How Not To Have Multichannel Selling Holiday Inventory Headache

Multichannel selling is selling products wherever your customer visits. An approach that allows you to meet customers multiple times. But, multichannel inventory control is not a piece of cake. The best practices will help your business (small or medium) gain visibility and control over multichannel selling. Just like every other ambitious merchant you might be wondering what best can be done to ease the complexity associated with multichannel selling.

Is your dream to sell on all leading marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Facebook and more? Well, it’s a damn solid approach to be ahead of the competitors despite being a newbie. The biggest Challenge with multichannel selling is to simplify inventory management to save time and avoid order delay.

Let’s dive deep down to discover the best practices to get the gears turning for multichannel inventory control and eventually edge out the competitors.

Spreadsheet Won’t Be useful for multichannel selling – Never

If you have even little hopes spreadsheets will work for multi channel inventory management. Let me be clear that this approach will only mess up the process further and is ineffective for multichannel selling.

Firstly, huge amounts of data cannot be consolidated in a single spreadsheet. Therefore, the data will be in a distributed fashion over several spreadsheets. Hence, you will find it difficult to sort it and filter the required information.

As a result, you waste loads of time and still end up adding up to the complexity . Moreover, not getting a clear answer to do you have sufficient stocks for upcoming demand surge? means there’s no use of such an approach.

Avoid Manual Mode of Inventory Management to Avoid Staying Behind The Competitors

What To Focus On for Simplifying Multichannel Selling Inventory Management

Product Data Consolidation – For product listing on multiple channels including different requirements.

Real time Inventory Data – It will ensure error free selling the same product on multiple marketplaces.

Auto Stock Updation – As soon order is received or shipped the same must be updated across every channel. It is essential to avoid overstocking and extra cost.

How Multichannel Inventory Management Provides Competitive Edge

As a newbie, multichannel selling can be both risky and rewarding. But higher the risks the better are the rewards. inventory is the vital aspect of multichannel selling. Solving it means you strengthen the spine of business and position yourself to be ahead of the rest.

• You can practice centralized control on entire inventory spread across multiple channels
• You save loads of time. As the order information not to be convey to the shipping provider.
• You achieve the dream to reach more customers via more touch points with minimum efforts
• You have data at fingertips to measure the performance of channels in terms of revenue, order, and units sold.

How Multichannel Inventory Management Software Simplifies Inventory in Holiday Season

An effective methodology is to equip your store with power of automation. Inventory automation lays the foundation for business scalability, better visibility, and save time otherwise wasted with manual mode inventory management. It sound quite impressive and has potential to edge out the competitors.

Here is the checklist to ensure you choose the right solution for hassle free inventory management.

• Auto updates the inventory across every selling channel.
• It must be in sync with with below

• Speeding up the process by automating order creation to shipment and tracking.
• Equipped with an intuitive dashboard that allows you to have a bird’s view on every bit of inventory data. Therefore, it acts as a catalyst for making well informed decisions.
• Allows you to have real time information about stock levels in all warehouses. As a result, you know
  • Which items need to be restocked now and later
  • Keep track of products stored at different warehouses.
  • Helps in quick processing of order return
• When required can produce sales data product wise for the past few years. These insights help in accurate forecasting. Your store will never run out of stocks. Moreover, there are two significant benefits associated with multichannel inventory management software.
  • You need not have to say no to customers and believe me denying orders during festive season is a big sin against customers.
  • You have sufficient time to replenish the stock. After all, at the last moment might hinder shipping time and eventually lead to order delays.

Delay or Deny are Two Biggest Sin During Holiday Season Online Merchants Might Commit But A Feature Rich Multichannel Inventory Management Software Eliminates It Completely

Benefits of Multichannel Inventory Management Software

• No more manual inventory updates. Hence, no room for human error.
• The response time to customer queries and shipment is significantly less. As you know the latest stock levels.
• Data to be updated once and it will appear on all other channels simultaneously.
• Purchase orders can be auto generated as soon the stock goes low. An advanced version of the inventory solution will even recommend the right fulfillment quantity.
• The shipping rates based on warehouse and order delivery location will be automatically calculated.
• Warehouse management and purchase orders management can be done as well. With stock listed on every marketplace means you never miss on customers who prefer to shop on specific marketplace.
• Forecasting becomes easy and accurate with loads of inventory data related to sales from previous years

Too Much Stock in Warehouse is Unnecessary

The situation of denying customers during holiday season is n ugly situation. But it is nothing to fear. This fear cultivates the habit of unlimited overstocking.

Now, overstocking might lead to the following risks.

• Products might become outdated (or the demand shifts to the latest version) when stored for a longer duration.
• Risk of product getting ruined due to natural disaster.
• These items will require storage space and also increase storage cost. Hence, you increase the final price to compensate. As a result, your pricing strategy in not as competitive as that of competitor

So, the smart way is to have a sufficient stock of items

• Whose value and quality don’t decrease with time.
• Those bunch of products that make up 80% or more of your sales.

But, opting for multichannel inventory management software is the smartest way. It is a tried and tested approach to remain competitive, profitable, and handle multichannel inventory in a hassle free way despite the heavy traffic during holiday rush.

Multichannel Selling is Selling on Multiple Channels Support Your Business Growth

Multichannel selling is no doubt putting sellers in a win-win position by allowing them to sell on multiple marketplaces. But selling on every marketplace is never a good idea. It might mess up or overcomplicate inventory management control. Hence do your research on below parameters to avoid listing products on the wrong channel.

• Customer service
• Logistic support for sellers
• Subscription cost

All Items Need Not Be Present in Every Warehouse

Yes, one of the biggest myths or a mistake regarding multichannel inventory control is to keep all your products in every warehouse. This approach will be a hurdle in ensuring quick order processing and shipping on time.

Hence, a better approach will be to sort the high demand products and store them in every warehouse. Remaining low and medium demand items to be in different warehouses.

Conclusion – Inventory Management Optimization is Key for Multichannel Selling

Here we have talked in detail about different multichannel inventory control approaches to keep multichannel selling a profitable business model. Adhering to it will save your time by optimizing shipping time, inventory visibility, and face no more overselling.

Moreover, you position your store to attract 66% more buyers who are comfortable with multiple fulfillment options. With that said, multichannel selling enables customers to buy online and pick up in the store. Something that’s a fast catching up trend among consumers and appreciated for the convenience.