Do you have an out-of-stock problem?

all stock gone?
Everybody knows that quick delivery times is a competitive advantage in the current online business. Companies that focus on operational excellence are wining a lot of customers. If people decided that they want to buy something, they want to retrieve it right now. This is some irrational behavior. First it takes 2 month to decide and then the retailer should ship the product within 24 hours. This blog post gives some advice how to handle stock.

Not every product is bought equally

ABC Analysis of product portfolio

When looking at a product portfolio it is obvious that not all products are bought equally. We can divide the products in 3 groups. Topsellers (A) which are sold often, accessories (B), and slow seller (C). Good software systems like the Incentergy system are keeping this fact always in mind and are automatically optimizing the demand according to the sales.

Further there are substitution groups. These products can be offered as a replacement if a certain other product is out-of-stock.

Do you know which product is sold often?

How can you know which of your products will be sold how often before you get a big inventory and start marketing? This problem of integrating new items is called “cold-start”. Modern systems can use sophisticated mathematical models for making optimal decision in uncertain conditions. This will optimize the stock and the customer experience.

Do you know where your stock is?

Another problem for companies is that they have different stock locations and inventory is allocated for a certain plant or store. By discovering your “hidden” stock you can find a lot of value for your share holders and it will make it possible to fulfill customer wishes that were impossible before. The key concept is real-time communication and updating. A transactional real-time interface must be offered by marketing software to always be able to sell what is in stock no matter where it is.

Do you know how many returns you will get?

Germany and other countries have laws which require online merchants to offer free returns for the customer. This creates a great and save customer experience. Nevertheless it creates a lot of uncertainty on the merchant site. The incentergy solution gives you the opportunity to handle these returns creatively and sell them as well as special offers.

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