Author: Fabricio Miranda

Have you ever sold a product you didn’t actually have in stock? If so, you’re not alone: 34% of businesses have been forced to delay shipping a product because they sold something they didn’t have in hand. 

Though not uncommon, these types of mistakes aren’t great for your customers’ experience. So, how do you manage inventory replenishment processes efficiently enough to prevent it?

Inventory is the lifeblood of any product-based business. Without the right products, in the right place, at the right time, you can lose sales and customer trust.  

Would you hop in your car to drive somewhere if you knew you had less than 65% chance of arriving where you intended to go? When you operate your business without end-to-end supply chain visibility, that’s what you’re doing with your inventory. 

A trusted tool for every modern retailer, the right sales forecast can lead to better purchasing decisions and healthier cash flow. And that’s crucial, because purchasing and cash flow are two of the top 10 areas where most ecommerce businesses fail.

But whether you’re a new or experienced store owner, the task of getting sales forecasting right can leave you feeling overwhelmed — especially when attempting to forecast for new product launches.

E-commerce has ushered in the modern-day gold rush.

In the US alone, e-commerce sales are tipped to hit over $563 billion by 2025, while global e-commerce will account for 22% of retail sales by 2023. 🔥

But with the e-commerce market also growing increasingly competitive, you’ll need to do something special to stand out from the crowd.

That’s where supply chain optimization comes in.

Status Before Flieber (July 2019)

• 5 years in business
• 200 items
• $1M in Amazon sales

Table of contents

• What are the main inventory problems for online retailers?
• The harsh reality of poor inventory management
• 6 inventory ROI formulas every platform should have
• How to succeed at inventory optimization long-term

Ah, inventory management. Though we hate to admit it, it’s the one area of the business most ecommerce entrepreneurs would rather not think about.

We’re not going to sugarcoat it. Managing inventory is hard — and nailing your forecast accuracy? That’s probably the hardest part of all.

From varying lead times to unforeseeable supply chain issues, it’s no surprise so many e-commerce retailers struggle to balance stock levels.

Inventory Optimization vs. Inventory Management

No matter how long you’ve been in ecommerce, nothing will derail your progress quite like poor inventory management.

One minute your best-sellers are flying off the shelves, the next you’re out of stock with rankings and revenue slipping fast—and strange as it may sound, the very processes you’ve put in place to control your inventory, may be the very same ones draining the profit from your business.

If you’ve been in the e-commerce game for long, you already know you need an inventory system to help avoid stockouts, boost revenue, and dominate your niche. But despite the vast number of tools that claim to solve problems, very few of them are actually focused on real smart inventory optimization.

You have a profitable online store with fantastic products to pull shoppers through your digital door—but if you want recurring sales and revenue, it’s actually what happens after the sale that keeps customers coming back for more.