As fast-growing brands expand across channels and product lines, many are finding that spreadsheets can’t keep up, pushing them toward ERP-style systems to prevent inventory errors and unlock scalable growth.
“Managing inventory in spreadsheets will inevitably lead to errors, and those errors cost you money,” says Stephen Selgrade, director of digital and demand generation marketing at inventory management platform Cin7. “You end up committing to orders for inventory you don’t actually have because sales are coming in across multiple channels. Without clean data, you don’t know how much inventory you need, which leads to stockouts and missed sales.”
The breakdown often happens gradually. Brands patch together systems, track inventory manually and rely on intuition to fill the gaps until the business outgrows what one person can reasonably manage. That moment when operational complexity overtakes institutional knowledge is often when brands begin seriously evaluating enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, but the decision to implement such a system can be daunting.
“Founders are often juggling multiple spreadsheets that only make sense in their own heads. It works until it doesn’t and suddenly your passion project turns into a nightmare you can’t even hand off to someone else,” says Ciara Rogers, senior product manager at Cin7. “Making the leap to an ERP feels monumental because founders care so deeply about their businesses. Choosing the wrong solution can actually hold you back from taking that next step.”
A big reason implementing an ERP can be daunting is that ERP has long carried a reputation for being expensive, rigid and disruptive. Cin7’s approach is built around reducing that friction, with an inventory management software solution that provides 95% of what a traditional ERP does without the ERP headaches. “We don’t force brands to abandon everything that helped them get to where they are today,” says Selgrade. “The goal is to support growth, not disrupt what’s already working.”
At its core, Cin7 aims to unify purchasing, inventory, orders and forecasting into a single system of record, enabling brands to make decisions based on clean, connected data rather than fragmented reports. The company emphasizes it’s focused on data quality over data volume. That distinction becomes critical as brands expand beyond a handful of products or channels. Poor data doesn’t just slow operations; it compounds risk across supply chain planning, cash flow and customer experience.
“It’s not just about more data. It’s about better, more qualified data. Humans still make the decisions, but now they have clearer insights faster, which leads to better outcomes,” says Rogers. “If you choose a system you have to rip out in two years, that’s a headache. Brands want a solution that grows with them. Cin7 is built to be part of a five-year or more plan, not a temporary fix.”
For companies already using the platform, the operational impact can be measurable. HairCo, for example, slashed back-office and warehouse workload by 16 hours per week after implementing Cin7 and cut picking and packing errors from 3% to 0.5%. The brand also registered a 10% increase in sales after adopting Cin7’s built-in forecasting tools. “With Cin7, I can generate an order in 10 minutes. It saved me more than an hour and a half on some orders,” says Dion Alessi, GM at HairCo.
At Brunae Body, the gains have been both operational and psychological. “Running the business is far less stressful,” says Brunae Body co-founder Aidan Drentin. “We’re confident that as we launch more SKUs, open additional warehouses or secure new retail accounts, everything lives in one place as a single source of truth.”
As brands navigate an increasingly complex retail landscape spanning wholesale, direct-to-consumer, digital marketplaces and global supply chains, the margin for operational error continues to shrink. Managing operations with an ERP or an ERP alternative like Cin7 may not be the most glamorous part of scaling a business, but it’s becoming harder to ignore for brands looking to move at the speed of modern commerce.
Cin7 pricing starts at $350 per month, positioning the platform for growing brands that need enterprise-grade infrastructure without enterprise-level complexity. Click here for a special rate for Beauty Independent readers.
