All sellers sometimes have that overwhelming feeling that business is slipping through their fingers. Especially, if they are dealing with multiple sales channels. The most common issue when you are working with more than one marketplace is how to avoid overselling.
In e-commerce overselling usually happens when your customer buys a product that is already sold. It is more common when you are working through a few different marketplaces. For instance, you didn’t track your inventory well, so you accidentally sold an item that was already sold in another marketplace. This situation will definitely cause dissatisfaction from your customers and could directly affect your business. When your complaining customer leaves a negative review, that permanently changes your reputation.
That is why you need to take a look at a few methods that will help you avoid overselling.
4 Tips to avoid overselling:
Stock control
One of the most important things is to control your stock. You need to track each of your product’s quantity and update your stock levels. It will be a lot easier if you find a solution that gives you resupply alerts. This feature informs you when your item is about to run out of stock. Otherwise, you need to check your inventory manually and do it quite often.
Take care of your warehouse
Another important aspect is your product’s condition. Despite the fact that you might have enough products in your stock, you need to check if they aren’t damaged. For instance, you might know that there are 10 items left, but what if 5 of them have damaged packaging? You need to be aware of all the products that are not suitable for instant shipping.
Think about a safety stock
If it’s possible, then consider owning a safety stock. This safety precaution will definitely help avoid overselling. Since you have a small reserve of safety, you can be sure that you will never disappoint your customers. The only problem with this, is that you have to allocate additional space in your warehouse and invest money that might be frozen for a long time. Basically, it is an extra stock that you do not include in your available inventory.
Track your inventory
The most efficient solution is to automatically track your inventory. However, the only way to do this is with the help of third-party software. When you connect your store to the system it will automatically adjust your stock levels. As soon as you sell something, the software will change your stock. This way you don’t have to do it manually and there is no need to follow up with your sales records.
All you need is resupply alerts, inventory tracking and automatic inventory updates.
The solution that can offer you:
- Resupply alerts
- Inventory tracking
- Inventory auto-updates
As mentioned before, three of the four tips don’t require you to reserve space in your warehouse or have more products. Basically, all you need is resupply alerts, inventory tracking and automatic inventory updates. Fortunately, there is a single platform that can offer you all of these features and many more.
Multiorders inventory management software is a solution that permanently eliminates overselling. First of all, it will track your inventory and automatically update it. As soon as you sell something, the system will adjust your stock list. That way, you avoid a significant amount of manual work and you won’t miss any information.
Second, you have an option to use a free Multiorders tool – resupply alerts. This feature accurately tracks the exact amount of products that you have in stock and notifies you when they are about to run out. You can manually set the level of stock you consider to be low for each product. Once a certain product reaches its set level, you will be notified accordingly.
Conclusion
Basically, there are 4 preventative actions that could help you avoid overselling. On the other hand, there is a solution that can automatically eliminate the risk of overselling. With the help of Multiorders, you can automate your business and fulfil orders without any human errors. This is the most straightforward way to track your stock levels and deliver your items.
