The weather is warming up and seasonal inventory management can often become a problem. Managing the demand and inventory seasonally is a common challenge for ecommerce business owners no matter the time of year. However, summer inventory that is not well managed can indicate even further inventory troubles in the near future.
Running out of stock, deadstock and even obsolete inventory really can cause inventory headaches that bleed into the holiday season. Your desired growth relies on getting ahead of your inventory management. Cloud-based inventory management is one of the many options that can help you successfully manage your inventory year-round AND allow you to better manage your business growth.
The inventory problems
Ecommerce relies on great marketing, great products, and sound customer service. All of these aspects interplay with the buying trends that consumers have during that time of year.
Often these summer inventory headaches can alert you to overall people, process, or technology problems. The common indicators we see at Clearinity are
1. Running out of stock
- If you are running out of stock, you may have had forecasting issues for your demand.
2. Obsolete inventory
- Obsolete inventory happens often when you carry inventory over year to year season to season because you have purchased too much or forecasted the demand incorrectly. This often results in high warehouse costs and lots of additional inventory that may take up listing space that doesn’t meet your current consumer’s interests any longer.
3. Dead Stock
- Dead Stock is also a problem during the seasonal product changes and peak demand, as inventory that didn’t sell this year might not be relevant next year. Similarly, you may have carried obsolete inventory and it becomes dead as it never sells.
Inventory Management Solutions
The inventory management solution for your seasonal stock problems is both improving your technology and improving your processes.
Cloud-based inventory management systems can help you forecast and track your inventory processes better digitally. These systems will allow you to forecast, report and manage your workflows from a bird’s eye view. Implementing one of these inventory management software systems can be a massive change for your company and that’s where we come in.
Choosing the appropriate team to help implement is as critical as trying to choose an appropriate inventory management software system. Not all teams look alike and others will focus on different aspects of your business and the implementation of your data. Ultimately you will want to find an inventory management firm that is willing to work with you and for you.
Clearinity provides you a comprehensive and holistic view of your processes and people. After we deep dive into your operations, we then provide ultimate clarity around choosing a technology solution for your business. Then we help you implement the necessary and appropriate technology to help optimize your operations with dedicated project managers and support teams to keep your project and team moving forward.
Why your seasonal inventory problems ultimately matter
Ultimately your seasonal inventory will showcase how your employees and your processes are handling high demand. As an ecommerce business owner, you rely on these peak times to really keep your bottom line healthy as well. Having inventory management that is successful will allow you to be transparent in your critical business decisions from buying to storage costs.
With summer heating up, you may begin to recognize running out of stock, dead stock issues, or obsolete inventory that is just taking up valuable space. Cloud-based solutions can help you ultimately gain that clarity and transparency around financials, inventory management, and your operations.
Ecommerce businesses should be looking to go digital and for ways to simplify their relationships in their ecommerce ecosystem in order to stay competitive. Clearinity can help not help identify where your seasonal inventory problems arose from, but we can also create a comprehensive plan to solve those dilemmas for the long term.