Inventory management is the process of ordering, handling, storing, and using a company's non-capitalized assets. For some business, this involves raw materials and components, whiles others may only deal with finished stock items ready for sale. Either way, inventory management all comes down to balance- having the right amount of stock, in the right place, at the right time. Finished goods are products that are complete and ready for sales. These may have been manufactured by the business itself, or purchase as a whole, finished product from a supplier. Most retailers will either purchase whole, finished products from a supplier, or have custom product manufactured for them by a third-party. Finished goods are therefore often ( but not always) one of the only types of inventory needing to be handled within retail inventory management.

Raw materials are any items used to manufacture finished products, or the individual components that go into them. These can be produced or sourced by a business itself or purchase from a supplier. For example: A business that makes its own bespoke furniture may purchase materials from a supplier. While a small business supplying herbs may actually grow these itself. Inventory forecasting is essentially making an informed projection on how much stock will be needed to satisfy demand over a given time period. It starts with a simple demand forecast, then what's already in stock to plan how much inventory is required going forward.