It can be mind-numbing and downright boring to scan sales reports. You can generate them around so many criteria that it could end up seeming like the data is unable to give you any sort of accurate picture. In other words, it can sometimes feel as if you can adjust the reports to get the outcome you hope to see.
Naturally, this is not the smartest way to do business, and many kinds of management resources don’t actually make the most useful reports available. These would include real time inventory reports, sales data, returns and shipments, and even information about feedback from clients.
This is often why an online retailer will look for all-in-one solutions that integrate their sales channels, allow easy updates and changes, and provide far more accurate data.
How eBay Inventory Management Enables Better Choices
As an example, an eBay seller may decide to tweak pricing on certain goods in order to boost sales. They cannot, however, know how this decision impacts their results unless they get the right reports. For instance, they can look at how many units they sold and even what kinds of keywords grabbed attention, but how does it affect things like their overall inventory?
This is why more advanced tools and integrated management solutions are so valuable. A resource such as eBay inventory management will allow for all kinds of real time data. This will ensure that stock is on hand, but also keep track of the impact of changes in pricing.
For instance, an online seller sees that the goods they sell across a few channels are at lower price points at Amazon.com. They use their eBay inventory management to adjust their price to match this current lower price at another destination. With the better types of eBay inventory management they can then gauge the immediate results of these choices, and adjust back upward if that is the smarter option.
This is more important than it might seem. After all, good eBay inventory management tools include total sales and shipping data – and this will paint the most accurate portrait of sales, including international sales. So, that tweak downward may not have generated a lot of domestic sales, but did cue a large number of overseas sales. This might seem, initially favorable, but the other synced information shows how much more is spent on shipping and shipping materials. The overall profits may go down because of this choice, and it could all be revealed through real time inventory management.
The Other Obvious Benefits
Of course, any eBay inventory management resource is valuable because it makes it easier than ever to control the business. This is because it is a resource often integrated with an eCommerce website and other sales channels. So, the big sales day on eBay automatically causes the inventory numbers to change. This data is synced up with other sales channels, and manages whether or not a product maintains a presence or is listed as out of stock. Remember that a good inventory management tool also knows when shipments of goods sold are on their way, too. (Lynn, 2005)
Because the Internet is capable of giving us precisely what we want, it can be detrimental to a business to be out of stock of anything it has listed. Frustrated buyers will click away or even abandon a cart when items shown as being available are not. The use of software, such as eBay inventory tools, guarantees that a potential client does not feel aggravated or annoyed by discovering that you don’t have what the search engines indicated. Instead, that product may be shown as temporarily unavailable, on back order, or even hidden from view until inventory is received.
Summary
It is tough to make all of the right decisions and to remain on top of the many different issues associated with online selling. Using eBay inventory management tools in such a competitive setting is one way to control the course and success of your business.
Source: Lynn, Jacquelyn. Keeping Up With Your eBay Inventory. Entrepreneur. 2005. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77454