an inventory company at a large business overnight while the store is closed to customers. This is done to try to prevent customers from interfering with counts by moving product, taking products away from an area as it is being counted, or adding merchandise to areas incorrectly. Some companies will mark out areas or products with tags during the day to speed up the process at night and will often signal that an area has been counted through the use of similar tags. The employees of an inventory company can also work with the other business’s employees to speed up the process or to help find products that may have been lost or otherwise displaced.
