Ecommerce Management Made Simple
The Tools You Need to Manage Your Online Store Inventory
If you’ve ever worked retail, those words may have sent a chill down your spine.
Or, perhaps they brought back memories of smiling and nodding, then taking a short break in the empty warehouse at the back of the store to “check” for something you knew was out of stock.
if you were handling a particularly insistent customer, they might have argued with you when you returned to say you were sold out.
“But I saw online that it was in stock! The computer says there’s some left!”
Here’s the thing: computers are only as good as the humans behind them, and believe it or not, humans make mistakes. Sometimes inventory goes missing – it might be scanned under the wrong barcode, break before it can be sold, or someone forgot to update the numbers.
When you own a physical store, your customers can’t buy what isn’t there… Even if the computer says otherwise.
But, When You Have an Ecommerce Business, Your Customers Don’t See a Physical Product.
They might see a number that represents how many you should have in stock, but many websites don’t even have that.
And if that number is wrong, you’ve got a customer who can buy something that doesn’t exist.
This exact situation happened to one of our team members recently. A week after placing an order online, she reached out to the company asking why it hadn’t shipped and received this response:
“I am very sorry for the delay and the inconvenience. Unfortunately the dog collar on your order is out of stock. This is why we have delayed the shipment.”
“You have a bag of dog treats on your order too. Do you want this item refunded or would you like us to ship it to you?”
“We have generated a 10% discount code for you as an apology gift. You can use it on any product without any time limit.”
As nice as getting 10% off is, it didn’t change the fact that she didn’t have the item she needed. Not only that, her other item was delayed by a week because of it, and she had to follow up with the company to find out why.
Mistakes happen. This company could have mitigated her frustration by proactively letting her know they’d oversold an item and asking if she wanted to wait for it to come back in stock or to get a refund.
But how do you avoid those mistakes in the first place?
Keep Track of Your Inventory
Bundling your products helps increase order sizes by using suggestive selling, but it only works if you do it right.
If you sell an item both on its own and in a bundle, consider using a bundling app or plug-in to manage your inventory instead of manually trying to keep track of how many items you have in stock.
If you sell dog toys, for example, you can sell each toy on its own and include three toys in a bundle. Using a bundling app makes it easy to ensure that whenever the bundle of three is sold, the inventory for each individual toy would update as well.
This ensures your inventory stays updated and you’re not at risk of overselling.
- Less refunds
- More customer satisfaction
- Increase in order value
Invest in Ecommerce Management
As a business owner, you’re busy.
You have enough on your plate without trying to constantly track your inventory.
That’s why you need a strong ecommerce team in your corner. The right team will be able to help you stand out from your competition, increase your customers’ satisfaction, and give you more time to focus on the important parts of the business you love.
We do all of that plus:
- Writing stellar product descriptions
- Updating and tracking your inventory
- Tracking and interpreting your analytics
- Uploading new products on your website
- Setting up sales, promotions, and new products
- Creating bundles based on trends and holidays
- Integrating apps and plug-ins to make your website work for you