Common Inventory Mistakes An E-commerce Seller Makes

By Author: Sudeesh Dodda
Total Articles: 61
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Are you thinking to set your foot right on the eCommerce world and make it a big success? Then looking on only a few aspects like the right products, target audience and the discounted price is not enough. If you are not into drop shipping then inventory management is the major tasks you need to strictly focus on. Or else it will cost you a huge amount and eat away your profit margins. We have listed down some of the most common inventory mistakes eCommerce sellers make.
Common inventory mistakes :

Mistake 1: No Market Research
Before even picking up a product to sell, a seller should do in-depth market research. Many sellers sometimes fall into the misconception that the best brands and known products will sell fast. But if you are selling in a particular region and focusing on a particular set of customers then you need to first find the answer to the below questions in Inventory Mistakes :
• Who are your customers?
• What are their needs?
• What is their frequent search history? Or what they usually look for?
• At what times of the day are they online?
• What ...
... is their average spending while buying a product?
Then about the competitors
• Who are your competitors?
• What is their product pricing?
• At what times they change their product pricing?
• How and where are they advertising?
• What kinds of discounts and sales promotion do they offer?
You need to find an answer to these questions before even thinking of selling your product and then decide the marketing strategy. As you get the answer to these Inventory Mistakes questions you can set the right marketing strategy targeting the right customers.
Mistake 2: Absence of Forecasting
Not forecasting accurately can end you up attracting dissatisfied customers. While making purchase decisions, the sellers usually make the mistake of trusting their guts rather than checking the actual inventory. Relying on your gut feeling can lead to either overstocking or understocking which becomes a major inventory management issues. If you are out of a product and it’s still displaying on your product page then it will lead to a bad impression on your customers. If you are overstocked which is not selling, then you will experience a lower return on investment and at the same time higher storage costs.
Introduce the forecasting techniques like KartzHub product management software in your business model to identify market trends and know what your competitor is doing. Forecasting techniques also give an estimation of how to manage your expenses and revenue.
Mistake 3: Doing Yearly inventory Checks
Often businesses dedicate a single or two days a year for physical inventory checks. This has become an outdated practice as well as counter-productive which creates various inventory problems. There is an alternative solution for this. You can count your inventory at frequent intervals so that you can easily find out errors. It has also been observed that if you implement the counting process on a daily basis it is less disruptive and time-consuming.
Mistake 4: Not having a proper Contingency plan
Registration mistakes, misplaced products, theft by employees and sometimes even overselling can end up losing track of your inventory. Most of the sellers don’t prepare a contingency plan while dealing with these inventory management issues.
Below are some of the key points of the best contingency plan:
• Inventory data should be often backed up using either cloud storage, hard drives, or inventory management software like KartzHub.
• Frequent physical inventory checkups should be done.
• To be on the safer side additionally stock up the fast-moving products especially during the seasons and important events.
Mistake 5: Having a disorganized warehouse or stockroom
Inventory checks become more frustrating due to messy storage habits. Most of the people have the tendency just to put the products wherever they like as per their convenience. This is done especially by growing businesses who have a sudden influx of products.
It is very important to do proper labeling and shelving in order to keep your warehouse organized. You need to always keep a check that the inventory is always put in the right place. Also, the products should be placed in a strategic way, for example, the fast selling products should be easily accessible.
Mistake 6: Lack of Automation
Businesses always think of not to invest in software in order to reduce their investment costs. But in this process, rather decreasing the cost they increase the investment cost and even end up with major inventory management problems. Manually tracking the inventory sometimes takes a lot of time. So, its preferable to take advantage of inventory management systems like KartzHub that have a completely automated process, easy to update, can be accessed from anywhere and through any device. It also helps to prevent the loss of information due to cloud storage and many more such advantages that help to make your business process easier.
KartzHub offers the best inventory management software that makes the entire e-commerce sales process automated. From order management to shipping and accounting, manage everything at the tip of your hands and without the need for extra resources.