When you are selling through large sites such as Amazon, it can be quite easy to let your inventory get away from you. However, inventory issues could be one of the biggest problems for your company, and it could cost you dearly. Proper Amazon inventory management is essential if you want to stay in the good graces of the customers, as well as the site itself. Instead of trying to play catch up with your inventory or giving up on your business entirely, keep in mind these following tips. They really can help you.
Manage Daily
When you are selling daily, you need to be keeping track of your inventory daily. If you aren’t, then you are going to fall behind and eventually customers will not be able to order the products they want. Know the number of items you sell as well as the number you have left for sale. Have a plan in place that will automatically alert you or reorder when products get below a certain amount.
Work with a SKU system that is easy to understand for your products. When you are able to keep it simple, you can tell what product you are looking at just by glancing at the SKU. While this might not seem overly important right now, it can be helpful when you are taking care of your Amazon inventory management with larger groups of products.
Consider How Sales Affect Inventory
If you have a sale for a product, chances are it is going to sell faster. People like deals. Of course, this means that you need to consider that you will be going through your inventory faster. Account for this by ordering more before the start of the sale.
Your Other Sales Channels
Even though Amazon inventory management might be what is concerning you right now, chances are that you already are, or will, start selling through other sites, including your own ecommerce site. When this happens, you have to make sure you are able to track your inventory across all of those other sites as well, so you can look at the big picture of how much product you have available.
Software Makes a Difference
You can find a variety of pieces of software, including some that come from Amazon, for inventory management. While this is a workable solution, you may want to start working with a higher quality piece of software that is capable of doing just a little bit more. Look for some software that can help you with your inventory, as well as order management and shipping, for example. This will provide you with some nice benefits. First, you will be able to use a single piece of software for a variety of different tasks. This streamlines your workflow and makes it easier since you only have to learn one system. Some software will also let you manage your prices through the software, which can be very helpful, particularly when it works across platforms.
Another benefit of quality software is that it is generally able to work with more than just one marketplace. While it might be great for Amazon inventory management, the software you choose should also help you with inventory on eBay, your site, Sears, and more.
Keeping control of your inventory is important if you hope to be a success. If a customer find that you don’t have the product they want in stock, they will simply find another seller on the Amazon marketplace who can provide them with the product. Even if your price might be a little lower, they want the product now and won’t likely wait for you.
Resource: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161340