Multichannel retailers know that their work is never easy. Sure, it is described as the ultimate “work for yourself” arrangement, and a business structure that can be as simple or as hands on as you want. Regardless of the many promises made about this sort of business structure, however, it is undeniable that it does take a lot of time and effort to sell across several channels.
Just the inventory management alone can become a full time gig. You have to enter the products into each system (including such things as uploading photos, tagging them, and completing a multiple-step product listing process), you have to make note of when something sells on one channel in order to input this into the other channels and either delete or deactivate listings, and then there are the inevitable typos.
Consider the sellers who leave out a number in the price and have to sell at a loss or who enter the wrong number in the quantity on hand and over sell. In both instances, the seller is the loser, and in the issue of over selling, it can lead to bad reviews and negative feedback that are the “kiss of death in online retail”. (Grundey, 2013)
This demonstrates one clear fact: You have to find a nearly infallible system for selling across channels, and it should be similar to the Amazon inventory management process. After all, that site never over sells because it maintains pristine inventory records and is even aware of items on their way back to a warehouse due to a return.
Is there a way that an individual seller can get such a system? There is, and it will do more than merely emulate the Amazon inventory management approach. In fact, it can open the door to a lot of opportunities.
Multiple Answers in a Single Solution
Let’s say that you are currently selling on multiple channels, including eBay and Amazon. You also have your own eCommerce website and have recently created a store on your Facebook fan page. That is a lot of merchandise to track, and doing it manually is a bit on the risky side. A better solution would be to seek out a way of integrating everything, including your Amazon inventory management, into a single system.
There are multichannel management services that tie everything together and funnel the data from every channel into a sort of primary “dashboard”. This would allow you to do all of the usual data entry just one time, and then make it “live” across your chosen channels. Immediately, this brings the risks of typos to an end because you enter everything once, double-check the details, and publish it across the channels.
It also helps with cash flow simply because you will never again mismanage your inventory. Think about that for a moment – rather than taking time to do Amazon inventory management, eBay inventory management, and eCommerce inventory, it is already done for you and sent into one central location.
No longer do you keep too much stock on hand, and can instead plan your purchases far more efficiently. You can see your sales in “real time” and understand where you need to make any adjustments. This makes the standard Amazon inventory management similar to a dinosaur and positions your multichannel management tools as some of the most significant for success.
Though there is always the need to give Amazon inventory management plenty of attention, when you use a more centralized solution, you get the time needed to grow the business rather than just chasing after it and hoping for success.
Summary
Don’t limit yourself to individual Amazon inventory management processes, and repeat this across all sales channels. Instead, look for a unified solution that saves time and opens the door to more opportunity.
Source: Grundey, Jeff. How an Amazon Inventory Management System Can Help You Maximize Earnings.