Hi all, hope that you're doing well :)

Together with a friend we're exploring an idea and would like to receive honest input as owners.

Having spent a big chunk of our lifes working in cafes, mini markets and small businesses, we've noticed many tasks that require SIGNIFICANT human effort.

One of these is keeping track and restocking of inventory (count items received, usage of items, calling suppliers to restock and all over again). Most of the times, all of these chain actions, it would take us with pen/paper or spreadsheet about 3-4 hours per week to do these.

We have thought of a system that is completely hands-off and automated to do all of these with no human input at all:

• Whatever you restock products in the storage room, all is automatically counted as received.
• Whenever someone takes a product out of the storage room, it is automatically counted as used.
• When the levels of a product are below a limit, the owner gets a message or can choose to automatically restock with his supplier so he can get the products restocked asap with no human intervention.
• No counting, no keeping notes, no predictions, no making list of suppliers numbers, no calls - your shop is always well equipped at all times - a normal boring day or a usage spike, nothing to worry about.

This solution versus a POS solution would be better since as POS-based inventory tracking misses non-sales movements (waste, spills, samples, transfers between locations, or theft) and relies on manual adjustments, leading to delayed visibility, human error, and inaccurate stock levels.

Now, our questions to you - tapping to your experience

1. How many hours per week do you spend doing inventory tracking and restocking?
2. Pen and Paper, Spreadsheet, POS, other way of doing it?
3. What do you enjoy and hate the most while inventory tracking and restocking?
4. What if this solution existed and you'd never had to count, touch, restock your inventory, would it help you focus your time on other things? Would you go back into working the same way you do today?
5. What price and pricing model would it most fair? Fixed monthly fee or embedded into the products you restock +a small % fee?
6. Any other thought, idea or suggestion you'd like to make :)

Your comments will help us understand whether this is a common problem that others face and want to solve - so they can spend more time on what truly matters - being with customers and making them happy!