Category: Inventory

In the cutthroat game of e-commerce, it’s all about keeping costs down and margins up.

Every day, in every media outlet, you’ll see articles discussing retail companies with overstock inventory. Even large brands are still working to balance their inventory levels post pandemic, with 66% of owners and executives reporting overstocks.

To solve this problem, brands often fall back on what they do best: drive more sales. 

Markdowns, promotions, and clearance sales are the default methods for offloading excess inventory. But these approaches can have a major impact on your margins.

The truth is, profitable scaling starts long before the point...

According to some estimates, there are over 12 million e-commerce companies worldwide. In other words, the landscape is crowded. 

If you’re left with too many units and no way to move them, you could be experiencing one of the worst (yet most common) problems for modern commerce brands: dead stock.

An estimated 46% of stock losses come from human error, with US retailers having roughly $1.43 stuck in stock for every $1 sale they make.

But what exactly is dead stock? And why is it important to avoid it? In this article, we’ll share tips to help you clear your obsolete inventory and improve your demand forecasting systems to maintain the right inventory levels moving forward.

Table...

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. 👇

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?