This week’s Amazon topic is not the most fun but it is incredibly important to talk about considering it is affecting the majority of Amazon businesses. As you all know, the Novel Coronavirus is affecting millions across the world including sellers like you.
Obviously it is impossible to predict situations like this but it is important to do what you can to protect your business. If your business is affected by this consider taking the following steps:
Ask the customer to cancel or approve a delay for previously placed orders that you are no longer able to fulfill at the moment. Obviously it is not ideal to cancel orders, but it is important to maintain your account health so you are not negatively impacted for months to come. Having the customer cancel the order looks better on you as a seller. To ask the customer to cancel or approve a delay on the shipment simply message them through their order.
Place your Amazon account on vacation status. This will prevent orders from coming in until you have worked out any logistical issues and ended the vacation status.
Create FBM listings. If you are no longer able to send inventory into Amazon but have inventory in another warehouse that can fulfil Amazon orders, create FBM listings to keep orders coming in.
Communicate with your manufacturer and do your best to try to get timelines from them.
Pull a projection report on your current inventory and start to plan out future orders to your manufacturer so you are prepared when they are taking orders again. We have attached our template below.
We are wishing all involved a speedy recovery and if you have any questions about your business and this trying time please reach out to our team.
This post was written by our friends at Inventory Planner for the TurnKey Playbook for Amazon Blog
While demand planning can be intimidating, it is the backbone of any eCommerce site. Inventory forecasting will help you increase profits, plan your sales goals, and show you when you need to order merchandise.
What Is Demand Planning?
Demand planning utilizes inventory forecasting to improve planning accuracy and align inventory levels with the demand cycle. In short, inventory levels are coordinated with customer demand. You want to have enough inventory to meet demand but avoid overstock. Solid demand planning lowers costs and leads to increased sales margins and profitability.
What Can Inventory Forecasting Do for Your Company?
Inventory forecasting is essential to profitable operations and increased customer satisfaction. Without accurate forecasting, maintaining a lean and nimble inventory can be challenging. Here is how your business can benefit from inventory forecasting:
Reduced Inventory Costs
Accurate inventory forecasting means lean and responsive inventory. In that way, businesses only purchase and store what will sell. Forecasting enables merchants to keep track of sales and anticipated demand.
When you have the right inventory amounts, you don’t need to order more than what will sell, and customers can enjoy accurate and timely delivery of their products.
Plan Your Goals
Know what your goals are for your inventory and ensure that they are realistic. There are many variables in your stock, and you must consider these when goal-setting. If you don’t have some reasonable idea of what will be needed, you run the risk of tying up your capital unnecessarily. Leading you to spend money that will not earn you an immediate return in the form of unsold inventory.
Determine Profitability
Inventory forecasting also makes it easier for you to project anticipated margins. You can determine how much will sell, what revenue you anticipate to receive, and how much profit you will eventually make.
Proper forecasts mean critical business decisions can be made with greater accuracy. For example, decisions regarding business expansion, cutting costs, or requesting outside funding can be made based on projected inventory and sales.
Insight About Your Current Stock
Forecasting provides a framework for obtaining detailed information. If you manage multiple warehouses, you can track the demand and availability of a particular product to determine the quantity you need. Forecasting allows you to plan for the pricing and movement of specific products in advance. For example, a product that sells well on the West Coast might not sell as well on the East Coast. Demand forecasting allows you to optimize your stock so that the right products are always in the right place.
Forecasting gives you visibility into your current inventory so you can make better informed and more strategic decisions. In seeing demand trends by category or product option, you’ll have more information to decide which new products to add to your catalog. For example, if red dresses show increased sales month over month for the last year, you can forecast that demand will continue to grow.
Order What You Need, When You Need It
Want to determine which products will be available and in what quantities? This is another reason to use demand planning. This ensures that you order items only when they’re needed, thereby saving on inventory costs and improving cash flow. More efficient ordering enables you to order the right items at the right time for customers. This leads to effective cost management and continuous growth.
How Does Inventory Forecasting Work?
To determine what inventory you should have, begin with a forecast of future sales. Sales for the coming 30, 60 or 90 days are based on past sales velocity and seasonality of the products.
Consider the following for an accurate sales forecast:
Sales velocity is the rate of sales, minus stockouts (days out of stock). Use sales velocity rather than average sales over the past 30 days because you want to know the rate of sales when inventory is available for sale. If you don’t omit days when inventory was out of stock, then you could underestimate future sales.
Seasonality will inform you if the emphasis for past sales should be on the most recent months or should be on trends from 12 months prior.
Sales trends show you if demand is holding steady or increasing in recent months.
While many factors come into demand planning, you simply cannot afford to ignore it. Inventory forecasting lets you to have the fingers on the pulse of your business. Your inventory will be adequate and nimble, making for greater profit margins and more money for you to invest in your business.
About Inventory Planner Inventory Planner launched in 2012 to help eCommerce merchants save time and money when purchasing inventory to better meet customer demand. Inventory Planner supports merchants as they grow to see information from all of their sales channels. Merchants use Inventory Planner’s replenishment recommendations and assist with inventory planning, forecasting, reporting, and purchase order creation. Learn more about how Inventory Planner helps Amazon sellers to forecast demand and improve profits.
Watch Jenna Lieber, our Director of Client Services discusses Amazon’s Outlet Deals on this week’s Facebook Live
If you have excess inventory in Amazon’s warehouse, we’ve got a treat for you!
Using Amazon’s Outlet deals you are able to turn your excess inventory in the FBA warehouses into an awesome sales opportunity. The special deals are Amazon-featured, limited-time, promotional offers displayed on the Amazon Outlet page.
To access the program, head to the “Manage Excess Inventory” page. From there Amazon will tell you which of your products are eligible for an outlet deal under the item’s current price showing either Outlet deal eligible (submit by creating an Outlet deal) or Outlet store eligible (submit by creating a sale).
To be eligible for an Outlet deal, a product must:
Be currently available for sale and in Amazon fulfillment centers.
Have a sales history and at least a three and a half star product rating on Amazon.
Be in new condition.
Comply with Amazon’s customer product reviews policies and price policies.
Not be enrolled in Subscribe and Save.
You cannot have had an outlet deal in the last 90 days.
Outlet deals are currently free for products that are eligible and selected!
Our team recommends checking your “Manage Excess Inventory” page as soon as possible to take advantage of these outlet opportunities.
Watch Jenna Lieber, our Director of Client Services discusses Review Generation Strategies on this week’s Facebook Live
Reaching international customers is challenging, but Amazon just made it WAY easier!
At no additional charge, Amazon is allowing you to reach customers from more than 100 countries and regions!
How do you enroll in this awesome program?
Enable your Export Settings of course!
You can find your export settings located in the settings tab in Seller Central. To find which of your products are eligible for FBA Global Export head to your fulfillment reports and click on exportable inventory report. This will show you which products are eligible.
Why should you enroll in this program?
To increase your sales! Think about it, the more customers you can get in front of the more your sales will grow.
Watch Jenna Lieber, our Director of Client Services discusses the Small & Light Program on this week’s Facebook Live
This could be a real game-changer for some of you!
As an Amazon seller, you are able to enroll your products into the Small & Light program! This is not a new program BUT we thought it would be a huge help for some of you.
The Small & Light program allows sellers to expand their products lines with smaller products while reducing fulfillment costs.
What products are eligible for the small and light program?
Products that are 10 oz or less
Products that are 16 x 9 x 4 inches or less
Products that cost $7 or less
With this program, Amazon feels you’ll be able to reach more customers while saving at the Amazon warehouse!
