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Category: Inventory

What’s the Real Impact of AI in Inventory Forecasting?

What’s the Real Impact of AI in Inventory Forecasting?

From just 4% in 2016, nearly a third of retailers are now using AI. But there’s a lot more to it than customer service bots and product recommendations. For retailers spending multiple hours per week on inventory, AI can help you make better replenishment decisions in less time.

Last week, we explored the top four use cases for AI in inventory. Today we’re taking a closer look at its current and future impact on what is arguably the most critical inventory task: forecasting.

AI in Inventory: 4 Practical Use Cases for Multichannel Brands

AI in Inventory: 4 Practical Use Cases for Multichannel Brands

After reaching the peak of the hype cycle last year, the AI fatigue is setting in. Modern retailers are done talking. They want practical ways to deliver value from AI.

The truth behind the buzz is that AI can help you achieve success with inventory as you scale — if you know how to use it.

With an unmatched ability to crunch vast amounts of data, AI can drastically improve your forecasting, save your team hours in manual data analysis, and help you make profitable business decisions in a fraction of the time.

Here are four ways modern brands and...

From Near Bankruptcy to $30M+: Zugu’s Planning Success

From Near Bankruptcy to $30M+: Zugu’s Planning Success

Tim Angel always wanted to build his own business. With a natural knack for problem solving, he loved coming up with new ideas to help make life easier.Today, he and the team at Zugu sell over $30M per year of their best-selling iPad cases. Tim and the team have expanded the brand’s footprint from three to 17 countries and are consistently leveling up its sales with each new launch.But it didn’t happen overnight. We sat down with Tim and his sister, Chief Operating Officer Jenn Angel, to get a glimpse into Zugu’s incredible story and learn how a highly...

Sales Increase vs. Lost Sales Reduction: A Story of Two Retailers

Sales Increase vs. Lost Sales Reduction: A Story of Two Retailers

From Amazon to Shopify and beyond, no matter which corner of commerce you operate in, you lose sales when your products go out of stock.

Every year, retailers lose an estimated $1.8 trillion due to inventory mismanagement. That’s roughly 7.8% of total global retail sales.

At Flieber, our team has onboarded over 3 million SKUs. We’ve found that the number for this subset of products is even more drastic: our calculations point to an average of 11.2% in lost sales

To understand the impact of these numbers on your own business, let me tell you the tale...

3 Cases Where Running Out of Stock Actually Makes Sense

3 Cases Where Running Out of Stock Actually Makes Sense

The other day, I was chatting with a customer who said something that transformed my view on inventory. He said: “If I run out of stock on Amazon, I'm screwed. But I love running out of stock on Shopify.”

That’s right. He used the ‘L’ word to refer to stockouts. A problem known for contributing to nearly $2 trillion in inventory costs. Clearly, I needed to know more.

How to Balance the Risk of Stockouts vs. Overstocks

How to Balance the Risk of Stockouts vs. Overstocks

Stockouts and overstocks are part of the game in modern commerce. But that doesn’t mean you can’t control their impact on your business. 

As a retailer, it’s your job to make sure you have enough of your bestsellers to satisfy demand, while avoiding the trap of overstocked inventory.

Today, we’re taking a closer look at the risks involved with stockouts and overstocks, and sharing practical tips to help you strike the right balance.

3 Ways to Combat Lost Sales Due to Stockouts

3 Ways to Combat Lost Sales Due to Stockouts

If you’re here, you know your inventory mistakes are costing you a lot more than lost or deferred transactions.

Inventory constraints like low inventory, stockouts, and overstocks, can do long-term damage to your margins and future sales. For some, it can take weeks or even months to recover from a single miscalculation in your forecasts.

So, how do you fix it? The solution to inventory problems doesn’t stop at better forecasting. It’s a combination of better planning, better visibility, and quick course correction.

Let’s break it down.

Product Lifecycle Management: 3 Strategies to Boost Your E-Commerce Sales and Profits

Product Lifecycle Management: 3 Strategies to Boost Your E-Commerce Sales and Profits

Imagine waking up to discover that just 17 of your 220 SKUs generated 80% of your profits. For Flieber CEO Fabricio Miranda, this was one of many harsh reality checks in his past e-commerce career.

From that moment on, he began to manage his brand as a portfolio of products, carefully considering the lifecycle phase of each one to maximize growth and profitability

Because the truth is, the steps that got you to early success with a couple of products, aren’t enough to build an enduring brand. As a product matures, you need different strategies to stay...

5 Ways to Measure Lost Sales Due to Inventory Constraints

5 Ways to Measure Lost Sales Due to Inventory Constraints

If you’re like most retailers, you’re losing sales in more ways than you think.

Understanding your lost sales isn’t just about tallying up the number of times you sold less than you should have because you stocked out.

No matter what or where you sell, customer returns, backorders, missed conversions, and lost rankings can all have an impact on your brand’s current and future sales.

To scale your revenue and protect your investment in customer acquisition, here are five things you don’t want to overlook when measuring lost sales.

The Tale of an E-commerce Brand

The Tale of an E-commerce Brand

Managing inventory is arguably the hardest task of any retail brand. That is especially true for e-commerce, where sales, advertising, payments and even the customers are digital and can be managed with the click of a button, while inventory is still physical and needs real-world interactions to be produced, moved and stored.