Top 5 Ways To Improve Inventory During Peak Season
What’s the only thing more frustrating than not having enough sales? It’s having people interested in buying your product – but not having the inventory to fulfill the orders. This can lead to frustrated customers and a permanent blow to your reputation. While this can be avoided with careful planning in most situations, many businesses still run into problems during peak seasons.
Peak seasons can depend on many things, including the start of the new school year, local events and holidays, and weather changes. They can be completely profitable or sabotage your progress if you run out of inventory early. The best way to avoid these pitfalls is to build the right supply management strategies before the peak season shortages hit.
Strengthening Relationships With Current Suppliers
Knowing your suppliers before the busy season hits is the key to smoothly upping your production and sales. Every business has a different capacity, and knowing what you can expect from their shipping model can help avoid conflicts. But it’s not enough to contact them whenever you need something.
Building a relationship with your suppliers is critical and ensuring they know you appreciate their partnership. If the supplier is a small company, forming a personal bond can help ensure you remain their priority. If you’re working with a larger company, maintaining consistent contact and paying before the bill comes due can help keep you in high regard.
Demand Planning
Many businesses make the mistake of letting the peak season happen rather than planning for it in advance. Being proactive and changing your business model as needed is the best way to avoid inventory crashes when your business could be making the most money.
Customer demand can be hard to predict, but it can be accounted for even if you’re a new company. You don’t need to have a track record – the odds are your competitors in the area have been dealing with the same patterns of supply, demand, and peak seasons long before you opened your doors. Follow their records, and you’ll find the key to success.
Warehouse Management
Often, the problem isn’t with getting the products made or shipped overseas. Too many businesses have seen their peak season sales slip away while those valuable cases of inventory sit stagnant in a nearby warehouse – waiting for their turn in line. This is what happens when a business doesn’t have a proper warehouse management system in place.
Whether you have your warehouse or work with a fulfillment and distribution center, it’s key to understand the shipping process and have a method to move things up the priority list if needed. Third party fulfillment companies for inventory storage can help take some of that work off a busy company, and they often have many options for managing your shipping.
Inventory Management
Sometimes, the biggest problem for a company isn’t knowing what they’re missing during the peak season – it’s that they don’t. Inventory management is tricky, and the larger a company gets, the harder it is to maintain records. This is why many companies are starting to hire experts in data analysis to ensure they never miss a beat.
Small companies may be able to manage their inventory and records with the help of a software suite, many of which are affordable for small businesses. However, this isn’t a task that can be handled casually – even the smallest business should be keeping records of their inventory transactions in case of any missed shipments or glitches.
Customer Service
Some hiccups in shipping may be unavoidable even for the best-managed company. That’s why it’s all the more important to maintain good communication with your customers so they know what to expect. A client base will be much more understanding of potential issues like shipping delays if they know the people behind the business.
Today, in the highly competitive e-commerce space, securing a new customer is much harder than keeping an existing one. Each customer is a relationship that could last years if handled well, so good customer service is worth its weight in gold. Having someone on hand to field any customer questions or complaints can make all the difference.
Success Is on the Way
When mismanaged, shipping delays can undo even the most promising business. When accounted for, inventory issues can be sidestepped and lead to the most profitable period. Peak seasons are a peak opportunity to take your business to the next level.
