Inventory is the spine of all businesses whether online or offline. However, when it comes to e commerce endeavors in top marketplaces like Amazon, managing inventory can be a very daunting task. The nature of ecommerce selling per se, inexperience in the part of sellers, ever changing moods of marketplaces etc; everything plays up in creating a mini black hole that tends to suck out a significant part of your profits.

Following are 4 of the most common ways in which Amazon inventory mismanagement has been affecting seller revenues worldwide…

Overstocking –

You may be very optimistic about future sale of your products, but this is no reason to overstock your warehouses. Overstocking is inevitably linked with overspending for space that will not be required any time in the near future. In fact, warehouses of all top marketplaces are known for charging extra for stock that does not move for a specific period of time. The time period usually ranges anywhere from 3 months to 6 months.

Faulty or no integration with FBA –

Sellers that don’t integrate end to end with FBA often lose track of their inventory to loss making levels. Poor or faulty integrations also lead to similar outcomes. With no means of keeping track of shelved inventory that brings no sale or profits, sellers end up paying for the space this unproductive stock takes up. This leads to steady seepage of revenues that could otherwise be used productively.

Warehouse mismanagement –

This applies not only to sellers that sell particularly in Amazon but multichannel entities as well. In integrated performance of top marketplaces and shopping carts like Amazon Walmart Volusion etc, sellers need to ensure that the number of warehouses engaged is relevant. Initiating end to end syncing of all warehouses enables management of inventory inflow or outflow etc in one single user interface.

Tasks like moving stock from one inventory to the other also get easier and more productive with integrated warehouse management.

Adding products that don’t sell –

Adding marketplace friendly products is very necessary to ensure healthy movement of stock from warehouses. Unpopular and unsuitable products are usually those that clog warehouse space and make sellers bear bigger costs for nothing at all. if you have products as these in your listing, it is always wise to relist the same with attractive offers to get them off the shelves or recall them altogether.