In eCommerce, it is crucial to understand product demand. You cannot let your business run out of stock in a product when it is selling like hotcakes. Because if you do, you will lose money. On significant dates like promotions, your store must be well-equipped to prevent stockouts, and therefore, loss of money and sales.

In this article, we explain to you the importance of checking the availability changes of your products. According to a Real It Insights study, poor inventory management produced a loss of $818 billion. Out-of-stocks make up 56% or $456.3 billion, and overstocks for the remaining 44%, or $362.1 billion. Also, Oliver Wyman showed that poor availability costs at least 5% of your sales.     

When you have a hot-selling product or if the history of that product indicates that they have a lot of sales, the recommendation is to have overstock. With that, you ensure that you will have a nice cushion. On the other hand, if you have a luxury item or the history of that product indicates that it does not sell a lot, it makes sense, not to overstock.   

However, the most common mistakes in-stock availability are preventable, and this is how. 

1- Wrong data 

Poor market insights and poor historical information about your products lead to bad planning on the stock of your products. With the correct data, you can detect patterns to plan your stock for the year and special dates, like Black Friday, or Christmas, for example.    

2- Integrated channels 

The integrated data between your offline store and online will let you have the perfect combination regarding your stock. That provides better information to all of your teams and prevents your customers from ordering out-of-stock products from your store. 

Conclusion: 

Predicting potential stockouts is a tricky business, and it leads to a loss of money when you don’t handle it correctly. That is why your business needs the best information regarding the market and historical information about your products. Also, you need an integrated system that pulls in data from all your sales channels to sync your inventory. PriceTweakers helps you obtain the best information regarding your competitors. With our tool, you can see their prices and much more. Also, you can see if you have available stock and create pricing strategies. We help you increase your margins. Are you interested? Contact us for more information. 

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