Category: Inventory

As of late 2023, many large retailers are still struggling to balance their inventory levels. Merchants and supply chain leaders are fighting to reduce inventory glut and protect margins as carrying costs increase.

But finding the right balance between your sales and inventory is a tall order. To keep overhead low and profit margins high, understanding your inventory is crucial.

Here are some of the top metrics leading brands use to track inventory, plus tips for how and when to apply them for better sales, profitability, and cash flow management. 👇

In a world of supply chain disruptions, raw materials shortages and labor issues, getting your products to your warehouses, and then to your customers, can take a long time.

Add in inefficiencies in your own operations, and you could be looking at weeks or even months to get your products from the office whiteboard to your customer’s front porch.

Which SKUs do you order? In what quantities? And when?

To guarantee sales several months out, you need confident answers to each of these questions. 

While you may not be able to control which products will go...

According to a study from the IHL Group, inventory distortion (i.e., stockouts and overstocks) will cost retailers nearly $1.8 trillion in 2023. That’s roughly the size of Brazil’s entire GDP. 

The impact of stockouts on customer satisfaction can be devastating for modern commerce brands. In 2022, more than half of global e-shoppers reported being unable to purchase products due to stockouts.

According to one McKinsey survey, 71% of consumers said they switched brands or retailers when they couldn’t find their desired product in stock. Only 13% stayed...

You’re doing well on Amazon and you know it’s time to branch out into other channels. You also know there's a huge opportunity in adding Shopify to the mix.

As an online retailer, you know that managing your inventory levels efficiently is becoming ever more critical to your bottom line.

You can’t afford stockouts, but you also can’t risk tying up your capital in excess inventory. You have to find that Goldilocks “just right” number for each SKU. 

One of the best ways to do that is to figure out your optimal inventory to sales ratio.

With the rise of generative AI like ChatGPT, Bard and Adobe Firefly, there is great potential for DTC brands to increase their productivity using the power of machine learning.

When it comes to inventory planning, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all. With more brands selling on more channels, omnichannel commerce is here to stay. But is your inventory planning capable of keeping up?

Whether you’re scaling an existing wholesale channel or just starting to accept wholesale orders, inventory management can get tricky — especially as your business grows. Even if you have the most organized system for tracking your retail inventory, wholesale inventory requires deeper insights into customer data and product availability. 

In the early days of retail, a small business could survive and thrive while operating a single storefront with in-store only sales. Though some businesses still operate this way today, anyone in the retail game knows that multi-channel inventory is becoming less of an option and more of a necessity, especially if you want to scale.

Measure twice, cut once. The direct meaning of this common saying is relevant for carpenters, but its symbolic meaning is important for businesses in all industries. 

Every ounce of preparation is worth its weight in gold, especially when it comes to processes and practices that have significant repercussions when done improperly. Demand planning for your supply chain is one such process.