Multichannel Inventory Issues Ecommerce

Three Common Inventory Problems that E-Commerce Companies Encounter

If you run an online store, you likely know firsthand that managing inventory is one of the biggest challenges in the e-commerce industry.

Studies have shown that a shocking 43% of US business still use pen and paper and/or spreadsheets to track their inventory — a practice that is undoubtedly holding many such companies back.

But even if you are using a modern inventory management system, you may still be running into some major problems.

In this article, we will take a quick look at three of the most common inventory management challenges that e-commerce stores face:

1. Inventory Tracking is Not Automated

Keeping track of your inventory is a process that becomes dangerously error-prone when done manually.

Using programs like Excel may “get the job done,” but it is a waste of time at best, and a source of costly mistakes at worst.

When the volume of products and sales becomes large enough, even the proficient data entry operators will make mistakes and/or fall behind.

And even basic automated systems are not enough to fix the problem if they operate frequently but not in real time.

If your system updates every 15 minutes, for example, you are leaving gaps during which an inconsistency can occur, and problems such as overselling become commonplace.

2. Sales on One Online Platform are Not Registered Across All Platforms

E-commerce sites should take full advantage of selling on multiple platforms. Each site, such as Ebay, Amazon, and Walmart, has its own unique audience that your products can appeal to in different ways.

The downside of this is that it complicates inventory tracking and takes up lots of time.

Each seller has its own listing process, and having to manually register the same product multiple times can result in mistakes.

Once you have all of your products online, a quick succession of sales puts your company at risk of overselling.

This can be costly and damaging to your reputation — and was the inspiration between our innovative multichannel sales syncing software here at Listing Mirror.

3. Spoilage, Dead Stock, and Storage

Another common inventory problem occurs when products sit on the shelf for too long, making their contents unfit to sell anymore or just unlikely to be sold at all.

This wastes valuable storage space that should be used for newer inventory.

Dropshipping can help by shipping the product directly from the manufacturer to the consumer, which decreases overhead and increases your product variety.

However, this also comes with less competitive pricing and not as much control over shipping and stock availability.

Learn More About Our Innovative Software Solution

Listing Mirror’s software prevents inventory management problems by integrating tracking across an impressive range of potential sales channels.

This allows your products to reach the broadest market possible without the risks of multichannel e-commerce that you may have been fearing.

Get in touch with the Listing Mirror team today to learn more about how we can help you run a more profitable e-commerce store through smarter, easier inventory management!

Sell More. Work Less.